Braves relievers played with fire once too often Tuesday night, getting away with leadoff walks in the eighth and ninth innings. But not the 10th, when Rhys Hoskins’ two-out, two-strike, two-run double off Jose Ramirez broke a tie and sent the Phillies to a 5-1 win at SunTrust Park. Ramirez gave up another walk and another two-run double to Maikel Franco before the inning was through.
After Mike Foltynewicz pitched six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts, Braves relievers issued six walks in four innings, raising their majors-leading total to 46 walks in 63-1/3 innings. No other major league bullpen had more than 36 walks before Tuesday and 23 had fewer than 30 walks.
Arodys Vizcaino issued a four-pitch walk to start the ninth and retired the next three, but Ramirez wasn’t so fortunate after walking Scott Kingery on four pitches to start the 10th. Cesar Hernandez followed with a bunt single and two outs later Hoskins doubled to bring scattered boos and cursing from some particularly vocal fans.
In his fourth start, Foltynewicz pitched a season-high six innings and matched a season-best with eight strikeouts while equaling his season-lows for runs (one) and hits (four) allowed. His pitch count reached 105 in part because of four walks, after he had totaled five walks in 15-1/3 innings over his previous starts.
The Braves staked him to a 1-0 lead on Preston Tucker’s two-out single in the first inning, after Ender Inciarte singled and Freddie Freeman was hit by a pitch. The Phillies tied in the third with a run on two one-out singles around a walk, with Odubel Herrera’s hit driving in the run.
Slumping Inciarte had three hits for the Braves, his second multi-hit game and first since another three-hit home game against the Phillies on March 31. In his 11 games in-between those two, Inciarte was 6-for-45 (.133) with a .376 OPS.
Foltynewicz has allowed two or fewer earned runs in each start this season. He got no decision and is just 1-5 despite a 3.16 ERA in eight starts going back to last season, with the Braves scoring one or no runs while he was in six of those games. Tuesday was the first time he lasted six innings in five starts since Sept. 8.
The Braves’ Ozzie Albies went hitless to end a streak of five consecutive multi-hit games, the longest by a Brave since Adonis Garcia had five late in the 2016 season. The last Brave to have six straight multi-hit games was Andrelton Simmons in 2014. It was just the second hitless game for Albies in the past 10.
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