Brandon Workman’s first pitch for his new team turned a 4-3 lead into a 5-4 deficit. An end later, his 26th pitch, a hanging curve ball, was smashed by Adam Duvall in center-left to give the Braves a 6-5 walkoff victory. Although the Phillies had come together to ban the game in the ninth after Workman’s first misstep, it was all for nothing, as the Braves beat them again and took the series.
For a long time, this game was all about Phillies, thanks to Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler. In the first inning, after Rhys Hoskins took a one-time walk, Harper destroyed the first pitch he saw of Robbie Erlin, a sinker at the top of the zone, deep in the evening of Atlanta. The ball traveled an estimated 470 feet, the second-longest homer hit to date this year, the second-longest of Harper’s career, and the sixth-longest given by the Braves in Statcast time. (Amusing were numbers three to six on that last list at the moment all courtesy of Giancarlo Stanton.)
After that, Wheeler took over quite a bit. After collecting just 12 strikes in the past four starts of the year, Wheeler knocked out eight Braves during his seven innings of work. He issued zero walks, though he eventually hit on one batter. (More on that later.) In short, after Harper’s homer, not much of everything happened for a while. Wheeler allowed his first hit with one out in the second, an infield single for Matt Adams. Erlin hit a bit of a mess in the third by leaving a single to Hoskins and running Harper, but came out with a strikeout and an infield pop. A Freddie Freeman leadoff single went nowhere in the bottom of the fourth.
Erlin ended his outing with four innings of a two-run ball, allowing for two hits, two walks, and of course the massive Harper explosion. He struck out three. The first eight balls in the game against him also went into the air, but he ended his away game with back-to-back ground games.
Darren O’Day rose to the top of the fifth, and the Phillies extended their lead thanks to some defensive miscues from Atlanta. With two outs, Hoskins hit a routine grounder to third that Austin Riley played wrong by bringing his hands too early. That was it for O’Day, when AJ Minter came out of the bull to Harper. Unfortunately, the combination of Hoskins’ second steal, after third at a wild pitch, a walk to Harper, and JT Realmuto through the inside field beat the Phillies 3-0. Minter knocked out Phil Gosselin to end the inning, but Wheeler just rolled over the Braves again and shot them in the bottom of the fifth to Riley’s leadoff single.
Grant Dayton came on and threw a perfect top of the sixth, but Wheeler was still cruising, taking back the top of the Atlanta order for a third time at 14 pitches. With one in the seventh, Andrew McCutchen, who had hit two easy flyballs and then homerated O’Day in the fifth, Dayton connected for a solo shot in the left-hand corner. At that point, it was 4-0 Phillies, and with Wheeler in command so far, things looked pretty grim for the home team.
But, not to worry. After plundering Wheeler Duvall to lead the seventh, Riley made up for his previous abuse in an enormous way, bringing the Braves to the board:
Not quite 470 feet (426), but two runs are two runs, and the deficit was cut in half. Tyler Flowers connected for a two-out double later in the frame, bringing up Ender Inciarte as the band, but Wheeler knocked out the latter to end his night.
The Phillies had a busy but ultimately fruitful top of the eighth against Shane Greene. Realmuto hit a single from Dansby Swanson’s glove to start the inning, but was later ousted on a steal attempt of second because he was currently out of the bag. (Thanks, replay review.) Greene then immediately put out a two-out walk, but got a pop-out from Didi Gregorius to keep it a 4-2 game. What, now that the Philadelphia Relief Corps had entered the comparison, was not a score that lasted a particularly long time.
Hector Neris, the nominee closer to the Phillies prior to her armpits with ball-bolstering yesterday, came on and immediately melted down. At his first pitch, Swanson singled on a liner through the shift. Freddie Freeman then ran on four pitches that were nowhere near (and two strikes). That brought up Marcell Ozuna, who fell behind 1-2 before shooting a sinker on the knees in right field, scoring Swanson and putting Freeman to third. Similarly, all that Wheeler success was almost wiped out. Neris got Duvall to fly left to right, keeping the game 4-3 for the moment, but then gave way to the highest profile of Philadelphia’s bullpen moves to date – Brandon Workman, he of the 2.1 fWAR past years with the Red Sox.
Let’s just say, well, that movement did net work out, thanks to Matt Adams:
Adams start in place of Cristian Pache, who forced Ozuna to left field, was a bit of a headscratcher when the lineup was released. Well, Time and Brian Snitker are making fun of us all, apparently. (Alternative: men plan, Snitker laughs.) In any case, that enormous blow turned a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 lead with room for much more, even if it only had a .270 hit chance. (Thanks Adam Haseley and Adams playing for the field!)
The Braves, though, knew no more. Riley hit the next pitch to third, allowing Segura to cut pinch runner Charlie Culberson on the plate. Workman knocked out Johan Camargo to send the game to ninth with his team now trailing by one.
That, it was up to Mark Melancon to keep the sudden one-lead lead. He did not, with shadows of 2019. Luke Jackson-type releases. Pinch hitter Neil Walker started the inning with a bouncer just past a diving Riley for a leadoff single (.190 hit chance). Roman Quinn followed with a successful bunt, in fact he actually defeated it. After Melancon got McCutchen to fly out for the first time, he plundered Hoskins, unloading the bags with only one. After that, Harper was of course.
On the plus side, Melancon Harper was given a chance to change things around. Cristian Pache was given a chance to change things around. On the downside, Walker could barely hit Pache’s throws, and scored the equalizer. Melancon jumped back to knock out Realmuto, but the Braves would have to run it now if they win this game.
Run it off, they did, but the bottom of the ninth was strange for that time. No simple clean game-ending homers here. With Workman still in the game, Flowers hit a leadoff single, and was replaced as a pinch runner by Alex Jackson (?). Inciarte tried to cross Flowers, but missed the field for the first time, later took a strike to make it 2-2, and struck out on a curve in the dirt. Not to worry: Swanson singled down the line from the left field, sent Jackson to third and stepped to second on the scene. The Phillies did the obvious thing, Freeman stepped in deliberately to bring up Pache, but Brian Snitker smelled blood in the water. He pinch-hit Travis d’Arnaud for the rookie.
The game did not end there immediately, though it could have. d’Arnaud grounded shortly after, which turned into a force at home. In a surreal, perfect for 2020 way, the umpire of the home plate ruled that Realmuto’s foot came off the plate when he got the yard, and that Jackson was therefore safely home as a winning run. In some sort of bizarre alternate universe, playing ends cannot be challenged, and the Braves run away from time to time. That, however, is not this universe – a brief replay confirmation confirmed that no, Realmuto made no colossal mistake, and Jackson was rightly ruled that he should be forced home. That, however, was only a temporary reissue for the Phillies. With two outs and a 2-1 count, Adam Duvall ended the match:
The world may be figuratively (and literally, staying safe outside, TCers in California and the Mountain West) on fire, but Braves baseball is still pretty fun, and last night was a great example of why. They focused on the Philadelphia Bullpen again, improving on the season to 15-11. They’re going for the sweep at Sunday Night Baseball tomorrow.
