I almost wish I was a football enjoyer so I could have had something else on during this afternoon’s Braves-Phillies series finale. But alas, baseball is my one and only, and today’s contest was engineered in a lab to be Extremely Frustrating.
A sweep would have been lovely for Atlanta and their chances at the NL East crown. And for much of the game, they were kept right in it by great defense. But as we saw last night, one big inning can put the game to bed. This time it wasn’t in our favor.
We were
young, fresh and hopeful in the first inning when we saw that things were working on both sides of the ball for the Braves in the first inning. Grant Holmes worked around a Trea Turner single to right with some outs in the air – Michael Harris II was all over Kyle Schwarber’s deep flyout, and some diving plays from Mauricio Dubón and Matt Olson took care of Bryce Harper and Luis Arraez.
In the home half, the Braves came up swinging against Andrew Painter. Michael Harris II continued his reign of terror against the righty with a first-pitch single to right. After Ronald Acuña Jr. struck out, Mike timed things well to start running and was able to make it to third on an Olson single up the middle. Drake Baldwin’s sac fly took Bryce Harper all the way to the right field wall and made it 1-0 Braves. Dubón’s first-pitch single kept the line moving, but Ozzie Albies’ groundout ended the frame.
Holmes got Bohm to fly out before allowing a single to Bryson Stott, who’d been hitless in the series so far. Brandon Marsh’s ground ball was hit too softly for a double play, so they got the out at second. But Holmes left a 3-1 fastball where J.T. Realmuto could drive it to left center field, giving the Phillies the 2-1 lead. One pitch later, Holmes got Justin Crawford to ground out.
Austin Riley saw six pitches but lined out to Stott. The first pitch Mike Yastrzemski saw was hit down the first base line but Bohm got it to Painter for the groundout. Ha-Seong Kim earned a well-deserved walk after a changeup came up and in near his head and sent him sprawling on the ground. But Painter was able to get Michael to strike out on a foul tip, retiring him for the first time.
The second time through the Phillies order in the third, they unfortunately stopped being fooled by Holmes much. He issued a leadoff walk to Schwarber and threw two balls to Turner before Baldwin went to the mound to chat with his pitcher. Harper’s lineout to Yaz in right was deep enough to move Schwarber to third. But no damage would be done after Arraez grounded one to Kim, who fired it over to Olson for a double play.
Almost as quickly as Ronald got aboard to start the bottom of the third, he was erased by a double play by Matt. This was made all the more tragic after Drake’s immediate single to right. Mauricio swung at a first-pitch strike but then saw four straight balls. But once again, with runners at first and second, Ozzie ended the threat. His pop out to Turner sent us to the fourth.
Holmes worked a 1-2-3 inning thanks to a Yaz catch in foul territory and Matt Olson continuing to put on a defensive clinic. Matty smooth.
Riley started the fourth with a leadoff walk and jogged back to the dugout after Yaz grounded into a force out. Painter issued another free pass to Kim, bringing us back to the top of the lineup and prompting a mound visit. Michael watched ball one but wasted no time in stinging the next pitch for a single up the middle to load the bases. We all got our hopes up for something grand or reminiscent of yesterday’s massive fourth inning. Ronald got a bit of Painter’s changeup, but not enough as Harper gloved it in shallow right field and kept Yaz at third. Matt smoked one 101 mph that looked like it might sneak by Bohm, but he made the play to keep the Braves off the board.
Realmuto hit a ball to left that looked eerily similar to his earlier homer, but Dubón was waving and watching for the wall as it came back down. While it did stay in the park, it didn’t stay in his glove. Instead, it bounced out and allowed the Phillies catcher to reach second base. A single by the nine-hole hitter Crawford brought Schwarber up with runners at the corners with no outs. This prompted Walt Weiss to slowly stroll out to the mound to replace #66 with #62, the lefty Ray Kerr.
Once again, where the Braves refuse to capitalize offensively, they’ll immediately get back in our good graces with spectacular defense. Schwarber’s grounder went straight to Olson, who looked over at Realmuto on third, tapped the bag at first, and then fired it over to Kim for a massive double play. Kerr then punched out Turner to get out of the jam and preserve Holmes’ final line: 4.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K. Kerr has been perfect with inherited runners so far, which is something I’m sure we all predicted.
With that momentum, the Braves… continued to let Painter Get Away With It. In a sixteen-pitch inning where Dubón saw exactly half of those, Drake popped out to short, Dubón struck out, and Ozzie grounded out.
Kerr got into some trouble immediately with a leadoff Harper double, but a gift of a Luis Arraez bunt pop out, Bohm grounding out after a successful ABS challenge by Drake (!), and challenging Stott with three straight strikes stranded Harper at third.
Painter’s afternoon ended after five innings. He gave up six hits and walked four, but only allowed the one run in the first. He was relieved by flamethrower rookie Alex McFarlane, who struck out Riley to start the bottom of the sixth. Yaz battled but stared at the ninth pitch of the AB for strike three, and Kim hit a 99 mph laser that was smothered by Arraez and thrown over to first.
Kerr trotted back out to pitch in the seventh with Victor Mederos warming in the bullpen. But he wouldn’t be needed – Kerr struck out pinch-hitter Bryan De La Cruz and Realmuto, retiring the latter for the first time this afternoon, and got Crawford to ground out. What a day for Ray: three innings of one-hit ball with four K’s.
It felt like this game was cursed to end 2-1 by the seventh inning stretch. (It didn’t, first for better, then for much worse.)
Mound-perfectionist José Alvarado got the call to face the top of the Braves order in the seventh. Harris greeted him rudely with a single to center to make it a three-hit afternoon for our center fielder. A wild pitch advanced him to second before Ronald’s deep flyout got him to third. And thankfully, Matt immediately looped a cutter into left field to bring Michael home to tie the game at two runs apiece.
Some catcher-on-catcher crime occurred as Drake struck out on a ball that Realmuto challenged for strike three that barely clipped the corner. Mauricio made up for his misplay in left earlier with a single and stolen base. The throw to second got away from Arraez briefly, which might’ve allowed Matt to score, but he held up. Given his speed and grace of a newborn giraffe, I understand it but it ended up being frustrating since his buddy Ozzie was an absolute machine at leaving men on base this afternoon. Love him, but our second baseman added two more to his total of six men LOB with his rally-ending fly out to right.
Dylan Lee entered and ran into trouble immediately. Schwarber hit a leadoff single, Turner grounded into a force out, and Harper doubled to right. Arraez’s pop out to third was a big second out. But Lee allowed a bases-clearing double to Bohm and an RBI single to Stott to make it 5-2 Phillies in the blink of an eye. Mederos was tasked with getting the final out of the eighth. After he allowed De La Cruz to reach with a single, Realmuto continued the hit parade with another single to make it 6-2. In between those hits, we got a brief glimpse of something new: an AJ Smith-Shawver getting loose in the bullpen. Just an interesting preview since he’s not slated to start in the upcoming Cubs series.
Mederos walked Crawford to load the bases for Schwarber. Yaz had to wonder what baseball god he angered to have every ball be seemingly magnetized to the right field grass, because Schwarber’s double and Turner’s single were hit in his direction and tacked on three more runs to make it 9-2 before Mederos was lifted. Happy Braves debut, Bailey Falter. Thank you for getting the last out of this nasty eighth inning.
Now with a substantial lead, newly reinstated reliever Tanner Banks came on to pitch to the Braves and the Phillies took Harper out, subbing in Derek Hill. No chipping away to be found here with a Riley pop out to short, Yaz strikeout, and Kim groundout.
Falter worked around a Bohm single and Stott double, but otherwise kept the score where it was. Thank you again, Mr. Falter.
With one run being so insurmountable for most of the game, the vibes weren’t feeling great for a miraculous 7+ run rally in the bottom of the ninth. With the top of the order due up, Banks stayed in and got Harris to strike out. But an infield single from Ronald and home run #39 on the season for Matt Olson cut into the deficit a bit to make it 9-4. Drake was called out on strikes. Down to our final out, Dubón got quickly down to 0-2 before singling to Turner. But no two-out rally for us: Ozzie’s pop out to Realmuto in foul territory closed the book on this one. But here, enjoy the Matty O homer.
Silver linings: Matt Olson 3-for-5 with a home run and otherworldly first base defense. Michael Harris II, off the heels of last night’s four-hit game, also going 3-for-5. Mauricio Dubón with his own 3-for-4 afternoon. Ray Kerr the revelation. The series win and five game lead in the NL East with twelve left to play.
The Braves will now hit the road for a two-city trip to play the Cubs and Astros. Tomorrow’s series opener at Wrigley starts at 7:40 pm ET.
