Phillies take two of three in rainy affair with the Atlanta Braves
The Phillies would open up the series on Tuesday night against the Braves, as for some unexpected reason, the Phillies were one of the few baseball teams to not play on Memorial Day. What was not unexpected, though, was the stellar pitching duel we saw as Ranger Suárez and Spencer Strider both dominated. Ranger would tightrope out of danger in moments, including a bases loaded jam in the fifth. He would actually run seven full counts, but left the Braves 0-9 with runners in scoring position. His final line would include six shutout innings with eight strikeouts. This outing got his ERA under three on the season as it now sits at 2.97.The Phillies now have five starters who have made five or more starts who have an ERA of 3.332 or lower (Wheeler, Sánchez, Luzardo, Walker, and Suárez).
Strider would be equally good, but his biggest moment would be one of horror in the first inning as he would accidently drill Bryce Harper in the elbow causing him to crouch down in agony and immediately leave the game. Harper appears to be fine having suffered a bruise, but no damage according to an X-Ray. Despite Strider being good he ended up not being able to make his way through five innings as the Phillies could not muster a ton, but stretched him super thin.
The Phils did ultimately get all they needed in the second inning when Max Kepler hit an RBI double that drove in Alec Bohm to make it 1-0. Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm would put together scoreless seventh and eighth innings and in the bottom half of the eighth after two outs had already been recorded, a quick single, single, walk, walk would bring in an insurance run to make it 2-0.
In the ninth the Phillies would again hand the ball over to Jordan Romano who would bounce back from his appearance over the weekend and look dominant once again. Something we have grown accustomed to. When Romano is on these saves are just automatic and Tuesday was no exception as the Phillies closer got three quick outs as the Phillies took game one of the series.
A rainy Wednesday night would create a double header on Thursday. In game one the Phillies would hand the ball to Cristopher Sánchez who would look to continue his dominant start to the season. Sánchez was again very solid, pitching in and out of trouble throughout the day. He would also get some help in the third inning when Rafael Marchán smashed a ball over the right field wall to make it 2-0. In the fourth the Phillies would threaten again, but be denied by an incredible catch by Michael Harris II in center field.
The Phillies would rally though and add on in the fifth. With runners on first and third a ball drilled to third base by Trea Turner was misplayed enough by Austin Reilly that Marchán was able to sprint home to score and make it 3-0. Sánchez would find himself in some trouble as he could not pitch his way out of in the sixth though as he allowed a run to score, making it 3-1, and after getting two outs in the sixth he was pulled with runners on first and third for Orion Kerkering. The reliever would unfortunately allow a base hit which would ding Sánchez for another run and make the game 3-2 before getting out of the inning. Sánchez final line involved him scattering nine baserunners over 5.2 innings while allowing two runs and striking out five.
The Phillies would add on in the seventh when Schwarber hit yet another absolute tank shot for his 19th of the year and gave the Phillies a 4-2 lead. The Braves would strike right back though as a solo shot from Sean Murphy off of Matt Strahm would make it 4-3. Strahm would then allow a Ronald Acuña Jr. double and despite getting lefty Michael Harris II down to his final strike with two outs in the inning he would allow a trickling double down the right field line to knot the game at 4-4. José Ruiz would prevent another run from scoring by getting the final out.
In the bottom of the eighth the Phillies would rally with some small ball. A single by Nick Castellanos followed by a walk from Max Kepler put runners on first and second with no outs. Johan Rojas would pinch run for Castellanos and Edmundo Sosa would lay down a picture perfect sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. Brandon Marsh would have a great at bat that resulted in a walk that loaded the bases. With a 2-2 count and nowhere to go, Braves pitcher Daysbel Hernández would hit Marchán with a breaking ball to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead.
The Braves would challenge, but unsuccessfully get the call overturned. The Phillies would fail to add on anymore and would hand the ball to Jordan Romano. Ozzie Albies would reach on a walk before being promptly thrown out stealing second. Romano would then strike out Reilly before walking Ozuna. After a Matt Olson base hit there were runners on first and third. Sean Murphy would hit a terrifying deep fly ball to left that went foul before walking to load the bases. That would bring Eli White to the plate who would promptly get called out looking as the Phillies took a tight and exciting game 5-4 to secure the series.
The second game of the doubleheader was a complete dud. Wheeler had a rare bad start where he allowed six runs over six innings and the Phillies could not touch Chris Sale as the Braves lefty crossed over 2,500Ks for his career on Thursday night. Wheeler was uncharacteristically struggling to find the plate as he walked four batters in this outing. The Phillies handling business in the first two games ended up mattering a ton as by the time the Phillies were finally able to scrape across their first two runs of the game in the eighth inning that was only able to make the game 8-2. By the time the final pitch was thrown the Phillies would lose the game 9-3.
While ending on a sour note the Phillies took two out of three from their division rival in an exciting series that, at least for the first two games, kind of felt like a playoff series. After nearly two weeks of beating up on bad teams it was nice to see them look equally good against a good baseball team in the Atlanta Braves. Winning game one by shutting out a good offense 2-0 and winning the second game in a close back and forth are quality wins that are always valuable to see the group pull out. They are now 36-20 on the season which is good enough for the best record in the National League and gives them a two game lead over the New York Mets. The Phillies get another fun series this weekend as Rhys Hoskins and the starting to heat up Milwaukee Brewers come to town for a three gamer at Citizens Bank Park.