As the Braves looked for another series victory, they faced Zack Wheeler, uncertain of exactly what to expect from the Phillies’ ace coming back from injury, while Bryce Elder started for Atlanta.
Bryce allowed some hard contact for two groundouts in the first, before going up 0-2 on Harper and then seemingly overthrowing to try to get Harper out and ultimately walking him. That turned costly as Yastrzemski failed to complete a diving catch on an Adolis Garcia triple that brought Harper home but might have left Harper on second or third if Yaz had simply moved to cut the ball off. The starting pitchers were able to keep things quiet through the third inning, but the Phillies struck again in the fourth, as a Brandon Marsh single came home for a run off a Bryson Stott .030 xBA triple that hit the right field wall just above Ronald Acuna’s grasp and bounced way back off the wall. Each run that Elder had given up to this point was fairly unlucky, but he had been allowing hard contact all night, so not necessarily undeserved.
Advertisement
Wheeler showed his first real weakness in the fourth, with two walks to Baldwin and Olson to start the inning, challenging a clear ball on the fourth pitch to Olson seemingly out of frustration as well. Ozzie grounded a ball softly up the middle to a spot that drew a diving stop from Turner, but Turner’s flip to second for a potential force out was wide, loading the bases with no outs ahead of the scalding hot Michael Harris II. Mike just missed a grand slam, but brought home Baldwin with a sac fly to the warning track, leaving runners on the corners with one out for Austin Riley. Austin came through huge with a double for his 500th career RBI, bringing home Olson and landing Ozzie on third. Dubon struck out for the second out, unsuccessfully challenging the third strike call, and Yastrzemski struck out looking as well to end the inning with a 2-2 tie, a bit of a disappointing outcome from runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, but better than a 2-0 deficit. The Phils got one run back in the fifth on three singles, the third of which was a soft ground ball single off the bat of Bryce Harper.
Now facing a lefty out of the Philadelphia bullpen, Matt Olson hit a nice opposite field double that almost turned into an out at second as Marsh got a very helpful bounce off the wall and made a nice throw. Right-handed Ozzie hit a double of his own on a line drive to the left field gap to score Olson and tie the game with no outs. Michael Harris dropped a ball over Trea Turner’s head and Ozzie got a great read on it to score from second, giving Atlanta their first lead of the evening. That was all the Braves got from the inning, but it was enough to give the formidable Atlanta bullpen a lead to work with.
Walt Weiss opted to keep Elder in the game facing the bottom of Philly’s order for the third time and he repayed that faith with a strikeout of Crawford and a soft lineout from Marchan before the lineup turned back over to Turner. Bryce got a chopper to first from Turner for the third out and ended his outing with a solid 7.0 innings of 3 run ball with only 2 strikeouts, but also only 1 walk and 0 homers.
Advertisement
Ronald drew a one out walk in the seventh, hoping to add an insurance run and forcing the Phillies to go to Jose Alvarado out of the bullpen. Ronald stole second on Alvarado’s first pitch, giving Baldwin and Olson a chance to bring him home from second with a single. Unfortunately, Alvarado caught Ronald leaning to third, which has been a disturbing trend for Atlanta on the basepaths this season.
Dylan Lee started the eighth and Kyle Schwarber hit a line drive to right center that should have been an easy out, but Eli White took a hard break to it as he misread the ball and tried to stop quickly but slipped on the grass wetted by a late drizzle, turning an out into a triple. Bryce Harper hit a sac fly to bring the run home. Lee was unphased by his misfortune and struck out the final two batters to end the inning. Alvarado came out again in the eighth and got Matt Olson out to start the frame but allowed a double to right-handed Ozzie with one out after a obligatory weird interlude to replace the rosin bags. Alvarado got Michael Harris out and Rob Thomson pulled him for the righty Brad Keller to face Austin Riley with two outs. Austin chopped out the Bryce Harper to end the inning, maintaining the 4-4 tie. Tyler Kinley got the ninth and gave the offense a chance to walk the game off with a scoreless frame, working around a 2-out single.
The bottom of the Braves’ lineup was unable to get anything going in the ninth and sent the game to extra innings with each team back to the top of their order. Tyler Kinley stayed in the game to face the righty Turner and walked him before making way for the lefty Jose Suarez to face Harper and Schwarber. While there is the platoon advantage, Jose Suarez in a tie game in extra innings is a scary prospect for Atlanta, especially with runners on and facing hitters in that caliber. While he didn’t allow a homer, Suarez walked Schwarber and allowed a two-run single to Harper. The two remaining runners were able to advance on a wild pitch and Brandon Marsh singled them home, giving the Phillies a commanding 8-4 lead. Suarez then allowed a line drive single to Bryson Stott. To his credit, Suarez did technically strike out the side, as his strikeouts have been up dramatically this season, but walks have been a recurring issue this season. The Phillies brought in Kyle Backhus to try and close out the game and with it their 10-game losing streak. Baldwin brought home a runner with a one out single to cut the Philly lead to 3. Matt Olson blooped in a single bringing the tying run to the plate, at least giving Atlanta a chance to come back from the huge lead that Philly accumulated in the 10th. Right-handed Ozzie grounded out and Philly took the out at second, but the tying run was still at the plate, now with two outs but in the form of Michael Harris II. Mike grounded out and the series was even at 1-1.
Join us tomorrow at 1:35 PM ET, as the Braves and Phillies decide the series with Chris Sale on the mound against Aaron Nola.
Read the full article here
