The Atlanta Braves got out to a nice 2-0 lead in Game 7 of the NLCS on Sunday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they later got burned by the shift.
The Dodgers put runners on second and third with two outs in the bottom of the third. They had Will Smith at the plate against Ian Anderson. Smith hit a ball to the right side of the infield, but there was nobody there because Ozzie Albies shifted to the left of second base.
The result is Smith ended up with a 2-run single to tie the game.
The Braves shifted the least of any team in MLB this season, but they used one for Smith. It came back to bite them.
The Braves shifted the least of any team this year, just 6.5% of the time, easily the lowest rate in the majors. But Ozzie Albies was shifted on Will Smith's two-run single to where a second baseman would traditionally play and now we have a tie game. https://t.co/a7l66CtkvI
— David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield) October 19, 2020
Even though that tied the game at two, the Braves didn’t need long to reclaim the lead. They put together a rally in the top of the fourth inning to break the tie and go up 3-2 before some more bad baserunning did them in.
