More Braves-Dodgers Game Seven Notes
The Braves are set to play their seventh Game 7 of a playoff round today, and they are 4-2 (.667) in these games...The Braves won the last Game 7 they played, beating the Cardinals, 15-0, in the 1996 NLCS.
The Braves have never lost a Game 7 in the NLCS, going 3-0 with wins over Pittsburgh (1991 & 1992) and St. Louis (1996).
The Dodgers have played nine Game 7s in franchise history, and are 4-5 (.444) in these games...They, too, have never lost Game 7 of an NLCS, beating the Mets in 1988 and Brewers in 2018. CLINCH GAME: Atlanta tonight has a third chance to clinch the series after taking a 3-1 lead Thursday night...The Braves are 16-21 (.432) in these games in franchise history.
The Braves clinched in their first opportunity to do so in both the Wild Card Series versus Cincinnati and the NLDS vs. Miami.
Prior to this postseason, Atlanta had gone 0-7 in clinch games since 2001, including 0-2 last season against St. Louis...The Braves are now 2-9 in their last 11 clinch games.
The Braves have been outscored 62-20 (-42) in the nine games they have lost, and have led for a total of 10 innings over these nine contests.
YOUNG STARTERS: Per Elias, tonight’s Game 7 is the first winner-take-all game in history in which both starting pitchers will be rookies...Atlanta’s Ian Anderson has made just six career starts in the regular season, and is the first Braves rookie to ever start a deciding game.
Anderson starts tonight at 22 years, 169 days old, and is the sixth youngest pitcher in history to start a winner-take-all playoff game. • He is the youngest to do so since Cleveland’s Jaret Wright started Game 7 of the 1997 World Series at 21 years, 301 days.
Bret Saberhagen (1985 World Series & ALCS), Fernando Valenzuela (1981 NLCS), Marty Bystrom (1980 NLCS) and Don Gullett (1972 NLCS) are the only other pitchers younger than Anderson to start a winner-take-all playoff game. FREDDIE FREEMAN: Went 1-for-4 last night and has hits in a postseason career-best seven straight games, dating to Game 3 of the Division Series...He has hit .423/.500/.769 (11-for-26) in this stretch...It is the longest postseason hitting streak by a Braves player since Rafael Furcal and Andruw Jones had nine-game streaks that lasted into the 2005 postseason.
Marquis Grissom holds the franchise record, hitting in 15 straight postseason games, in a stretch that spans the 1995 and 1996 seasons.
Freeman has 11 total hits in this seven-game stretch...His only other hit this postseason was a walk-off single in the 13th inning of Game 1 of the Wild Card Series.