Bullpen Blows Vital Lead as Phillies Fall to Braves 5-4

The Phillies entered this series against the Atlanta Braves in dire need of a series win. Not because they needed to rebound off a bad stretch, the Phillies entered very hot, winning six of their last seven games entering the series and finishing August with a 21-7 record, one of the best in the league for the month.

The reason the Phillies were in dire need of success this series was that up to that point they hadn’t been successful against Atlanta, holding a rough 1-5 record against Atlanta. Add the fact that the success, or potential lack thereof, could make or break the division race, with Philadelphia only four games back heading into a four-game set.

Two games into Sunday afternoon, the Phillies and Braves entered the game split in the series. Atlanta outmatched Philly on all fronts Friday en route to a 5-2 victory, and the Phils battled back and took Saturday night’s matchup 4-2.

Through seven innings, it looked like the Phils were gonna take control and shrink the division lead to three games. Aaron Nola continued his August success, and the offense put four runs on. However, the bullpen came in and struggled, losing the lead and the game in the final two innings.

Aaron Nola had a phenomenal start. Coming off a month of August where he rewound the clock and threw to a 2.65 ERA in 34 innings pitched. He was efficient; his pitches were good, and he simply pitched well.

It began hot, not allowing a baserunner until a Ronald Acuna Jr. double in the fourth, before quickly getting out of the inning unscathed. He slowed down in the sixth and seventh, no doubt the two most grueling innings for Nola on the day.

In the sixth, he allowed a run on an Acuna sac fly, but was able to limit the damage to that one run. Then in the seventh allowed another double that put the tying run on, before locking in and getting the final two outs of the inning, the third being a Sean Murphy strikeout, Nola’s fifth and final of the day.

That limiting in those two innings ended up being valuable as the Phillies entered the bottom half of the seventh with a one-run lead and some gained momentum because of the Nola strikeout to end the top half. The lineup took advantage of that by adding two runs on the board through a Derek Hill pinch-hit leadoff solo blast, added on by Kyle Schwarber‘s league-leading homer with two outs in the inning to take the lead.

Unfortunately for the Phillies, that’s where the game took a turn for the worse. Manager Don Mattingly inserted rookie reliever Alex McFarlane to take on a high-leverage setup role in the eighth, an opportunity McFarlane has certainly earned. Atlanta noticed McFarlane had yet to deal with a welcome-to-the-MLB moment, and decided to give it to him. Three straight hits, a Mike Yamstrzemski single, a Drake Baldwin double, and an Acuna game-tying three-run blast turned an exciting opportunity into a game restarting late with momentum on the Braves side.

It was McFarlane’s first game since debuting earlier this season allowing more than one run, shooting his ERA from a spectacular 0.79 to a humble 3.09.

The bullpen woes continued as Jhoan Duran came into the game in a non-save opportunity, with the hope being to get the team to extras where the offense could win it. Not unreasonable, as the offense had been performing well throughout the game, with six hits heading into the bottom half of the ninth.

Duran faltered, giving up a leadoff hit to Ozzie Albies, who took advantage of a slow-developing throw from Bryce Harper to leg out a shallow hit double. The matter was made worse as Duran gave up the winning run on an Austin Riley triple. For the season, four of the ten earned runs allowed by Duran have come in non-save situations.

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