Aaron Nola usually saves at least one of his best starts of any given season for the Atlanta Braves. Tonight ended up being one of those nights, as the Braves were unable to get anything going against Nola in a 4-1 defeat against the Phillies.
Kyle Wright was on the mound for 6.2 innings and aside from a huge wobble in the third inning and the end of his stint, Wright was right on the money. After retiring the Phillies in order over the first two innings, Wright immediately found himself in big trouble as he started off the third by giving up a home run to J.T. Realmuto.
Wright then followed this up by letting the next three Phillies batters reach base, so he was in a deep conundrum with nobody out. Fortunately, Kyle continued what’s been a positive development for him this season, which is the fact that he’s figuring out how to pitch himself out of trouble. He struck out Alec Bohm to finally get the first out and then managed to get Bryce Harper to ground into an inning-ending double play to mitigate the damage to just one run.
Usually, a moment like a team failing to score with the bases loaded and nobody out would be the impetus for the opposition to make a rally, but the Braves were unable to get anything going for themselves with Aaron Nola on the mound tonight. Nola delivered what was easily his best performance of the season. Dating back to 2017, Aaron Nola has had at least one start per year where he’s gone at least seven innings with one run allowed at the most against the Braves. Tonight was apparently time for the Braves to take their annual whooping from Nola, as they had no answer for what he was throwing their way in this one. Nola eventually finished with 8.1 IP, five hits allowed, 10 strikeouts, and no walks at all. Folks, that’s domination.
Even with Nola’s domination, Kyle Wright was able to keep the Braves in the game while he was out there. He eventually ran into trouble with two outs in the seventh, as a two-out walk followed by a hit-by-pitch ended Wright’s night. Will Smith was called upon to get the final out of the seventh inning. He did make it happen, but not before Odubel Herrera wasted no time giving Will Smith a rude welcome to the game. Herrera brought home Kyle Schwarber and J.T. Realmuto with a double and that made it 3-0 Phillies. All three of those runs were credited to Kyle Wright, which really spoiled what was actually a fine start from Wright.
The Phillies added another run onto their lead in the eighth inning, as Guillermo Heredia was unable to complete what would’ve been a spectacular catch of a fly ball at the wall that would’ve kept it 3-0 Phillies. Instead, Schwarber ended up on second with a double and Bryce Harper crossed home plate to make it 4-0.
Aaron Nola got the first out of the ninth inning, but his complete game shut out bid came to an end thanks to Matt Olson hitting his second double of the night in order to end Nola’s night. Corey Knebel got the call to finish off the game and in true Phillies bullpen fashion, he gifted the Braves a run. Knebel threw a wild pitch with two out that brought Olson home from third plate to ruin the shutout. That was all the Braves would get, as the game eventually ended 4-1 in favor of Philadelphia.
It’s definitely a disappointing split, as the Braves were unable to bring the good vibes to the plate that they’ve had for the past two nights. It also continues their miserable trend of not being able to win three straight games this year. All you can do in baseball is try again tomorrow, as the Braves will be facing the Marlins for the second week in a row.
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