Braves outfielder Adam Duvall came out of tonight’s NL Championship Series Game 1 in the second inning, per various reporters (including Jeff Passan of ESPN and David O’Brien of the Athletic). Duvall clutched at his left side following a swing and was immediately removed. Cristian Pache finished the plate appearance and took over defensively the following inning. Manager Brian Snitker confirmed on the Fox broadcast Duvall had injured his oblique, O’Brien adds.
There’s no official word on his status, but it seems unlikely Duvall will be back this postseason. Oblique strains typically take weeks to recover. While it’s not yet clear precisely what Duvall suffered, Snitker noted he “(hurt) it pretty good” (relays Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register).
It’s a significant blow to the Braves’ offense. Duvall has hit well for Atlanta the past two seasons, including a .237/.301/.532 line with 16 home runs in 209 plate appearances this year. Pache now seems likely to be thrust into a regular role. The 21-year-old is a supreme young talent and figures to play well defensively, but he has all of four career MLB plate appearances under his belt.
The Braves can replace Duvall on the postseason roster if his prognosis is as bad as it seems. Ender Inciarte has been a healthy scratch throughout the playoffs and seems likely to join the club. Ronald Acuña Jr., Nick Markakis and primary DH Marcell Ozuna are the only other listed outfielders on Atlanta’s NLCS roster, although infielders Charlie Culberson and Austin Riley have some experience in the grass.
Here comes Ender… and snit loves him some Ender…. Pache may never see the field again
Pache is not ready to be on daily basis playing on a playoff team. Not saying that Inciarte is, but he has more experience, also more grit
Gotta fill that imaginary grit quota!
Guys who complain about ever pitch not being a strike even if it’s right down the middle, are not guys full of grit……….. those are guys full of excuses as to why they stink and have exit velos close to a leagues worse. Idc if Pache isn’t ready…. in no way can he be worse than Ender this year. Not to mention Enders defense has been rough this year also and Pache is suppose to be legit defensively …. so I’ll gamble with Pache being better in this series. But I’ll still bet snit plays Ender more than Pache after today
Pache has two walks. If he gets a couple of hits tonight, maybe Snitker will keep starting him.
Y’all aren’t paying attention. Johan Carmargo is the next man on the roster. The Braves moved on from Ender with Pache’s inclusion. They aren’t carrying two guys overmatched against big game pitching because they can play Center.
In our defense, we most definitely made our predictions well before the Camargo news broke … very happy it wasn’t Ender. They made the right call
I made my prediction before the news too.
He’s ready. Ender is toast.
Ender not even an option correct? He’s not on the roster unless I’m wrong….Snitker removed his own temptation before hand lol
If an injury occurs you can pull from your reserves
gotcha
He must not love Ender that much if he left him off the playoff roster.
Snit ultimately doesn’t make that call. That’s upper Mgmt, ie AA
He’s got two walks thus far. All he needs to do is provide D and work the pitchers. That being said, if Duvall is out, Markakis and Riley need to step it up and provide some offensive at the bottom of the order. You can’t have 1/3 of your lineup doing nothing even if the top does well. Swing the bat Markakis!
With no days off, every pitch matters. Teams cannot afford to have short starts or its going to quickly wear down the bullpen.
Markakis has completely lost his swing lately too. Riley at least putting the bat on the ball…Pache may impress if given time
His swing, his whole approach, it’s like he doesn’t know what to do out there.
I think he knows what to do out there. He’s just really bad at executing it.
Markakis is old. Great prime and really solid for what he’s done for the Braves during the rebuild, but championships aren’t won on sentiment. I’d be calling for Pache to start over him even if Duvall was healthy (Duvall-Pache-Acuña being the far superior defensive outfield).
If Duvall is replaced (and that’s probably what happens), it’s either going to be Camargo or Contreras. I suppose they could add Contreras so Flowers could catch, TDA gets a DH game, and Ozuna would play left. Normally, I’d say no shot they’d put Ozuna in left but they did just end a game with Riley-Acuna-Culberson and Pablo at third, so who knows.
In all likelihood, Camargo’s positional versatility is what makes him the right choice.
Rather have Pache starting instead of Ender. I can see Contreras, or Camargo possibly getting called before Inciarte.
It’d be fun to see Waters, but it won’t happen.
I wonder if we’ll see Ozuna in the OF and maybe Panda DH.
Please don’t put Ozuna in the outfield. It would probably be better with Riley in left and either Camargo or Panda at third.
I agree, I don’t want him in the outfield, but I feel like that’s a move Snitker would make.
I actually thought about Drew Waters too, but I just can’t see it really happening.
Ha
Remember, Graterol just turned 22 Lol
Why is the ALCS onto Game 3 when the NLCS hasn’t even finished Game 1?
It just has to do with game times
They’re a day ahead, one series is always a game ahead of the other.
If I had to guess, bc CA is not allowing fans, they play those games earlier. Where TX is selling tickets, so they are later games to allow someone working to still possibly go to game
NLCS had one later game and now it’s back to the earlier game for today and tomorrow
So fans getting to the game clearly had nothing to do with the start time.
I agree with you that would be the logical choice but MLB and logic are rarely a thing
Anyone else just squint at their TV and say out loud… is that Sandoval?!
Had no idea he was in ATL
Very anticlimactic at bat for Sandoval.
I knew he was in the organization, but seeing him on the field in the 9th inning had/has me floored. Braves earned the win tonight but that’s inexcusable.
So how does the taxi squad work for the playoffs if Duvall is done for the postseason for sure? Can they bring in a player to replace him
Duvall can be replaced on the roster, but I believe that makes him done for the playoffs. In previous rounds, if a player was taken off the roster due to an injury, they would be ineligible for the next series.
Okay thanks for the answer I thought that was the case but I wasn’t positive. Thanks again!!
Dodgers fans have shown zero respect to the Braves. As a West Coast Padres fan rooting for you guys…go get em’ Braves!
Agreed, as a west coast Giants fan
A lot of arrogance by that team and fanbase, especially on these boards. The series isn’t over by any means, but winning the first one is big.
So where all you Dodgers fans at that said this was gonna be an easy series as the BRaves sucked?
LMAO
Padres fans are with you guys. Braves have a really good team!
Mookie Betts team lost game 1 of the 2018 ALCS.
And that team was probably the best team in baseball in the past 20 years…this LA DOdgers is a far cry from being that
Anyone who thought this was going to be a sweep was foolish
It was 1-1 in the 9th. Fried was lights out and your pen was too
Pretty much everything but the injury went perfect for ATL. And it was 1-1 till the 9th
It’s game1. Y’all are up 1-0. Kershaw tomorrow and you guys are going to throw a pen game in G4 or 5.. with no off days. That’s a lot of times this offense is going to see the same 5-7 relievers or so. You really think you’re going to hold the Dodgers to one run, every game? Pump your brakes bud. There’s a lot of baseball left
I’m glad these teams get 7 games not 5, it’s a more true result. You guys punched first. Let’s see how it goes. I never expected either team to sweep though..
I never said the Braves were going to do that though. I was poking fun at all the DOdger fans (and there were tons of them) that kept saying how bad of a team Atlanta really is and that we played nobodies to get this far and that the Dodgers were going to win in at most 5 games. I knew it was going to be a good series and that people have been selling the Braves short all year. Game 2 is a toss up as well as Anderson has been dominating and well Kersh is Kersh and he has handled the Braves better than almost any other team he has faced.
I would say it depends on what Kyle Wright shows up for game 3 if Braves can win it, We probably wont have a bullpen game to keep them fresh in Game 4 as it will probably be Josh Tomlin anothr game to go to the Dodgers…so it would be 2-2….Game 5 would be a bullpen game if Kyle Wright did really bad and play Fried in Game6 and Anderson in GAme7….if Kyle Wright did really good then I expect Fried in Game 5, ANderson in Game 6 and Wright in game 7
I know there were some. But many others acknowledge how good ATL offense has been, and At least personally, felt it would come down to how good the pitching was, and likely in a 6 or 7 game series.
Your SP was on point tonight, buehler showed the blister is still an issue imo. Career high in walks, ~20 pitches each, the first 4 he threw I think. Very un-Buehler like.
As you (I think) are saying, it’s going to come down to pitching, including the back end of the rotation and the middle part of the Relief corps. We’ll see which holds up over the series
“Pretty much everything but the injury went perfect for ATL. And it was 1-1 till the 9th”
It’s the uninformed comments from the Dodger fan base like this that irks people on this board. Just another blanket statement from a Dodger fan with ZERO backing behind.
Everything but the injury went perfect for ATL? You make it sound like the Braves were lucky the game was 1-1. The Dodgers were lucky the game was 1-1. The Braves left ten men on base through the first eight innings, including six in scoring position. The Dodgers left five on, four in the first two innings, and didn’t have a baserunner after the 5th inning. There was no biased umpires, no weird lucky plays that went the Braves way. The Braves dominated every aspect of the game, except for cashing in on opportunities early in the game, which both teams didn’t do.
So I’m curious to hear how everything but the injury went perfect for the Braves, because from what I’m seeing, the Dodgers were lucky to stay in the game until the 9th inning.
The Dodgers threw 30 more pitches than the Braves. The Braves went down in order only twice and only Grateol had a quick inning.. These are the keys to the series. The Braves have to keep wearing down the Dodgers SP and get to that bullpen, then wear that down too. The Braves do this the first three games, and the Dodgers bullpen is going to be feeling it the rest of the series.
actually, Braves could start Bryse Wilson in Game 4. He had been lights out his past few starts of the season. No different than Wright. and he is in our bullpen so makes a lot more sense to give him at least a couple innings see how he does. besides, arent the dodgers doing the same thing?
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Riley in left and Panda at 3rd for the rest of the series. Riley is actually pretty good in left.
There’s nothing wrong with playing Ozuna at left and using Pablo as DH either. I’d rather see Pablo at DH and Ozuna at left as experience counts. Maybe Pache starts but Pablo has all that experience and it counts. 1-0 is a great start, but tomorrow against Kershaw is going to be huge.. Pablo is 16/64 with 7 rbi and 3 doubles against Kershaw, and one clutch hit in these games is immense.
Just to put that in perspective, Sandoval’s line Vs Kershaw is 234/254/281. (Its actually 15/64). He has 13 Ks and 15 hits vs kershaw in his career
That’s a 535 OPS, and Sandoval took most of those at bats when he was in his prime hitting condition. If that’s a season line, you are in jeopardy of getting DFA’d
Yeah he has at bats. But just putting those at bats in perspective
@Commonsenselapsyou
The stats were taken straight off the page of ESPN-so someone has made a mistake, but if you want to quibble over 1 hit, so be it.
Pablo Sandoval AB64 H16 2b 3 3B 0 HR0 RBI7 BB2 K13 .AVE250 OB.269 .SLG297 OPS .566
Best of luck to Duvall. Total class act.
Hate to see Duvall get hurt. Guy was a good soldier at AAA last year until his recall. Did well in 2019, albeit in limited action. But for a stretch in 2020, he was a right-handed Babe Ruth.
Too much lost defensively by playing either Ozuna (LF) or Panda (3B). Play Riley in LF and Camargo at 3B. Remember, Camargo was damn good in 2018 before he was cast aside for Donaldson last year.
Lots of folks rooting for the Braves to upset (?) the Dodgers. Not gonna get too hyped over a Game 1 win. Lots of baseball left to play.
But you just know, after a 32-year championship drought, LA is thinking, “Oh, no. Not again!”.
Hey LA, chop this!
Good thing their primary DH happens to be an outfielder. People are acting like Ozuna is the worst defender even when in reality he’s pretty much average. How is Ozuna in left and a plethora of options for DH worse than Enciarte or a guy with zero MLB experience?
The issue as I see it is that with putting Ozuna in LF, you can’t fill the DH hole unless you bring in Flowers and move darnaud to DH. You then have spotty defense in left and terrible hitting at catcher.
From what I’ve seen from Ozuna this season, he may actually be the worst defensive outfielder in the league. He’s got a -0.6 dWAR in only 162 innings, 21 games. You average that out over 162 and hat’s over a -4 dWAR (if I did the math right).
The dude is brutal, has zero desire or effort in the field, and has one of the worst, if not worst, arms in the league. I have a bad feeling Sntiker will put him out there like he kept doing for the first half of the season.
I’m not a fan of either team, but I like a few players on the Braves. Surprisingly, both quality franchises are suffering through extended WS droughts (Dodgers 32 years, Braves 26 years). Losing Duvall is tough, and again the Dodgers get the breaks on recent injuries to opponents. LA’s SP pitching and lineup is formidable but perhaps their greatest strength is defense and that edge just got greater with Duvall going down. Still, right now outside of Nick M the Braves batters look hotter than LA’s, and their bullpen is clicking (while the Dodgers not so much). Folks are citing depth as key to series, but I think it will come down to a battle between long- and short- relievers Oct 14-16..
Duvall’s injury is huge in many respects, especially given the fact that markakis looks completely lost. I would’ve considered sitting Markakis for Pache in game 2. With Duvall out, I would like to see an outfield of Riley in left, Pache in center and Ronald in right. I’d bring up Camargo and put him at third. I fear the possibility of Snitker bringing up Ender and/or putting Ozuna in LF.