Win, win, win. All wins are equal, but some wins are more equal than others.
Ronald Acuna Jr.‘s 3 run homer in the top of the 8th tied the score at 4, and an Ozzie Albies double and an Austin Riley triple put the Braves ahead for good in the 9th.
The Phillies opened the scoring with 2 unearned runs in the 1st. A leadoff walk to Kyle Schwarber and a throwing error by Mauricio Dubon put Tyler Mahle in a 2nd and 3rd, nobody out, hole right off the bat. After striking out Bryce Harper, Luis Arraez hit a sacrifice fly to score Schwarber, and an Alec Bohm double scored Turner. Mahle ended up going 6 innings, charged with no earned runs on 4 hits, a walk, and 3 strikeouts.
Atlanta couldn’t reach zombie Aaron Nola until the 6th, when Mike Yastrzemski walked, Drake Baldwin singled to right, and Acuna brought Yaz in with a sacrifice fly. Things looked pretty dire after Dylan Dodd allowed solo homers to Derek Hill and to Schwarber in the 7th to make it 4 – 1, but it only set the stage for Ronald.
Once again, Yastrzemski and Baldwin started the rally. Mike drew a 1-out walk, and Drake moved him to 3rd again, this time with a double. Acuna followed with a blast 414 feet into the left-centerfield seats, and a moment or 3 which he savored.
Dylan Lee came on in the 8th, and retired lefties Harper and Arraez before inducing a ground out from the right-handed hitting Bohm to send it to the 9th. The Phillies brought in Jhoan Duran for that inning, and Albies greeted him with a 1-out double. Ozzie went to 3rd on a Sean Murphy groundout and walked home on the Riley triple to right-center.
There was one last bit of drama to come. Bryson Stott hit a leadoff single against Raisel Iglesias in the bottom of the 9th, then went to 2nd on a groundout and to 3rd on a Sean Murphy passed ball. With the tying run on 3rd and the infield in, Bryan De La Cruz hit a rocket that Dubon speared for the 2nd out. Iglesias struck out pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa to end it.
When Brad Daugherty was playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers against the bad-boy Detroit Pistons, he said something to the effect of: “However you want to play, we’ll play.” I think of this when I think of Phillies fans, which makes it extra satisfying to me to win on their home turf, and the crueler the better.
Atlanta re-opens a 5-game lead over Philadelphia and clinches at least a split in the series, with days running out. The series concludes Monday at 1:05, Bryce Elder Grant Holmes and Jesus Luzardo scheduled.
Holmes is pitching tomorrow, not Elder.
Thanks, that’s fixed. Rather than admit I vaguely remember hearing that, I choose to blame ESPN.
The second to last paragraph: Chef’s kiss.
Thanks, Rusty.
Thanks Val.
With the win, I think there’s a chance they’ll switch back to Elder. But I’m reasonably certain somebody will pitch against Luzardo.
As of 30 minutes ago, MLB said Holmes and ESPN said Elder. I’ll update if I hear anything.
I used to have to beg my little brother to play baseball with me, and so as incentive I would usually give in and let him bat first. Not being Satchel Paige, it took me a long time to record 3 outs with only a pitcher on the field, so he would bat for a very long time. And invariably after the 3rd out, the little so-and-so would quit before I got to bat, and maybe that is what the Braves will do to the Phillies tomorrow.
Beating any team Don Mattingly is, was, or ever shall be associated with brings me joy.
This was another one of those wins of the year. Hey, maybe this team is pretty good.
We’ve accomplished what was necessary in this series. Now let’s break their hearts.
Amen
With Ronald and Riley heating up, we’re suddenly looking more dangerous again. Now let’s get Olson out of his signature slump.
No one — and I mean NO ONE — had Tyler Mahle as an impactful pickup. And I hate the adjectival form of “impact”. But I use it out of respect. Even if he were to pumpkinize at this point, his performances against the Dodgers and the Phillies in the last weeks re-earn the genius tag for AA, who said at the deadline: “I know on the surface you look at the ERA and say, ‘Well?’ Obviously, we’re trying to dig a little further into some of those things, and we think what he’s done of late, there’s still some room for improvement with some other tweaks.” Anybody with a big enough bank account can sign Skubal. (Respectable 3.03 ERA as a Dodger in 6 starts.) But it takes an aptitude to sign Mahle (Outstanding 1.24 ERA in 6 starts).
I was fully expecting him to slot in as another workable innings-eater in the mold of Holmes or Perez, but no, nobody would’ve predicted him pitching like peak Paul Skenes. Even Paul Skenes isn’t doing that right now. AA likes to make low-risk, high-reward acquisitions, which is a very smart way to run a team with any sort of payroll constraints.
Lotta times when a pitcher is striking out so many hitters as Luzardo, the pitch count is creeping up by the time they get into the 6th inning, but nope. We are very efficiently getting struck out, so his pitch count is only 57. He might pitch a Maddux here.
Holmes is trying to pitch his way into the #3 starter spot in the postseason rotation. He’s been good the last month and a half or so.
The strike zone is huge today.
Fuentes!
Damn. Schwarber knew the slider was a waste pitch and that Didier was going high fastball. The only question was whether he would miss his spot by enough to leave it in his wheelhouse. He did.
Ozzie is hopeless at the plate right now.
Great game A series split equals a Braves win.
If the Braves had lost yesterday, the psychological impact of that Schwarber homer would have been very different for fans.
Just still goes to show that pitching is NOT the problem. Hitting is. I do not care if it’s Luzardo or Schlittler or whoever; the Braves should still score. To lose 1-0 is unconscionable.
Holmes was fantastic.
I was a little surprised RAJ wasn’t running in the 9th, even against a LHP (unless there’s evidence that Luzardo is especially good at holding on runners, bc Realmuto’s CS% is about league average this year). Seems like with two outs, the probability that Ozzie would get an XBH to drive him in was a lot lower than the compound probability that he would steal safely and that Ozzie would get a hit of any kind to drive him in.
I thought he might have been running on the 3 – 2 to Baldwin as well, although I wasn’t expecting Baldwin to take a pitch right down the middle.
Now I hear Elder is injured (knee). Explains a lot. If it were me today, the playoff rotation would be Sale/Mahle/Holmes/AJSS with Perez and Elder going to the bullpen with Lopez and Suarez coming back too and Kerr and Hernendez out.
I figure AJSS might not pitch and if he does Perez and Elder will sure back him up.
Boy, Philly talk radio is entertaining today. Most of the talk about how terrible RAJ is, a—h——, etc.
One host talking about how good it is for the game. All others and all local callers hoping he gets a pitch at his ribs and another at his knuckles.
Personally, I thought it was great. They took offense at the flapping and the euro step, but that’s all normal. The curtain call was unusual. I thought it was hilarious.
What the boo-birds don’t understand is that stuff riles him up. They induced a homer. Thanks!
recapped.