What to watch for as Braves take on the Phillies

All right, so I want to continue with some good news here, and that is our Atlanta Braves. I have a good feeling, and I think Lindsey Crosby, who is the podcast host of Locked on Braves podcast, I think you have a pretty good feeling too, Lindsey. They're doing pretty well this season. The Braves have one of the best records in all of the National League. It's a great rebound from the injury-filled season they had last year, and this weekend's about to be probably the biggest series of the year with them taking on the Philadelphia Phillies for four in Citizens Bank Park. All right. So, as you mentioned, they have a four-game lead here. As they're going in, how many games does Atlanta need to win this weekend at Citizens Bank Park? So, they have seven left against Philadelphia for this weekend, but because they already have the lead in the division, they can probably just go two and two this weekend and still be comfortably ahead of Philadelphia. The math works in their favor because they're holding the lead. The problem is, if you're thinking about, we want Atlanta to have the number two seed in the postseason and have more wins than the Dodgers, that's where it gets complicated. But if you're just trying to figure out what's the minimum against Philadelphia, two and two is perfectly fine. You don't have to win the series because you're already in possession of the lead. Okay. We got to have a serious conversation, Lindsey. The Braves playing at home versus when they play out on the road. Talk about that. What can we expect as they're going in? They're going to be in Philadelphia. Hopefully, they're not, you know, eating the Philly cheesesteaks and just enjoying the brotherly love out there. You know, I wrote about this on the Braves Today newsletter this morning. The Braves have been significantly worse on the road than at home this season, and it's getting worse in the second half of the year. Some of it's they're striking out more, they're producing worse contact on the road, but we're not a hundred percent sure why it's happening other than for some reason at home, and it's not the park. For some reason at home, they're performing better and we're not sure, right? They're swinging and missing about the same amount. They're hitting the ball just as hard. They're hitting the ball in the air the same amount, but the results aren't there on the road. So the hope is that if you have these four games, you go two and two on the road, when you come home next weekend, if you can go two and one, win the series, then you're going to be able to win the division over Philadelphia. But my concern is if you have to go on the road in October, what does this do? So I want the Braves to figure out why they're underperforming on the road with all of their batted balls and find a way to get past that so they can start winning on the road. So you know, last week when we talked, we talked about how great of a performance Chris Sale had. I mean, it was miraculous to watch. It was great to watch. He's going up against another great one, Christopher Sanchez, tonight. You know, will we see what we saw against LA? Do you expect that as they take on Philly? What do you think is going to happen tonight when they go head to head? I never want to assume that a guy is going to throw a complete game shutout like Chris Sale did last week, but he's clearly pitching the best that he's pitched since he's been in Atlanta, even better than the 2024 Cy Young season. He's been in the best form of his career this second half of the year, and I fully expect Chris Sale to go out there, and I think a reasonable expectation is he shuts down Philadelphia for six or seven innings. I don't want to assume a complete game shutout because that's so hard to do, but Chris Sale has shown that he can beat anybody, he can beat any lineup, and he can do it all by himself if he has to, so I just think we're all lucky that we get to watch Chris Sale in the prime of his career do it for our Atlanta Braves. All right, Lindsey, I'm looking around to find some wood to knock on. I feel like whenever we say great stuff like that, Atlanta sports, any time we get our hopes up, it doesn't go very well. All right, before we go, ultimately, what should people be on the lookout for? What are you going to be watching this weekend in this matchup? I'm going to be watching to see how Atlanta's pitching handles those star players of Philadelphia. You're Bryce Harper, you're Kyle Schwerber, and I'm going to look to see what can Atlanta's offense figure out against a really good Phillies pitching staff because they've been tested by really good pitching, and most of those games have been low scoring in the second half of the year when they faced really good pitching, so what can they do offensively? All right, Lindsey Crosby, Locked on Braves podcast, when do the new episodes drop, Lindsey, for those who are watching? So we're doing live shows after every single Atlanta Braves game, and then we also drop on scripted episodes Monday through Friday at noon Eastern. All right, Lindsey, thanks so much. It's always a pleasure. Hope you have a good weekend, too. Thanks for having me.