Atlanta's bats come alive as they batter Zack Wheeler, Phillies bullpen

The Atlanta Braves got some clutch hits tonight as they took down the Philadelphia Phillies, but is the starting pitching becoming a concern?

The Atlanta Braves took game one of their series against the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-5, in Truist Park on Tuesday night.

Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.

Murph’s back, tell a friend

Sean Murphy heard all of those bad things you said about him.

Despite not hitting the stated goal of having Murphy start two back-to-back games and catch nine innings in each, the Braves went ahead and activated Murphy on Friday.

For at least one night, the Braves looked like geniuses for it, too.

Murphy went 2-4 in this one, launching a three-run homer (100.7 mph, 401 feet) in the first inning and then adding an RBI single (107.8) in the two-run sixth inning. The homer came with two outs, as well, so that’s nice.

You may have caught it in the video, but Murphy was wearing sport goggles tonight. As he explained to the media after the game, he was diagnosed with astigmatism over the offseason but struggled with contacts in spring training. The goggles were first worn while he was at Gwinnett and seemed to work well (he homered in his first rehab game), so he’s trying them in the bigs.

The division of starts between Murphy and prospect Drake Baldwin is going to be fascinating - manager Brian Snitker indicated before the game that the plan will be for Murphy to catch two of the three games against Philly but that they’ll look to mix Baldwin in “quite a bit”, especially at the very beginning as Murphy re-acclimates to the majors. Snitker also said that both players would be pinch-hitting options on days they weren’t starting.

The offense brought the bats

Atlanta picked up eleven hits in this one, including ten hard-hit balls¹ and five extra-base hits. Every starter had a hit, with Murphy and Austin Riley both having two.

Special credit goes to Jarred Kelenic, who had only one hit but also walked three times and scored two runs.²

But the “inability to get hits with RISP” thing is still not completely fixed, however - the Braves went just 3-for-13 with RISP, with two coming from Murphy.³ 10 runners were stranded in this one, although the Braves did manufacture a run in the 8th after an Orlando Arcia double. Michael Harris II laid down a sacrifice bunt, moving him over to third, and Arcia later scored on a wild pitch that probably should have been a passed ball on Philly catcher J.T. Realmuto.

Any concerns about Sale?

Tonight was the second straight subpar start from Chris Sale, who went just 4.2 innings with five runs allowed on nine hits. He didn’t walk anyone and finished with five strikeouts, but he also allowed an absolute moonshot to Kyle Schwarber in the 5th - 116.7 off the bat and 462 feet to right-center.

Sale was tagged for eight hard-hit balls (six fell for hits) and four extra-base hits, but also had 15 whiffs and a 35% CSW.

Sale’s Statcast breakdown from this game

A bigger…observation (?) to me was his velocity. Sale topped out at 97.3 mph in the first inning but didn’t throw another fastball over 93.7 after the first. He also went away from the heater late, throwing just five in a fifteen-pitch 5th inning. As expected, most of that went to the slider, with six of the eight pitches in the 4th being breaking balls.

His final fastball average was 93.6, down nine-tenths of a mph from his first start and 1.3 mph from last year’s average FB velocity.

Now, it was a cold night - the temperature at game time was in the mid-50s and it got colder as the night progressed - but that’s still something to watch. For what it’s worth, Sale didn’t seem too concerned after the game about it.

(Also, players with an injury concern usually don’t meet with the media immediately after the game anyway, so it doesn’t appear that the team’s that concerned, either.)

The bullpen was nails

Enyel De Los Santos came in to relieve Sale and finish off the fifth inning - he struck out Edmundo Sosa with runners on 1st and 2nd to end the Philly threat.

The combination of De Los Santos, Dylan Lee, Daysbel Hernández, and Raisel Iglesias held Philly hitless over the final 4.1 innings with only three baserunners allowed, all coming off of walks. Lee actually hit 96.9 on a fastball in his inning, while Hernández had some HUGE strikeouts in the 8th to pass the baton to Iglesias for his first save of the season.

What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?

Atlanta’s back at it tomorrow night against Philly; Grant Holmes (0-1, 7.20) takes on Taijuan Walker (1-0, 0.00) at 7:15 PM.

1. Five hits on those ten hard-hit balls, so that tracks with the league average of roughly .490

2. Also made a pretty sweet defensive play in right field late in this one

3. The third was Riley’s double in the 7th.