The New York Times - USA (2020-10-10)

B8 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2020

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Minnenneapolisnnennn St. PaulS
ChicagoCCCh
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DetroitDetroite
Clevevelandev Pittsburgghg
WashingtonWashiashi
PhiladelphiaPhi
New YorkN
Richmchmond
NorfolkNNN
Raleighgh
CharlotteCCh
Columbbia
AtlaAtlantaAtla
JacksonvilleJ
OrlandoOr
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Miami
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MobileMo
NewNew
Orleans
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Baton Rougeo
Little Roeocko
Memphis
Nashville
Louisville
ChCharlestonCharlestone
Sioux Fallsou
Caspspersp
Cheyennenene
Denver
ColoradoColoColoo
0s0sSpsssspringsp
WinnWWnnipegnneg
Regina
Billinngsn
HHelenaH
BoiseB
Spopookanene
VancouverVV
Seattleeattleeattleattle
RRenoRe
SaSan FranciscoSan FrancisSan FrancisFrFr co
FreFreresno
Los Angelesos Angelesos Angeles
SSaSaann Diegon
Honoluluoluluuu
HiloHH
Fairbanks
Anchornchoragenchoragenchorage
Juneaueau
PhoenixPhoePhoeixix
Tucson
Lasss
VVegasVegeg
Salt LakeSalt LSalt LSalt Lakealalt ee
CitCityyy
AAlbuquerqueA
Santa Feanta Feanta Fe
Lubbock
El PasoEE Ft. WoWoWorth Dallas
Oklahoma City
San Antonio
Hououston
Corpus ChristiC
Monterreyntente
Eugenne
Portlanand
AlbanyAlbanyAlbany
Buffalo HartfordHaraa
TorontoTo rTo roronto
OttawaOOttaw
Montreall
QuebeQuebecQuebeuee
BurlingtonBBurlinrlingtonrliti on
ManchesterMaM
BostonBos
PortlandPor
HalifaxH
Des Moines
Omaha
Topeka
Wichita
Kansas
City
St. Louis
Springfieleldele
Extreme drought continued
to expand across the
interior Southwest U.S. last
week due to a lack of
rainfall and persistent heat.
This drought has put
significant stress on
agriculture, while the risk of
fire continues to be
elevated. Some rain and
cooler weather will impact
Northern California this
weekend, but the rest of
the region will likely stay
dry well into next week.
Highlight: Southwest Drought Expands
Albuquerque
Phoenix
Las Vegas
Sacramento
Salt Lake City
Los Angeles
Extreme
Severe
Moderate
DROUGHT
Atlanta
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Boston
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Chicago
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Cleveland
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Dallas
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Denver
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Detroit
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Ft. Myers
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Houston
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Los Angeles
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Miami
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New York
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Portland, Ore.
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High
Actual High
Forecast
range
Low
Low
High
Normal
Low
Record
High
Low
High and low
temperatures
for the past
five days and
forecasts for
the next five.
10-Day Temperature Trends
Yesterday’s highs
and lows are based
on preliminary data.
HL
FRONTS PRESSURE
COLD HIGH LOW MOSTLY SHOWERST-STORMS RAIN FLURRIES SNOW ICE
CLOUDY
WARM STATIONARY COMPLEX
COLD PRECIPITATION
Alternating light and dark bands show today’s expected highs. Weather patterns shown as expected at noon today, Eastern time.
National Forecast
We a t h e r R e p o r t Meteorology by AccuWeather
Cities
High/low temperatures for the 16 hours ended at 4
p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches)
for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday.
Expected conditions for today and tomorrow.
C ........................ Clouds
F ............................. Fog
H .......................... Haze
I............................... Ice
PC ............. Partly cloudy
R ........................... Rain
Sh ................... Showers
S .............................Sun
Sn ....................... Snow
SS .......... Snow showers
T ............ Thunderstorms
Tr ......................... Trace
W ........................ Windy

• ............... Not available

United States Yesterday Today Tomorrow

N.Y.C. region Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Africa Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Asia/Pacific Yesterday Today Tomorrow

South America Yesterday Today Tomorrow

North America Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Europe Yesterday Today Tomorrow

New York City 68/ 50 0 77/ 63 S 70/ 56 PC

Bridgeport 64/ 45 0 75/ 61 S 70/ 53 PC

Caldwell 72/ 44 0 79/ 61 S 73/ 55 PC

Danbury 65/ 36 0 75/ 56 S 67/ 48 PC

Islip 65/ 43 0 74/ 61 S 70/ 55 PC

Newark 73/ 47 0 79/ 62 S 72/ 57 PC

Trenton 70/ 41 0 77/ 60 S 71/ 57 R

White Plains 66/ 41 0 75/ 59 S 68/ 49 PC

Albany 60/ 49 0 75/ 47 PC 58/ 45 PC

Albuquerque 84/ 52 0 81/ 51 S 80/ 50 PC

Anchorage 51/ 37 0 49/ 39 C 48/ 38 Sh

Atlanta 75/ 65 0.07 77/ 70 R 78/ 69 R

Atlantic City 71/ 62 0 75/ 66 C 75/ 65 R

Austin 88/ 64 0.15 93/ 64 S 98/ 67 S

Baltimore 72/ 55 0 78/ 61 C 75/ 63 R

Baton Rouge 81/ 72 4.23 82/ 69 W 86/ 70 S

Billings 74/ 48 0 83/ 49 PC 58/ 41 W

Birmingham 75/ 69 0.06 77/ 70 R 77/ 67 R

Boise 79/ 51 0 64/ 41 Sh 59/ 47 PC

Boston 61/ 54 0 76/ 57 PC 60/ 49 PC

Buffalo 68/ 61 0 72/ 48 T 61/ 53 PC

Burlington 59/ 51 0 72/ 42 T 54/ 38 S

Casper 76/ 40 0 80/ 48 W 55/ 33 Sh

Cedar Rapids 84/ 58 0 75/ 52 S 78/ 56 PC

Champaign 84/ 60 0 82/ 58 PC 80/ 61 C

Charleston, W.Va. 77/ 60 0 72/ 60 C 69/ 62 R

Charlotte 69/ 64 0 72/ 65 Sh 74/ 67 R

Chattanooga 75/ 66 0.09 77/ 69 R 78/ 69 R

Chicago 81/ 64 0 76/ 56 PC 76/ 61 PC

Cincinnati 81/ 63 0 77/ 61 C 73/ 63 R

Cleveland 74/ 63 0 77/ 57 PC 71/ 61 C

Colorado Springs 83/ 50 0 81/ 52 PC 78/ 39 PC

Columbia, Mo. 84/ 61 0 84/ 61 PC 81/ 62 PC

Columbia, S.C. 79/ 68 0 81/ 69 T 83/ 70 T

Columbus 76/ 60 0 77/ 60 PC 75/ 63 R

Concord, N.H. 60/ 44 0 77/ 47 PC 61/ 36 PC

Dallas-Ft. Worth 85/ 65 0 88/ 66 S 96/ 71 S

Dayton 81/ 61 0 79/ 61 PC 75/ 62 R

Denver 85/ 48 0 84/ 56 PC 76/ 41 W

Des Moines 86/ 60 0 78/ 59 S 81/ 57 S

Detroit 76/ 62 0 77/ 53 PC 68/ 57 PC

El Paso 93/ 59 0 91/ 59 S 87/ 59 S

Eugene 71/ 55 0 61/ 47 R 61/ 52 R

Fairbanks 50/ 29 0 45/ 28 PC 36/ 25 C

Fargo 74/ 39 0 65/ 52 S 76/ 46 T

Fort Myers 91/ 76 0 89/ 77 Sh 89/ 76 T

Fresno 79/ 58 0 78/ 60 PC 79/ 57 S

Gainesville, Fla. 87/ 71 0.14 87/ 72 Sh 85/ 71 T

Grand Rapids 78/ 63 0 72/ 50 PC 69/ 55 PC

Greensboro 69/ 61 0 67/ 62 Sh 70/ 64 R

Greenville, S.C. 68/ 61 0.01 70/ 63 Sh 75/ 67 T

Harrisburg 76/ 55 0 82/ 61 PC 75/ 60 R

Hartford 67/ 52 0 78/ 56 S 68/ 47 PC

Honolulu 87/ 73 0 88/ 75 S 90/ 74 Sh

Houston 80/ 68 0.04 89/ 68 PC 93/ 73 S

Indianapolis 83/ 61 0 79/ 62 PC 76/ 62 C

Jackson 81/ 74 0.67 76/ 68 R 81/ 68 PC

Jacksonville 84/ 72 0.06 86/ 73 Sh 86/ 70 T

Johnstown, Pa. 68/ 57 0 72/ 59 PC 68/ 57 R

Kansas City 84/ 64 0 83/ 61 PC 82/ 58 S

Key West 91/ 83 0.05 89/ 82 PC 89/ 81 PC

Knoxville 71/ 62 Tr 73/ 64 R 78/ 66 R

Lansing 77/ 62 0 73/ 48 PC 67/ 53 PC

Las Vegas 92/ 64 0 90/ 63 S 88/ 62 S

Lexington 78/ 62 0 72/ 62 Sh 71/ 64 R

Little Rock 72/ 64 0.03 71/ 65 R 81/ 65 PC

Los Angeles 77/ 63 0 76/ 63 PC 79/ 61 PC

Louisville 82/ 66 0 76/ 66 Sh 75/ 66 R

Lubbock 90/ 54 0 96/ 53 S 95/ 55 S

Madison 79/ 58 0 70/ 45 S 72/ 59 PC

Memphis 71/ 67 0.02 74/ 67 R 79/ 67 R

Miami 89/ 80 0 88/ 79 Sh 89/ 78 T

Milwaukee 82/ 63 0 68/ 52 S 65/ 58 PC

Mpls.-St. Paul 81/ 50 0 66/ 50 S 73/ 54 PC

Mobile 87/ 74 0 81/ 70 R 83/ 69 S

Monterey, Calif. 67/ 56 0 68/ 56 C 67/ 53 PC

Nashville 73/ 65 Tr 75/ 68 R 75/ 66 R

New Orleans 86/ 76 0.28 85/ 73 W 86/ 72 S

Norfolk 73/ 62 0 75/ 65 Sh 74/ 68 R

Oklahoma City 83/ 60 0 84/ 58 S 88/ 59 S

Omaha 88/ 56 0 81/ 61 S 85/ 52 W

Orlando 87/ 74 0.06 89/ 76 Sh 90/ 75 T

Philadelphia 72/ 58 0 78/ 63 PC 75/ 60 R

Phoenix 100/ 71 0 96/ 69 S 93/ 68 S

Pittsburgh 74/ 58 0 77/ 60 PC 74/ 60 R

Portland, Me. 58/ 47 Tr 75/ 48 W 59/ 40 S

Portland, Ore. 71/ 57 0 61/ 52 R 58/ 55 R

Providence 63/ 53 0 75/ 59 W 64/ 48 PC

Raleigh 72/ 62 0 71/ 63 Sh 73/ 66 R

Reno 80/ 44 0 70/ 43 C 69/ 41 S

Richmond 71/ 58 0 73/ 64 PC 72/ 65 R

Rochester 67/ 58 0 76/ 47 T 57/ 50 PC

Sacramento 76/ 58 0 76/ 57 C 82/ 54 S

Salt Lake City 82/ 57 0 84/ 53 S 59/ 43 Sh

San Antonio 89/ 65 0 95/ 67 S 98/ 69 S

San Diego 76/ 67 0 75/ 66 PC 75/ 62 PC

San Francisco 69/ 60 0 70/ 57 C 74/ 56 W

San Jose 74/ 59 0 74/ 58 C 78/ 55 S

San Juan 88/ 79 0.04 89/ 78 T 89/ 78 PC

Savannah 87/ 75 0 85/ 74 Sh 85/ 71 T

Seattle 66/ 55 0 59/ 50 R 56/ 51 R

Shreveport 74/ 68 0.14 81/ 65 PC 88/ 69 S

Sioux Falls 85/ 48 0 76/ 57 S 82/ 43 T

South Bend 83/ 61 0 76/ 56 PC 76/ 57 PC

Spokane 72/ 53 0 58/ 40 Sh 57/ 43 Sh

St. Louis 86/ 63 0 82/ 64 PC 80/ 65 PC

St. Thomas 90/ 79 0 88/ 79 T 88/ 79 Sh

Syracuse 64/ 55 0 78/ 45 T 62/ 48 PC

Tampa 92/ 77 0 89/ 78 T 88/ 77 T

Toledo 82/ 63 0 81/ 56 PC 70/ 59 C

Tucson 96/ 61 0 95/ 61 S 90/ 60 S

Tulsa 84/ 63 0 84/ 59 S 87/ 65 S

Virginia Beach 71/ 62 0 73/ 66 C 74/ 68 R

Waco 85/ 63 0 90/ 64 S 98/ 69 S

Washington 71/ 60 0 76/ 63 C 74/ 64 R

West Palm Beach 87/ 79 0 87/ 77 Sh 89/ 77 T

Wichita 85/ 61 0 85/ 60 PC 87/ 55 W

Wilkes-Barre 70/ 54 0 79/ 58 PC 69/ 56 C

Wilmington, Del. 70/ 53 0 75/ 59 C 76/ 60 R

Abidjan 84/ 74 0.28 84/ 75 PC 84/ 76 T

Algiers 82/ 55 0 79/ 59 PC 73/ 53 T

Cairo 96/ 73 0 92/ 69 S 88/ 69 S

Cape Town 63/ 53 0.08 66/ 46 S 71/ 48 PC

Casablanca 84/ 59 0 82/ 61 F 83/ 60 F

Dakar 88/ 80 0 88/ 79 PC 87/ 78 PC

Johannesburg 74/ 53 0 80/ 52 S 61/ 50 R

Nairobi 84/ 61 0 82/ 57 T 83/ 57 PC

Tunis 79/ 59 0 81/ 62 PC 80/ 59 R

Almaty 54/ 37 0 54/ 29 PC 57/ 30 PC

Auckland 63/ 47 0.04 64/ 56 W 65/ 57 W

Baghdad 93/ 68 0 94/ 62 PC 98/ 64 S

Bali 85/ 76 0.33 84/ 76 T 86/ 77 S

Bangkok 79/ 75 0.94 85/ 74 T 87/ 76 Sh

Beijing 74/ 51 0 75/ 54 C 65/ 40 PC

Damascus 91/ 59 0 91/ 53 S 92/ 54 S

Dhaka 95/ 80 0 94/ 79 Sh 92/ 79 T

Hanoi 81/ 70 0 83/ 68 PC 85/ 70 PC

Hong Kong 85/ 72 0 84/ 75 PC 86/ 77 PC

Islamabad 94/ 65 0 94/ 64 PC 94/ 67 PC

Jakarta 88/ 75 0.36 90/ 75 T 89/ 76 T

Jerusalem 93/ 73 0 85/ 65 S 81/ 64 S

Karachi 93/ 74 0 97/ 76 PC 99/ 75 PC

Kolkata 95/ 82 0.07 94/ 80 T 95/ 80 PC

Kuala Lumpur 88/ 77 0 88/ 76 PC 90/ 76 C

Lahore 98/ 72 0 97/ 70 PC 97/ 73 PC

Manila 86/ 79 0.18 88/ 79 T 86/ 78 T

Melbourne 61/ 46 0 67/ 49 PC 64/ 45 PC

Mumbai 95/ 84 0.02 91/ 80 Sh 90/ 80 PC

New Delhi 97/ 69 0 94/ 70 PC 94/ 70 PC

Riyadh 95/ 72 0 93/ 62 PC 91/ 63 S

Seoul 74/ 48 0 73/ 52 C 74/ 53 C

Shanghai 76/ 59 0 75/ 61 C 77/ 63 PC

Singapore 86/ 80 0.02 86/ 79 PC 87/ 80 C

Sydney 74/ 57 0 76/ 56 S 76/ 60 S

Taipei City 79/ 72 0.33 78/ 75 T 83/ 77 R

Tehran 65/ 52 0.75 67/ 50 S 69/ 51 S

Tel Aviv 98/ 75 0 88/ 74 S 85/ 72 S

Tokyo 64/ 59 1.49 68/ 66 R 74/ 68 R

Vladivostok 61/ 49 0 60/ 49 S 61/ 47 C

Amsterdam 59/ 46 0.27 53/ 45 R 56/ 47 R

Athens 77/ 63 0 78/ 64 S 79/ 63 S

Barcelona 73/ 61 0 70/ 55 T 66/ 51 PC

Belgrade 68/ 46 0 68/ 49 PC 69/ 53 S

Berlin 58/ 48 0.24 54/ 38 Sh 54/ 39 PC

Brussels 59/ 48 0 54/ 43 R 55/ 44 Sh

Budapest 70/ 41 0 68/ 50 PC 61/ 50 T

Copenhagen 59/ 48 0.16 54/ 48 R 53/ 46 R

Dublin 52/ 43 0.18 54/ 42 PC 54/ 46 PC

Edinburgh 52/ 39 0.05 55/ 40 Sh 55/ 42 PC

Frankfurt 61/ 53 1.19 56/ 40 R 54/ 41 Sh

Geneva 68/ 46 0 56/ 40 R 51/ 39 PC

Helsinki 55/ 48 0.34 57/ 48 C 55/ 42 Sh

Istanbul 68/ 60 0.05 69/ 59 S 74/ 61 S

Kiev 66/ 58 0 66/ 49 C 64/ 50 PC

Lisbon 77/ 59 0 81/ 60 PC 79/ 57 S

London 56/ 43 0.08 56/ 44 Sh 57/ 44 PC

Madrid 81/ 50 0 76/ 46 PC 66/ 43 S

Moscow 59/ 49 0.14 60/ 43 C 57/ 47 PC

Nice 70/ 57 0 69/ 57 C 65/ 52 C

Oslo 54/ 43 0.20 49/ 43 R 49/ 38 R

Paris 63/ 55 0.40 58/ 47 Sh 57/ 43 Sh

Prague 61/ 52 0 57/ 38 R 51/ 40 PC

Rome 70/ 50 0 71/ 58 S 67/ 53 T

St. Petersburg 61/ 54 Tr 57/ 46 S 57/ 50 R

Stockholm 54/ 48 0.41 52/ 42 R 51/ 41 Sh

Vienna 68/ 46 0 67/ 47 R 53/ 42 R

Warsaw 63/ 45 0.02 65/ 47 R 53/ 42 Sh

Acapulco 84/ 75 0.27 85/ 75 Sh 86/ 76 T

Bermuda 79/ 75 0 78/ 71 PC 79/ 73 PC

Calgary 49/ 37 0 65/ 36 PC 53/ 31 PC

Edmonton 45/ 23 0.03 61/ 35 C 54/ 30 W

Guadalajara 84/ 55 0 85/ 59 T 85/ 60 T

Havana 88/ 75 0 88/ 75 PC 89/ 74 T

Kingston 88/ 77 0 90/ 79 T 89/ 79 T

Martinique 84/ 75 0.02 87/ 75 T 86/ 75 PC

Mexico City 77/ 52 0 78/ 56 T 77/ 55 T

Monterrey 92/ 61 0 96/ 63 S 95/ 62 PC

Montreal 56/ 36 0 67/ 39 R 50/ 36 S

Nassau 88/ 79 0 88/ 78 T 88/ 78 T

Panama City 84/ 75 0.07 88/ 75 T 86/ 75 T

Quebec City 54/ 30 0 63/ 34 R 50/ 29 S

Santo Domingo 90/ 73 0 91/ 74 T 89/ 73 T

Toronto 63/ 41 0 71/ 42 T 55/ 49 PC

Vancouver 59/ 57 0.22 59/ 47 Sh 57/ 49 R

Winnipeg 64/ 46 0 56/ 47 PC 69/ 41 W

Bogota 66/ 52 0.02 66/ 46 T 66/ 46 PC

Buenos Aires 75/ 57 0 69/ 57 S 66/ 53 PC

Caracas 90/ 75 0.14 87/ 73 T 87/ 73 C

Lima 66/ 60 0 68/ 60 S 68/ 60 S

Quito 66/ 46 0 75/ 45 S 75/ 46 PC

Recife 86/ 79 0 88/ 77 S 87/ 77 PC

Rio de Janeiro 77/ 73 0.27 76/ 69 PC 73/ 69 PC

Santiago 84/ 45 0 83/ 47 PC 86/ 50 PC

Sao Paulo 68/ 64 0.21 70/ 53 PC 69/ 57 PC

As Hurricane Delta moves inland at a
steady pace, the storm is forecast to
quickly weaken and unravel over the lower
Mississippi Valley today. Areas of flooding
rain, damaging winds and severe thunder-
storms will persist. Some roads may be
impassable because of downed trees and
wires from Louisiana to western Missis-
sippi. Storm surge flooding will slowly
recede along the Louisiana coast as Delta
moves away. Lesser showers will riddle
areas from the eastern Gulf Coast to the
southern Atlantic Coast.

A cold front is forecast to stretch from

the Midwest to New England. A gusty

breeze and showers will accompany the

front as it moves along with most of the

wet weather expected for New England.

Cooler air will settle over the northern

Plains and Upper Midwest.

Sun and heat will build from the south-

ern Rockies to the southern Plains. Some

record highs may be challenged.

As dry weather remains over much of

California and the deserts, soaking rain

and cooler air will push inland from Wash-

ington and Oregon to Idaho and western

Montana. The air will be chilly enough for

wet snow to fall on the high country of the

Cascades and northern Rockies.

FOCUS: SNOW FOR THE NORTHERN ROCK-

IES The same storm that will bring benefi-

cial rainfall to the Northwest this weekend

will produce snow above 6,000 feet from

the Washington Cascades to the northern

Rockies through Monday. New snow may

fall above 7,000 feet.

BASEBALLDIVISION SERIES

For a decade, the path to the
National League pennant almost
always went through Atlanta. Of
the 10 N.L. Championship Series
from 1991 through 2001, the
Braves played in
nine. They went all
the way just once, in
1995, but they were
N.L. royalty.
And then it
stopped. From 2002
through last season, the Braves
dropped eight division series and
also lost a wild-card game. Octo-
ber futility had come to define
them, as their general manager,
Alex Anthopoulos, learned early
in his tenure, during a dinner in
town.
“I sat at the counter and just
kind of put my head down, and I
remember someone was talking
about sports teams,” he said this
week. “There was a lady behind
the counter, and someone said,
‘The Braves are having a great
year,’ and she goes, ‘Yeah, but
they always lose in the playoffs.’
“And she was right, but I re-
member it really bothering me. I
was like, ‘I hate that that’s the
narrative.’ ”
In his first two seasons in
Atlanta, though, Anthopoulos’s

teams only reinforced the story.

The Braves won the N.L. East in

2018 and 2019, then predictably

fell flat. Last fall, with a chance

to clinch their division series at

home against St. Louis, they

gave up 10 runs in the first in-

ning.

Now the Braves cannot lose,

and they are headed to the

N.L.C.S. after finishing a three-

game sweep of the Miami Mar-

lins on Thursday with a 7-0 vic-

tory in Houston. It was Atlanta’s

fourth shutout in five games this

postseason, after two against the

Cincinnati Reds in the first

round.

“We flipped the script,” said

Freddie Freeman, the Braves’

longtime first baseman. “Every-

one was talking about our of-

fense, and now everyone’s going

to be talking about our pitching

— which is great, because they

deserve it.”

The Braves finished one run

behind the Los Angeles Dodgers

for the major league lead in

scoring this season. Freeman is a

leading candidate for the Most

Valuable Player Award, and a

cast of dynamic hitters — includ-

ing Ronald Acuna Jr., Marcell

Ozuna and Travis d’Arnaud —

surrounds him. For most of the

season, the pitchers needed all

the support they could get from

that potent lineup.

The Braves ranked 28th out of

30 teams this season in starters’

earned run average, at 5.51 —

but most of the time it was worse

than that. Only Max Fried, Kyle

Wright and Ian Anderson made

more than five starts, and in the

35 games started by others, the

rotation was torched for a 7.97

E.R.A.

The staff ace, Mike Soroka,

tore an Achilles’ tendon in Au-

gust. The former All-Star Mike

Foltynewicz was designated for

assignment. The veteran Felix

Hernandez opted out of the pan-

demic-shortened season, and

several journeymen and fading

prospects failed to stick.

The Braves had hoped that by

October they would have Cole

Hamels, the most valuable play-

er of the 2008 World Series, to

stabilize the rotation. But

Hamels, who signed a one-year,

$18 million deal last December,

struggled with a shoulder prob-

lem in spring training, and a

recurrence ended his season

after one start in September.

In other words, the Braves

were not likely to become the

second team, after the 1905 New

York Giants, to spin four shut-

outs in its first five games of a

postseason. But they have done

it, and not because Christy Math-

ewson tossed three by himself.

“That’s tough to do in any

league — and it was everybody,

you didn’t have just a dominant

couple of guys,” Braves Manager

Brian Snitker said. “It was an

entire team full of pitchers doing

this. They should be proud of

themselves; that’s an unbeliev-

able accomplishment.”

Fried fired seven shutout

innings against the Reds, and

Anderson worked six. After a 9-5

victory in Game 1 against the

Marlins, Anderson blanked them

for five and two-thirds innings on

Wednesday, and Wright did it for

six on Thursday. A deep and

versatile bullpen took care of the

rest.

The starters’ success has

validated their advanced billing.

Fried, Anderson and Wright

were all top 10 draft picks: Fried

by San Diego in 2012 (he was

traded to Atlanta two years later

for Justin Upton), and Anderson

and Wright by the Braves. But

while Fried has excelled for two

seasons — he is 24-6 since the

start of 2019 — the others are

just now proving themselves.

Wright was demoted to the

Braves’ alternate site after four

starts this season, and a month

ago his E.R.A. was 8.05. He redis-

covered his confidence, and his

stuff, just in time.

“It was just me putting unnec-

essary pressure on myself to

make the perfect pitch and get

the swing and miss,” Wright said.

“For me, when I got sent down, it

was simplifying everything and

attacking the zone. We have one

of the best defenses you’re going

to see, so just trust my stuff and

pitch.”

Anderson, 22, took a no-hitter

into the sixth inning of his debut

against the Yankees in August.

He did not throw a changeup

when the Braves drafted him

from Shenendehowa High School

in Clifton Park, N.Y., but he

learned it in the minors and has

made it his best pitch, to go with

a fastball and curve. He has

reason to be self-assured.

“His first start in the big

leagues, he was just sitting at his

locker talking to anybody that

walked by,” Freeman said. “Most

guys have headphones on, not

really talking to anybody, trying

to get in a zone. You could just

tell the maturity Ian had when he

first walked into that clubhouse,

so what he’s doing in the postsea-

son doesn’t surprise any of us.”

The challenge will be greater

in the N.L.C.S. The Dodgers, who

swept their division series

against the San Diego Padres,

will be far more imposing than

the Braves’ playoff opponents so

far: The Reds and the Marlins

both scored fewer runs than the

average N.L. teams this season.

But in a postseason of busting

narratives and flipping scripts,

the Braves will take their

chances as a new group chases a

spot in the World Series.

“It’s just amazing, since 2001,

we’ve finally gotten past this

point,” Freeman said.

Braves at Last Return to a Place They Once Frequented: the N.L.C.S.

TYLER

KEPNER

ON

BASEBALL

A team escapes the

October futility that

had come to define it.