The Atlanta Braves lost Game Two after a rally fell just short, and the decisive move came in the 10th inning when Walt Weiss sent Dominic Smith to the plate with first and second and two outs. Atlanta needed one swing to turn the game, but the inning ended with the Braves still empty.
Smith’s appearance stood out because it was not a case of a hot hitter waiting for the biggest moment. He had only 16 plate appearances going back to Aug. 22, and his second-half regular-season line carried an 86 wRC+, a number that reflected why the bench never felt dangerous enough for this kind of spot.
The Braves carried 15 position players on their Wild Card roster, but quantity did not solve the problem. Atlanta had Smith, Rowdy Tellez, Luke Williams, Brewer Hicklen and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. available, and the setup was made worse by Lane Thomas’s injury. Even with the extra bodies, the team still lacked the kind of pinch-hitting threat that can change a postseason inning.
That has been the larger issue for Atlanta for a while. The Braves have not had bench firepower like Joc Pederson provided in the NLDS since 2021, and the memory of Vaughn Grissom fanning to end Atlanta’s season in Philadelphia in 2023 still hangs over these decisions. In that light, Weiss reaching for Smith was less a surprise than a sign of how narrow the options had become.
It is also the uncomfortable part of the roster construction: Atlanta keeps getting to October with too many bench pieces that do not force an opposing pitcher to flinch. Alex Anthopoulos now has the same mandate the game exposed so plainly. The Braves need a bench that changes the inning before they get back to a spot where one late swing decides everything.
