The Atlanta Braves took down the Philadelphia Phillies 5-2 in the series opener at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, extending Atlanta’s NL East lead to five games.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The top of the 8th inning. Atlanta was clinging to a narrow 3-2 lead, but hadn’t scored since a three-run second inning, which was aided by (what else) a Phillies defensive error.
Matt Olson opened the inning against sweeper specialist Orion Kerkering, but the righty refused to throw Oly any breaking balls. Olson finally connected on a 1-2 fastball, but lined it out to left at 102.3 mph for the first out. Mike Yastrzemski, pinch-hitting for Lane Thomas, then drew a six-pitch walk for the Braves, refusing to chase any of Kerkering’s fastballs or splitters away.
And that brought Mauricio Dubòn to the plate, so the gamesmanship began.
Kerkering threw a sweeper inside, just barely catching the edge of the zone for the first strike. Dubón, looking surprised by the location, bailed out of the box.
He talked to radio broadcaster Ben Ingram about this somewhat recently, as he did it during the Dodgers series, too. He’s (supposedly, according to Ingram) trying to bait the pitcher into thinking that he’s not seeing that pitch well, to get him to throw it again.
Well, Philly obliged. Catcher JT Realmuto called the sweeper away, although Kerkering left it over the heart of the plate and Dubón sprung his trap.
The two-run homer, Dubón’s first since July 11th (44 games ago), pushed Atlanta’s lead to 5-2 and gave the Braves a lot more breathing room against the league’s premier one-run game merchants; Philadelphia’s 24-12 record in one-run games is the best in MLB this season.
Today’s Player of the Game
Once again, it’s Chris Sale, who beat Dubón by a narrow 2% margin, 37% to 35%.
Sale finished six innings tonight, allowing just two runs on six hits; both runs scored thanks to Alec Bohm, who hit a solo homer and had an RBI double.
Sale struck out seven against just one walk, which was impressive considering Sale did not have his best stuff in this one. The lefty picked up just twelve whiffs on 49 swings (24%), along with a 30% CSW that’s right in line with league average, but not remotely where Sale normally sits in his outings.
Additionally, Sale also got hit hard - of his 16 batted balls, ten were hard-hit and his average exit velocity allowed was an unusually high 91.7 mph. Philly had seven balls hit over 100 mph, and all but one fell for a hit, thanks to five of them being in the air.
But again, one run, because that’s what Aces do.
Sale worked out of some jams, getting a clutch double play in the 2nd, a key popout of Bryce Harper in the 5th to strand a runner in scoring position, and two strikeouts to erase a leadoff double in the 6th. Something that helps prevent Philadelphia scoring opportunities for Sale was his handling the top of the order, as he held the combo of Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, and Bryce Harper to one hit (a Turner double in the 5th) with three strikeouts.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The three bullpen innings from Atlanta in this one, for good reason.
Didier Fuentes was the first man out of the pen, facing the eight, nine, and one hitters in the 8th inning, and retiring the side in order on just eight pitches. Partly owing to that efficiency, Atlanta sent Fuentes back out for the 8th, although Dylan Dodd (not Dylan Lee) was up and hot in the pen.
All Fuentes did was retire the side in order again, this time on just thirteen pitches, eight of them coming on a hard-hit lineout of Bryce Harper.
And after the Dubón home run pushed the lead to three but left it still a save situation, Atlanta went to Raisel Iglesias for the 9th. Iggy struck out two in the 9th, blazing through the middle of the order on just twelve pitches. The save was his 30th of the season.
With the emergence of Fuentes as a multi-inning leverage weapon, combined with Dodd’s evolution into “Diet Josh Hader” and the pending return of Robert Suarez (who is set to throw his second bullpen on Monday), Atlanta’s pen might be one of the best in October.
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the contest.
What’s Next for the Braves?
The Braves are back at it on Saturday evening, with Martín Pérez (8-8, 3.05) set to face Zack Wheeler (11-5, 3.51) at 6:05 PM ET on BravesVision.
Win again today and we're playing with house money the rest of the series! Go Braves!!
You know what the biggest stunner was to me in your report? When I looked down at the next game and saw where Martin Perez has a better ERA than Zack Wheeler. If you had bet with me on that at the beginning of the season, you would be living in my house and driving my car.