Elliot Johnson recaps the Phillies 3-1 win over the Braves in Game 4 of the NLDS

My friend Elliot Johnson, a former Atlanta Brave, but a Durham Bulls legend, joins us on The Adam Gold Show.

We're down to four. We'll talk about the four that we have left, but I want to go back to last night. Philly's hit, what, three home runs, one in the, what, fourth, one in the fifth, one in the sixth, the first and the last by Nick Castellanos.

He was great. They really turned the tables on Atlanta. It looked like Philly hit the big ball.

Atlanta only had one game where they socked the ball out of the yard. What's your take on what we just saw for the second straight year? Well, I think the narrative for most of the teams has been the same, Adam, where there's continuity. I think the teams that had time off came out flat.

I think that's abundantly clear for the most part. The Phillies, like last night, Strider still was throwing a hundred, but his breaking ball wasn't the same, Adam. I think he probably was pretty tired overall because I think Trey's home run was breaking ball. Castellanos' first home run was a breaking ball. The third home run was a heater, and he hit that ball.

I don't know if it's landed yet. But I think that overall, the Braves were flat. Obviously, the Dodgers were really flat. The Rangers have been exceptional.

The O's were flat. So, I mean, I'm excited for the teams that are in it. Credit to the Diamondbacks.

I think that's hiding. I'm happy for Longoria to get back into a potential opportunity to get back to the World Series. But there's so many different guys that you guys can watch that are North Carolina folks. Zach Gallen went to Carolina. Trent Turner went to Carolina.

They, you know, long go play for the Bulls. There's so many different guys that have come through Durham or the Triangle in some way, shape, or form. So, it's obviously a great time of year to be watching baseball. Alright, so, last night, Braves fans tweeting through it, and I appreciate that. And, look, I was rooting for the Braves. I really thought the Braves would figure it out and come back and beat the Phillies when they won Game 2. I thought they were okay. I thought they would figure out a way to at least get the series back to a fifth game in Atlanta. Did not happen. They got hammered in Game 3, and I wonder if that didn't demoralize them, but it's easy to say.

Here's what somebody came back to me with. Well, Houston won, so not everybody loses. Maybe Houston had the right matchup for them. I don't know. But do you think that the layoff does matter? I do. I do think it matters.

But do you? You were the player. I was just a watcher. Yeah, there's two sides of it. If you're looking to get healthy, so you could argue that the Rangers, it's probably more to their benefit to get Scherzer back.

I think we've talked about that, Adam. So, if your pitchers are abused and overused, it's good to have some time off. If your hitters are hot, though, I can tell you from experience, I can't wait to hit again. If I'm 4 for 4, I want another at bat. If I'm 0 for 4, I'm good with a breather. But if you're hot, the Phillies are hot right now.

Holy cow. The Rangers are hot. So, I think when you're hitting really, really well, it becomes contagious. And I think the Phillies just haven't stopped.

I don't think they've lost any confidence. Here's an interesting observation from last night's game. One of the unspoken rules about baseball, Adam, is if the first guy swings at a pitch and gets out, especially when there's a starter in, you're supposed to take the next pitch. Trey Turner did not, and ended up getting one of his four hits last night. A single through the left side, and then Bryce Harper got a hit, went first to third. It didn't materialize. That was an interesting observation from last night's game.

Elliott Johnson is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. I know it didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things because the Braves did not score, but I was stunned to see Marcel Ozuna go first to third on a single where, I mean, he's not exactly a burner, and that was a relatively close play. I don't want to say his run doesn't mean anything because when you're down two, the second run does mean something, but that was an unusual risk to see.

But I guess it, well, not only didn't it matter then, but it didn't matter because they didn't score. Well, Pilar, so Riley hits the home run, and that got kicked everything off, but then immediately coming back, the Phillies answered back, Castellanos, all way back, and bat flipping, letting everybody know that he was the better man last night. But really the game where it changed, Pilar didn't take the base on the wild pitch when Kimbrel was in there.

Kimbrel was all over the place, Adam. The miracle he got out of it. He's lucky that Cunha swung at that, I think, 1-1 breaking ball down and in.

Okay, yeah. Cunha almost made it happen with that 3-2 fastball that Rojas caught in center field. That was pretty much the game right there. That was the Braves' only shot to do anything. Elliot Johnson is here. Do you think Philly might be in Atlanta's head a little bit? Look, as a Mets fan, I always thought the Braves were in the Mets head. Do you think Philly might be in Atlanta's head? I think the thing you can point to definitively is Arcea, and you don't need to give Phillies fans any more motivation than they already have. Right.

You played in Philly, I can tell you that. I think there's been a lot of video out there of fans getting on Arcea and him responding to them, which is a huge no-no. Cunha tried to shield him from it as much as possible, but he shouldn't even be acknowledging it. If you're acknowledging it, then you're hearing it, and you're letting them know that you hear it. So I think that narrative certainly permeated, and it did not work to their benefit, because in Game 3, Harper was just hitting balls 500 feet and then staring Arcea down.

There's it, in so many ways, and everybody's trying to pretend like it's a sacred place. Anything you say in a reporter's vicinity, they can and will use it against you if they want to. Unfortunately for them, it did not help, and so if they're in their head, I think it had more to do with that whole scenario. Last year, you can talk about that, sure, and it did permeate this year because the Braves obviously didn't come out on top.

Yeah, I mean, we can work backwards and prove everything based on what has happened. I don't understand the angst over—it was said, and reporters were around, so it's fair game. I don't get why everybody's been so—I saw there was somebody—I don't even know what network it was. I just saw a clip on Twitter of somebody blasting bloggers, and the person who wrote it is a member of the Baseball Writers Association.

What are you—this is not Grandparents' Basement. They want the Braves to win. I mean, it's abundantly clear, so if you have a horse in the race, which I don't, I guess I'm rooting for the Phillies over the two out of the two teams. But by and large, if there's any kind of negativity about it, it's because they didn't want it to get out because they did view it as a positive to help the Braves win. All right, real quick, before we have to say goodbye to Elliot Johnson, who's joining us here on the Adam Gold Show, I know you're not rooting for Houston, so how does that series work out?

Yeah, the Rangers look great. Quietly, Iovaldi is doing some things that are unbelievable. I think he was second to Andy Pettit in highest strike percentage thrown in a playoff game.

Holy cow. This is a guy that's had multiple TJs, and he's still just an absolute animal. He's doing everything they would hope. Corey Seeger, North Carolina native, is one of the best players in the world. Evan Carter, credit to their front office for bringing him up. He's been one of the best players in the world. Very young, very good baseball player. Simeon's been incredible.

Both of those three-agent acquisitions have been tremendous for the Rangers. Garcia's hitting the crap out of the ball. If they can continue to get production out of him, it's going to be a really good series. But we'll see what Max Scherzer can do. He's kind of the wild card in the deck to see if he can revert back to the Scherzer we know, or if he's going to be the Mets' Max Scherzer. Let him give them four innings. I don't know that he can sustain. I don't think he can go a third time through the lineup.

He might not be able to get a second time through the lineup, to be honest. I'm going to say you're taking the Rangers because you can't bring yourself to pick the Astros, and I understand why. Phillies or Diamondbacks in the National League? Phillies. I think the Diamondbacks' magic is over. If they can neutralize Corbin Carroll, that offense doesn't have a whole lot.