Phillies Drop Critical Series Opener To Braves 5-2

The Phillies entered Citizens Bank Park Friday night with a solid amount of momentum. While they had lost the final game of their West Coast trip 1-0 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia won that series and were coming off a sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, two series that helped lead them to a 21-7 record in August.

That momentum was needed as the Phillies began a series against their division rivals, the Atlanta Braves, a series of clear playoff caliber and implications. A four-game set with the Phillies standing four games behind Atlanta and a major opportunity to completely change the fabric of the division race.

Unfortunately, this golden opportunity went south Friday night. The Braves had the Phillies number in every aspect of the game, leading to the sixth loss in the last seven games against the Braves this season. Now standing five games behind Atlanta for the division lead, the Phillies are in must-win mode for the final three games of the series to make any progress in the division.

Entering the game, it was clear it was going to be difficult. The Phillies were facing Atlanta’s ace and arguably the best left-handed pitcher in baseball, Chris Sale. However, the Phillies were also sending their lefty ace to stake a claim as the best lefty in baseball, Cristopher Sanchez. The storyline between these two elite starters Friday night was equal, vulnerable pitchers who showed their ace-ability by battling.

Neither pitcher had their best stuff; both offenses weren’t struggling in a major way to get runners on base, and by the end of each pitcher’s night, it was the seventh inning, with Atlanta leading 3- 2 with momentum.

What led Atlanta to that lead was a critical second inning. Sanchez started the frame by walking Lane Thomas, and Mauricio Dubon added a single to put two men on with no outs. After a Sean Murphy strikeout, Austin Riley gave Atlanta the early lead with a single to right field that was misplayed by Bruce Harper, allowing Lane Thomas to score.

Atlanta tacked on two more runs thanks to a Ha-Seong Kim RBI groundout and Ronald Acuna Jr.’s single to center, increasing their lead to three.

Sanchez had to battle all night as the Braves did not make getting outs easy. They took advantage of mistakes and made Sanchez work on every pitch, but the second inning was simply the inning Atlanta was able to strike. They added two more runs on a Mauricio Dubón home run in the eighth, but by that point the game was already all Atlanta.

That second ended up being the difference as the Phillies offense came out and delivered a second consecutive dud. Outside of Alec Bohm, the offense could not consistently produce any offense all night.

Bohm took advantage of the pressure and opportunities, smoking an RBI double in the bottom half of the second that allegedly showed life after the Braves’ three-run top half of the second, and a solo blast that sneaked over the left field wall in the fourth to make it a one-run game.

The cause of the offensive issues is very simple to identify: they did not play the type of baseball that allowed them to be so successful in August.

Their August success was rooted in striking out less, walking more, and doing a better job of scoring men when they got on base. However, in the final game of the Arizona series and now Friday night against the Braves, that hasn’t been the case.

The lineup struggled with 10 strikeouts on the night and went 0-for-6 with Runners In Scoring Position. Performances like that against a great team like Atlanta tend to result in losses, and for the second game in a row, Philadelphia were losers.

That’s the story with Friday night’s loss. The issues that the Phillies dealt with have reared their ugly head before, and against the top teams in the league it’s going to be punished. Come October, the Phillies won’t be facing the bottom feeders of the league or the fourth-best starters in a rotation. The best of the best is who will be opposing the Phillies, and issues get taken advantage of.

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