[jg2977]

Colin Cowherd:
Alright, here’s the headline: the bye matters. Atlanta sat, rested, watched St. Louis survive a war… and then punched them in the mouth. This is what fresh, dominant teams do to hot teams. You don’t ease in—you impose.
John Madden:
Yeah, see, here’s the thing. You get a guy like Eddie Quizhpe, and when he’s seeing the ball like this, boom—whap!—it’s just coming off the bat different. You don’t have to overthink it. If you throw it there, he’s gonna hit it there. And he did it three times.
Cowherd:
Three home runs. Five RBIs. Game over by the second inning. That cutter in the second? That’s a mistake pitch to the wrong guy at the worst time. You can’t do that against Atlanta. That’s how this thing snowballs.
Madden:
And look, when you’re a pitcher and you’re facing a lineup like this, you can’t say, “Well maybe I’ll sneak one by.” You sneak one by, and—BOOM!—now you’re down six-nothing and the crowd’s going nuts. That’s not sneaking, that’s donating.
Cowherd:
This Braves lineup is built to punish weakness. Rivera hits two. McKnight hits two. Quizhpe hits three. That’s not randomness—that’s depth. That’s why Atlanta won 111 games. You get past one guy, there’s another guy waiting with a hammer.
Madden:
Yeah, and you watch Sandoval on the mound, and he’s doing the opposite. He’s throwing strikes, he’s not giving in, and he’s saying, “You gotta earn it.” Seven-plus innings, no walks—that’s pitching. That’s how you let your hitters relax.
Cowherd:
St. Louis actually didn’t play terribly at the plate—nine hits, three homers—but this was one of those games where the scoreboard lies about competitiveness. The Cardinals were always chasing. Atlanta controlled the tempo from pitch one.
Madden:
And once you’re chasing, you start swinging different. You start pressing. You go up there thinking, “I gotta get three runs right now.” And baseball doesn’t work like that. You get one swing at a time—and Atlanta took all the good ones.
Cowherd:
This is exactly why people talk about inevitability with the Braves. They’re rested, they’re powerful, and they don’t need chaos to win. They just line up, execute, and overwhelm you.
Madden:
Yeah, and when a guy ties a playoff record with three homers, that’s not subtle. That’s just saying, “This is my day.” And Eddie Quizhpe? This was his day.
Cowherd:
Game 1 to Atlanta. Message sent. If you’re St. Louis, you regroup. If you’re the Braves? You keep doing exactly this—because when you play like this, there’s no mystery to it.
Madden:
Exactly. You hit the ball hard, you pitch the ball well… and usually, you win the game. And that’s what happened here.