PHILADELPHIA -- The Braves’ starting pitching was poor for the second consecutive game in their National League Division Series against the Phillies.
Philadelphia battered playoff first-timer Bryce Elder for six earned runs in 2 2/3 innings in Game 3 on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park. The hammer was Bryce Harper’s three-run homer off a hanging slider that gave the Phillies a 4-1 lead.
The Phillies would go on to win 10-2. The Braves trail 2-1 in the best-of-five series. Game 4 will be Thursday at Citizens Bank Park.
“...It’s playoff baseball, you miss a pitch and you’re down 2-1 in the series,” Elder said.
In Monday’s Game 2, the Phillies scored three earned runs in four innings against Max Fried. But the Braves rallied with five runs over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to win 5-4 and even the series.
There would be no rally on Wednesday.
Elder, named the starter earlier in the day, was mostly sharp in the first two innings. He retired the six batters he faced, striking out three.
“After going into the third inning, I thought maybe he’d go five,” Snitker said. “He looked like his old self. His stuff was really good. And, no, it just kind of went quick.”
Despite the strikeouts, Elder bounced several pitches into the dirt. He had the opposite problem in the third -- he kept hanging his pitches.
Nick Castellanos hit a sinker that was belt-high and inside over the left field wall to tie the game at 1. Elder said he made a good pitch but Castellanos also made a good swing.
“I don’t know what Castellanos is seeing right now off me, but it’s ... he’s just seeing beach balls,” Elder said.
Brandon Marsh followed with a single off a slider down the middle. Two outs later, Trea Turner hit an infield single to deep short to put runners on first and third and bring Harper to the plate.
Snitker said he didn’t bring in a lefthandeder to face Harper because he only had two lefties in the bullpen and he reasoned that Harper was going to come up at least two more times. He also briefly thought about having Elder walk Harper.
“I was just hoping maybe that we’d make a pitch on him and he’d pop a ball up or if we walked him unintentionally, that would have been fine,” Snitker said.
With the Phillies’ supporters roaring, Harper fouled off the first pitch. Elder followed by throwing a sinker low and outside for a ball, and a slider into the dirt to run the count to 2-1. Elder’s next pitch was hit over the Toyota sign that hangs from the second level near the right-field foul pole.
Elder said he didn’t intend to throw the pitch in the strike zone. He said it was the only bad pitch he thought he made.
“It was fun until the third,” Elder said.
Facing a season-ending game in Philadelphia for the second consecutive year, the Braves will turn to Spencer Strider on Thursday. Strider gave the Braves a quality start in Game 1, striking out eight in seven innings.
But the Braves lost 3-0, and a loss Thursday will bring a shocking end to a record-setting regular season. If the Braves win, Fried will go in Game 5.
“I feel pretty good with the next two starters that we got,” Snitker said of Strider and Fried,
Fueled by energy of the ongoing rout, Phillies fans chanted “We want Strider” during the eighth inning of Wednesday’s game.
Harper wasn’t as enthusiastic as they were.
“He’s one of the best in baseball; possible Cy Young this year,” Harper said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever said that, about a pitcher, or anything like that. That’s what makes our fans the best in the world and we’re we’re out there and play our game and understand that we just got to play our game and don’t worry about anything else.”
