As bad as things have been for the Braves lately, they could at least say they’re still in first place. Or on the road. Or matching up against an unfamiliar American League team. Or facing an unfamiliar starting pitcher.
This time it’s none of the above.
A 10-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday completed a series sweep to a team that was in last place in the National League East, at least when this series started Monday night. Now the Phillies are ahead of the New York Mets in the standings, and the Braves are staring up at the Washington Nationals, a team they’ll face for the next four days at Nationals Park.
“It was a tough series, no doubt about it,” said Ryan Doumit, who hit a home run, collected three hits and drove in three runs in a rare start in left field. “But we seem to play well against the Nationals. We’re going to go into D.C. with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. This wasn’t a good series, and it left a bad taste in our mouth, but we’re going to go take it out on the Nationals.”
The last time the Braves played the Nationals, they were just warming up to a 17-9 April. They had won five of six from the Nationals in a matter of 10 days. Now the Braves are in full-out scuffle. They’re 19-26 since April, and they’ve lost six of their past eight games and 14 of their past 22.
Even a lineup-shakeup to move Tommy La Stella to the leadoff spot Wednesday, and some actual offense — after scoring three runs in the first 22 innings of this series — couldn’t turn the tide against the Phillies.
The Braves broke out with a four-run first inning behind an Evan Gattis two-run homer, and it wasn’t nearly enough for Aaron Harang. Harang gave up 13 hits and a nine runs in five innings, matching his career-high in runs allowed for the second time this year.
Amazingly, Harang was one pitch away from preventing his last five runs — all of which came with two outs in the second inning — but he couldn’t put the Phillies away.
Harang was charged with two bases-loaded walks and threw two wild pitches. He gave up three hits to Ryan Howard, two of which drove in runs, to give Howard six RBIs total (along with two home runs) in this three-game series against the Braves.
“I definitely didn’t feel as sharp as I had been in the past,” said Harang, who would be 5-4 with a 2.37 ERA if not for nine-run outings against the Marlins on April 30 and the Phillies on Wednesday. “They seemed to be all over my breaking pitches, too. I was just trying to hang in there and hope to get our bullpen a little bit of a rest.”
Harang needed 30 pitches in each of the first two innings, and if not for a weary bullpen that covered two 13-inning games in the past four days, he probably wouldn’t have been pitching in the fifth. As it was, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was hoping to get every one of the 115 pitches he threw.
“I thought he battled under the circumstances,” Gonzalez said. “He knew what’s going on in the bullpen. He’s paid attention the last three days and he gave us everything he had, really.”
Gattis returned to the Braves’ lineup after a rest day and picked up right where he left off. He hit a two-run home run on his first swing to extend his career-best hitting streak to 17 games. It’s also the longest present hitting streak in the majors. Gattis connected on a 1-0 slider from Roberto Hernandez, formerly known as Fausto Carmona, into the left-center field seats to give Harang a clean slate 2-2.
Doumit gave Harang a 4-2 lead with a two-run single to center, but it disappeared shortly thereafter.
Harang was a strike away from getting out of both the first and second innings, largely unscathed. He would have been down only 1-0 in the first inning, if he had retired Marlon Byrd with two outs and two strikes on him with the bases loaded. Instead he walked him and was doing well to get out of the inning down 2-0.
Harang had two outs and two strikes on Wil Nieves in the second inning, and gave up a double, that set off a chain reaction of six consecutive hits. John Mayberry capped it off with a two-run single to put the Phillies up 9-5. It was the most runs Harang had allowed since a 9-3 loss in Miami on April 30, where he was suspected the Marlins were stealing signs.
