It’s not quite true that all’s well that ends well, given that the good ending to this series in no way erases the fact that the Phillies lost said series. But it is true that batting around against a hated rival is really, really fun.
Trea Turner got the Phillies’ first hit on a little bloop, coming against Atlanta starter Grant Holmes; it didn’t look great coming off the bat, but it landed safely— Atlanta, being home to the country’s busiest airport, is used to safe landings. But not all landings are
so smooth: Bryce Harper lined a ball to left, and that one did look good off the bat, but Maurcio Dubón dove to snatch it away. Another dive, this one from Matt Olson, took a hit away from Luis Arraez, and the Phillies ended the first without a run.
The Braves got started fast against Andrew Painter with a single from Michael Harris II and another from Olson; the latter of the two put his ball right up the middle. A sacrifice fly from Drake Baldwin put the Braves on the scoreboard first. The Phillies would not take long to respond: Bryson Stott singled, and while he was erased on a ground ball from Brandon Marsh, the Braves failed to turn the double play which would have ended the inning. This would become highly relevant just one batter later, as J.T. Realmuto saw a high four-seamer and decided to send it even higher, watching it arc and sail into the left-center seats for a 2-1 lead.
They’d keep working in the third, with both Kyle Schwarber and Turner walking to begin the frame, but it came to naught on a lineup and double play. That’s some misfortune, and the Phillies would encounter more of it in the bottom fourth, as the Braves used a combination of walks and a single to load the bases with just one away and Ronald Acuña Jr. at the plate. But luck turns, eventually, and Acuña flew out, shallowly enough that no run could score; a great grab from Arraez on an Olson grounder ended the inning.
More good fortune for the Phillies, and of their own making: Realmuto doubled when a ball bounced away from Dubón in left , and Justin Crawford singled to put runners on the corners with none away, ending Holmes’ day. But luck turns, sometimes sooner than you’d like. Ray Kerr came in from the bullpen to get the platoon advantage against Schwarber, successfully inducing a double play (3-4); a Turner strikeout ended the inning.
Alex McFarlane replaced Painter to start the sixth (final line: 5 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K), and worked a 1-2-3 inning. José Alvarado took the seventh, allowing a single to Harris II, then advanced him on a wild pitch. Hey scored an an Olson single, and the game was tied. And then it got worse: another single, then a misaimed ball on an attempt to put out a steal hit Arraez in the hand. Fortunately, Alvarado ended the inning before the Braves could take the lead, but the mood was decidedly sour.
The Phillies got Dylan Lee in the eighth, and Schwarber started things off with a single to right. He was soon sent back to the dugout on a force out, but the Phillies kept rolling, with Harper sending a Lee fastball right into the gap between the range of Olson at first and Mike Yastrzemski in right for a double. An Arraez pop out shifted the mood back to tension. Alec Bohm came to the plate in a tone-setting moment: an out would give the Phillies, already stinging from a seasons’ worth of painful losses to Atlanta, a sense of doom. But Bohm saw to it that fatalism would not rule the day: he smacked a pitch into center-right to clear the bases, giving the Phillies a 4-2 lead. He scored himself when Stott hit a single into shallow center. The skies cleared, the clouds vacated their positions. Optimism emerged like the first shoots of spring (or, for a more seasonally appropriate simile, like the first pumpkin spice lattes of fall).
The Braves pulled Lee; his replacement, Victor Mederos, fared no better, as Realmuto knocked one into center for another run. It was then, to quote a baseball great, Deja vu all over again as Schwarber came back to the plate, and got another single to right, scoring two more. Turner got a second chance too, and this time made good, sending one through the right-side gap for a RBI. 9-2, good guys. Mederos departed, and former Phillie Bailey Falter was tasked with getting the third out, doing so on a strikeout of Harper.
The recently returned Tanner Banks took the eighth, and showed no rust, in the eighth, putting three Braves down in order. He showed some in the ninth, allowing a two-run homer to Olson. On another day, in a tighter game, this would have produced enormous dread, despair, dismay. Today it produced no more than mild irritation. There was a bit more trouble, but nothing to write home about. The game concluded soon after.
The Phillies are 83-67. They’ll start a series in Washington on Tuesday at 6:45.
