Who is to blame for the Braves collapse in Game 2?

This one has the potential to sting for a long time.

The Atlanta Braves had the world at their fingertips. Coming off a thrilling victory in Game 1, Tyler Mahle tossed a gem, allowing just one run — which came in the first inning — over seven innings. If there were any questions about him living up to the moment in the playoffs for the first time, or whether his success since coming to Atlanta was legitimate, they were answered in resounding fashion.

Mahle went step for step with Cristopher Sanchez the entire afternoon, and the Braves finally broke through in the seventh thanks to a couple of boneheaded defensive plays from Philadelphia, leading to two runs with the Phillies down to their last six outs.

But the bullpen — the strength of the Braves for the entire season — couldn’t get it done. For the second consecutive afternoon, Walt Weiss turned to Dylan Lee in a high-leverage spot against Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. He handled it beautifully on Tuesday, but the Phillies’ stars were able to use that added information to their advantage on Wednesday, clobbering back-to-back homers deep into the Chop House seats.

A total disaster, and a decision that probably prevented Walt Weiss from getting much sleep last night, if he got any at all. For as good as Lee was in the first half of the season, he hasn’t been the same guy for a long time, recording a 5.90 ERA over 32 appearances dating back to July 2nd. Throwing him out there on consecutive days with the season on the line against two of the best playoff performers this game has ever seen is just asking for something bad to happen.

And to make matters worse: the Braves had a completely rested bullpen with everyone available. Weiss could have turned to Didier Fuentes, the club’s best reliever over the entire season. Or Robert Suarez, a two-time All-Star with loads of experience in big moments, even if he hasn’t pitched very much since coming back from injury. Or Dylan Dodd, the man who has actually been the Braves’ best lefty reliever over the last four months, posting a 2.54 ERA over 48 games. Hell, Weiss could have even turned to his closer, Raisel Iglesias, early, knowing it was the most important moment of the game, even if it was the eighth inning.

There’s no beating around the bush: it was an abysmal decision from the first-year manager in his first-ever playoff series. But if we’re pointing fingers for why we aren’t talking about the Dodgers right now, almost all of them should be aimed at the Braves’ offense.

This is a lineup that has massively underachieved over the last four months. They had a plethora of opportunities in front of a home crowd to blow the game wide open and turn Truist Park into a frenzy, and they came up short time and time again, leaving 11 runners on base. This game should have been 7-1 by the time Harper and Schwarber stepped to the plate in the eighth inning.

The Braves offense just cannot produce consistently enough when they’re presented with scoring opportunities. It’s a feast-or-famine bunch, and every time October arrives, it bites them in the ass. The Braves played with their food, and they are once again paying the price. Do it again tonight, and there likely will be some uncomfortable conversations had this offseason. Because what we’ve seen from these guys in the postseason is just not good enough, and we have a five-year sample size that shows it is not working.

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Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)