The vibes were positive for once in and around Braves Country as the Atlanta Braves entered this four-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies. After all, Atlanta had just gotten done bombing the Marlins over the course of two days and while scoring a big bushel of runs. However, the difficulty level was always going to spike going from the Marlins to the Phillies and in unsurprising fashion, this series went a whole lot differently than the one in Miami did.
The first game in particular was pretty
discouraging, as the Braves once again made history in a way that you don’t want to make history. Fortunately this didn’t result in a complete capitulation from Atlanta over the course of the four-game series as the Braves (especially the pitching staff) fought hard to stay competitive in this series. At the same time, it was very clear which team is gearing up for a Postseason run and which team is just trying to get to the end of the season without any further calamities. Let’s get into this series.
Thursday, August 28
Phillies 19, Braves 4
This was an absolute massacre from the bottom of the first inning onwards, as Atlanta went up 3-0 and got outscored 19-1 the rest of the way. Cal Quantrill, Wander Suero and Austin Cox gave up seven dingers on the night, with four of those seven homers coming from Kyle Schwarber by himself. In fact, Schwarber had a shot at five home runs as he got an at-bat against Vidal Bruján, who is a position player. Vidal Bruján (the position player) earned bragging rights over Quantrill, Suero and Cox since he was the only pitcher (who, I cannot stress enough, is a position player) who kept Schwarber in the yard on this night. Oof.
Matt Olson hit a solo homer to give Atlanta their fourth run of the night and that was clearly not enough to keep up with Philadelphia on this night.
Friday, August 29
Phillies 2, Braves 1
Hilariously enough, Bryce Elder went up against this homer-happy Phillies squad and pitches seven of the best innings that he’s thrown all season. Elder only gave up three hits and two walks and while he only struck out three batters, he was still able to frustrate and confound Phillies batters for most of the night.
Unfortunately for Elder, this was a bit of a throwback game to the early portions of this season which included a lot of good-to-great pitching performances that were ultimately squandered by the lineup not being able to take advantage of the chances they had. Atlanta racked up 10 hits against Ranger Suárez in this one and this was the fourth time this season that he had given up at least nine hits in a single start. In those other three starts, he gave up six runs against the Angels on July 20, five runs against the Orioles on August 6 and then six more runs against the Reds on August 12. Atlanta let him off the hook and the Braves were only able to muster up one measly run on those 10 hits, as the Braves went 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners o base. Meanwhile, a game-tying RBI from Brandon Marsh in the fourth and a go-ahead sacrifice fly from Alec Bohm in the eighth ended up being enough for the Phillies to escape with the win.
Saturday, August 30
Phillies 3, Braves 2
Chris Sale returned to the mound, which was a sight for sore eyes. He went six innings and struck out a whopping nine batters while only giving up three hits, with one of those being Weston Wilson’s third home run of the season. That was the only run that Sale gave up, as his return to a big league mound went about as swimmingly as the Braves and Sale could hope for.
This ended up being another example of the Braves getting a lot of hits but being unable to push many runs past Cristopher Sánchez. While it wasn’t as extreme as the failure from Friday night, it was still pretty disappointing to see the Braves go 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position (making that 4-for-21 across the two nights) another six runners left on base.
Once again, it was the Phillies who were the ones who got the big hits when they were needed the most. This one went into extras and the Braves went into the bottom of the tenth with a one-run lead. Unfortunately, going into the bottom half of an extra inning only means you’re one swing away from the Manfred Man at least tying the game. So it was pretty frustrating to watch Hunter Stratton end up loading the bases on a hit-by-pitch and a soft single from Bryson Stott before Trea Turner sent one into right field for the walk-off RBI.
This was Atlanta’s 31st one-run loss of the season, by the way. The record for one-run losses in a single season belongs to the 1968 White Sox, who lost 44 that year — just in case you’re wondering!
Sunday, August 31
Braves 3, Phillies 1
Hunter Waldrep joined the “I pitched a great game and all I got for it was little-to-no-run support” club that appeared to be very popular in Atlanta’s rotation this weekend. Waldrep continued to take Atlanta’s rotation by storm, as he pitched into the sixth inning with one four hits, four walks and one run allowed. He also added nine strikeouts along the way and was once again extremely tough for opposing batters to deal with. Waldrep’s only mistake of the night was leaving a cutter in the zone that Brandon Marsh popped up for a .170 xBA home run that only would’ve left half of the 30 MLB ballparks. Outside of that, Waldrep was very solid in this one and it certainly looks like he’s here to stay when it comes to Atlanta’s rotation.
On the other side of things, this wasn’t a case of the Braves squandering their opportunities — instead, this was just pure domination from Jesús Luzardo, who pitched into the seventh and only gave up two hits and that was it. The Braves had a shot two runners on in the seventh inning but Nacho Alvarez Jr. was unable to turn a 3-0 count into something against David Robertson as he grounded out to end the seventh.
However, the Braves were finally rewarded for their perseverance with a late-game rally that tilted the game in their favor. The Braves loaded the bases in the eighth and only came away with one run thanks to a productive out by Matt Olson but they eventually cashed in in the ninth inning. Jake Fraley led it off with an infield single and then with two outs on the board, Drake Baldwin got a pitch he liked from José Alvarado and sent it flying into the seats for a two-run homer that put the Braves in front. Raisel Iglesias made quick work of the Phillies in the bottom of the ninth and the sweep was averted. Hooray.
If you had told me before this series that the Braves would go into Philadelphia and have three games where they only gave up three runs or less, I would’ve been expecting to write about a series win for Atl— ah, who am I kidding? With the way this season has gone, I would’ve asked you “Okay, how did the Braves mess it up this time?” Philadelphia’s pitching staff appears to be finely poised to deal with the absence of Zack Wheeler, as they once again clamped down on Atlanta’s lineup and made every run the Braves scored (outside of Friday night) feel like a triumph.
Sunday’s win certainly felt triumphant, as the Braves certainly would’ve felt hard done leaving Philadelphia completely empty-handed despite hanging with them for the final three games of this series. As such, while the Braves were unable to make a real dent in Philly’s run to their second-straight divisional title, this does mean that the Braves stayed very competitive in the race for high draft lottery odds. The Braves are still in fourth when it comes to that particular race but they’re only .003 percentage points above the Twins and .004 percentage points above the A’s when it comes to playoff odds, as the Braves are 62-75 with Minnesota being 62-74 and Sacramento the A’s being 63-75. However, both the O’s (61-76) and the Pirates (61-77) are within “striking distance,” so the Braves are still right in the thick of this thing. They’ll have another tough series against the Cubs coming up so high draft position might continue to be the only real incentive remaining for the Braves going forward. We’ll see what hapens.
