Braves overwhelm Phillies, 12-2

After last night’s rainy come-from-behind win, the Braves used a more conventional approach to clobber the Phillies into submission. The game quickly turned into a laugher and finished a very brisk two hours and forty-five minutes after it began, despite the fact that 14 runs were scored.

The Braves erupted for an aesthetically-pleasing set of runs in the early innings. They scored:

• Two in the second;
• Three in the third; and
• Four in the fourth.

They also threw in three more runs in the late innings for good measure.

The runs themselves were a mix of the usual and the unusual. In the second, Tyler Flowers led off the frame with a single and then scored when Dansby Swanson hit the first pitch he saw, a grooved 88 mile-per-hour fastball right down the pipe, out to right field for his first career triple. (Guy had an inside-the-park homer before he had a triple in his major league career, I’m just sayin’.) Two batters later, unlikely hero Daniel Castro lined a center back up the middle to score Swanson.

In the third, Freddie Freeman was hit by the first pitch from Phillies starter Adam Morgan, extending his on-base streak to 46 games. Matt Kemp then immediately ripped the pitch after the one that hit Freeman down the third-base line for a double, setting up a Flowers sacrifice fly and then another double (again on the first pitch of the at-bat) to Swanson. Castro then drove in Swanson for the second time in two innings with another line drive single.

Already having scored five times, the Braves got four more the next inning. Ender Inciarte led off with a double, and then Adonis Garcia hit a soft roller back to Morgan, who pooched the throw to first, allowing Inciarte to score and Garcia to make it over to third. Garcia then scored on a wild pitch. After that, Freeman walked, setting up a Matt Kemp homer on a slider low and away, out of the zone.

Mike Foltynewicz had no such issues with the Phillies lineup. He departed after 80 pitches, working five innings of one-run ball. Foltynewicz allowed two hits, but walked three while striking out five. The lone run he surrendered came in the third, when Aaron Altherr singled, was bunted over to second, and then scored on two wild pitches in the same plate appearance. The Phillies got another run off of Joel de la Cruz in the sixth, but that was it for them offensively.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Freddie Freeman hit a one-out single on a liner to center, pushing his hitting streak to 30 games. That broke his tie with Jackie Bradley Jr. for the longest streak of the season, and marks the first time in five years that a player reached the 30-game plateau. The last guy to do it? Dan Uggla, who did it as a Brave and reached 33 games before his streak was snapped.

Meanwhile, the Braves went back to work in the seventh. After back-to-back one-out walks, Daniel Castro lined yet another single, scoring Swanson for the third time in the game. Pinch-hitter Blake Lalli then hit a slow chopper fielded by the pitcher, and Mallex Smith beat the return throw to the plate after Lalli was retired.

In the eighth, famed anagram-defeater Rio Ruiz, who came in to spell Garcia at third base, hit a line drive that eluded the glove of center fielder Odubel Herrera, giving Ruiz his first major league hit, a triple. One wonders how many more of those he’ll get in his career. Pinch-hitter Emilio Bonifacio then scored Ruiz with an RBI groundout to give the Braves their 12th run.

John Gant and Chaz Roe closed out the game with a scoreless inning apiece. Daniel Castro led the Braves with three hits and three RBI. Adam Morgan, meanwhile, was absolutely dismantled for 10 hits and nine runs in five innings of work.

The Braves wrap up their penultimate series at Turner Field tomorrow night, with Josh Collmenter set to make another start against the Phils’ Jeremy Hellickson.