The Atlanta Braves could not find fault in a 5-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies Saturday night.
Kyle Wright made his third start of the season and turned in his best performance of the season, though one bad inning came back to haunt him. Wright and Jake Arrieta pass zeros through the first three innings. Philadelphia came on board first in the fourth when Wright left a breaking ball across the middle of the plate to JT Realmuto who sent it out to the left for his fourth homer of the season to make it 1-0.
Didi Gregorius followed with a first pitch single. Wright worked the count to 2-2 against Jean Segura when Gregorius broke for second second. The field turned out to be in the zone, but was called a ball. Travis d’Arnaud’s throw after second jump past Adeiny Hechavarria and Gregorius stepped all the way to third. Segura ran on the next field to put rounds at the corners with no one out. That would put Jay Bruce on the plate jumping over Wright’s first field for a three-run bomb to extend the lead to 4-0.
Wright would recover from it and retire the next three hitters in order, but would now look for a manly deficit.
Atlanta would have their best scoring chance in the sixth. Hechavarria led with a single against Arrieta. Ronald Acuña Jr. then worked a walk to put runners in first and second place with no one out. Dansby Swanson jumped all over the first field, which he saw from Arrieta, but equaled it to Gregorius in the short term, who went to second place after the second game. Freddie Freeman then swung left to Bruce to the left to finish the inning.
Wright threw in the sixth for a two-out double by Bruce and would go out after allowing six hits and four runs over six innings. He struck out three and ran three. While some will look to that line and not be impressed, this was a much better performance by Wright who threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of 26 batters.
The Phillies doubled on another run in the eighth Bryce Harper and then came round to score on a single from Gregorius.
The Braves finished the game with just four hits, two of which belonged to Hechavarria. The first four hitters from Atlanta combined to go 0-for-15 with a walk and seven strikeouts.
The series will continue on Sunday with a doubleheader with two seven innings games. The Braves have yet to announce their starter for Game 1, but will go with Max Fried in Game 2.
