In the top of the seventh inning, as the Braves made another mistake and Philadelphia scored again, some fans at Truist Park booed. They were tired of seeing a product that did not look like the one they have watched over the last several seasons.
The end result: 8-6, Phillies.
The Braves trail Philadelphia by 10 games in the National League East standings. Atlanta will flush this one and attempt to win the series.
But the Braves are 28-32 over their last 60 games, dating to April 28.
Five observations:
1. The Braves trailed by two runs when Jesse Chavez ran in for the top of the seventh. He gave up a leadoff double.
Then a surprising litany of errors ensued.
Matt Olson botched a routine grounder – though Chavez didn’t run to cover first regardless. (Chavez said he assumed Olson would make the play.)
A couple batters later, Chavez fielded a soft grounder – one that scored a run – and fired an errant throw that went wide of Olson. It allowed another run to score.
“My heel slipped out and that caused my hip to fly open and pull the ball up the line,” Chavez said. “Normally, I’m pretty good at that.”
Right after that, Johan Rojas stole third and Travis d’Arnaud’s throw went past Austin Riley and into left field. Fans booed. Riley was given an error. “For me, I just missed it,” Riley said.
The Braves suddenly trailed by five runs after the three-error inning.
“I feel like that was the inning that kind of bit us,” Riley said.
The errors became even more costly when Marcell Ozuna launched a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth. It gave the Braves life. It brought them within two runs.
It magnified their poor top of the seventh inning.
In their run of six consecutive division titles and a World Series, the Braves have often played crisp, exciting baseball. Fans aren’t used to this. Every team has nights like this, but the Braves picked a poor game for it.
“That inning got away from us,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s just uncharacteristic, because we’re not like that.”
2. Before that mess, the game’s biggest spot probably came in the top of the sixth, when Trea Turner walked up to face Max Fried for the fourth time. At the time, the Braves trailed by a run. The Phillies had a man on base.
Turner, who has had a lot of success against Fried in their careers, had homered off the left-hander in his previous at-bat. As Turner stepped into the batter’s box, Fried sat at 97 pitches. He had already allowed 10 hits – though those had only produced three runs.
Still, Snitker allowed Fried to face Turner again.
And for the second time, Turner launched a two-run shot to left field off Fried, who hung another breaking ball on the second pitch. The Phillies led, 5-2.
“Unfortunately, trying to get the slider down right there, and just left it middle, and he made a good swing,” Fried said.
This decision to keep Fried in the game, though, seemed surprising. Not only had Fried served up a two-run bomb to Turner two innings before, but the lefty had just issued an eight-pitch walk to left-handed hitting Bryson Stott in which he reached two strikes before seeing two pitches fouled off and two more called balls.
Then there’s this: Entering that at-bat, Turner was 16-for-41 versus Fried between the regular season and postseason – including his first three at-bats of the night – with two home runs and four RBIs. And in their prior meeting, Turner deposited a hanging curveball into the left-field seats.
“I just have so much confidence in Max, I think,” Snitker said of leaving in Fried. “That’s probably what overrides it to a fault, maybe. I’ve seen him get out of jams and then last (through) innings like that, just empty the tank and get the job done so much. It’s kind of how much trust I have in him.”
The Braves made it a two-run game when Ozzie Albies homered in the bottom half, but then the game unraveled in the seventh.
Asked if he was surprised Snitker kept him in the game, Fried said: “I’m always expecting to take the ball. It doesn’t matter the situation, what inning it is. I want that ball and I want that opportunity to get the out. I had every ounce of confidence that I was gonna be able to get the job done, and unfortunately tonight I didn’t.”
3. No Bryce Harper. No Kyle Schwarber. No J.T. Realmuto.
Still, the Phillies looked potent.
“You can’t take a pitch off, can’t take an at-bat off against them,” Chavez said. “You gotta stay focused on every single pitch, one through however many you gotta throw that day – because they’re a lineup that can either pump it out of the park or string some hits together.”
Fried allowed five earned runs, his most since giving up six to Arizona in his second start of the season. He matched a career high by giving up 11 hits. (He also did it against Milwaukee in 2019.)
“It was just one of those nights that I had control, but not command – where I was throwing strikes but I just wasn’t commanding the ball to the sides of the plate,” Fried said. “A lot of pitches were leaking back middle instead of missing off the plate. Yeah. You saw a good team have a really good approach. You don’t just stumble into 11 hits.”
4. For Friday’s game, Snitker moved Riley from fifth to third in the order. It paid off almost immediately.
With the Braves trailing by three runs, Riley pulverized a two-run homer to straightaway center off Aaron Nola in the fourth inning.
Riley entered Friday batting .389 over 57 regular-season plate appearances versus Nola. The six homers (including the one Friday) Nola has allowed to Riley are the most long balls he’s given up to any opponent.
“He got me twice. I was able to get him once,” Riley said. “We’ve faced each other a lot. You build your memory bank and so does he. It’s a battle. Because like I said, you’ve seen him so many times, different sequences here and there, and you’re just trying to hit a mistake at that point.”
5. The Braves’ 10-game deficit in the division is their largest since they entered play 10 games behind the Phillies on June 12 and 13.
“The season’s not over,” Riley said. “You can’t feel sorry for yourself. You gotta continue to go out there and put your best foot forward. Come in tomorrow and prepare to try to win a ballgame. That’s all you can do, and I feel like the clubhouse, we’re gonna do that.”
The Braves won’t be watching the out-of-town scoreboard all season. They must simply focus on themselves.
“Yeah, we gotta take each day for what it is,” Chavez said. “We don’t scoreboard-watch. That’s not doing anybody any favors, that’s not doing us any good. If you scoreboard-watch, what’s that gonna do? It’s not gonna give us a hit, it’s not gonna give us an out. But we show up each and every day with what we’ve gotta do, task at hand, understand the M.O. for that day, and attack it.”
Stat to know
3 - The Braves are one of four teams to commit three errors in one inning this season. Washington, Boston and the White Sox have also done it. Friday marked the first time Atlanta had done this since the seventh inning of a game against the Nationals on Sept. 29, 2023. Ironically, Chavez was also on the mound during that frame, and Riley made two of the three errors.
Quotable
“We are a good defensive team. That was a tough inning there. It ended up costing us.” - Riley on that seventh inning
Up next
On Saturday, Spencer Schwellenbach will pitch against the Phillies, who’ll send Ranger Suárez to the mound. First pitch is at 7:15 p.m., and the game will be on FOX.
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