Bummer of a game, as a few inches in the seventh prove decisive in 5-4 Philly win

Looking for the sweep in Philadelphia, with Chris Sale making his Braves debut, the Braves faced Ranger Suarez, who has been successful against them recently.

The game started off quite well for Atlanta, and quite similarly to Saturday, as Acuna got on base (via walk today), and Ozzie brought him home with a wall-scraping home run.

Sale’s debut started inauspiciously, however, as his second pitch was taken for a ride by Kyle Schwarber for a laser beam solo shot. Sale battled back and got the next three batters out, however, with one strikeout. After a 1-2-3 second for Suarez, Sale got into a little trouble with a leadoff walk and a bloop single. He once again battled back, getting a pop-up and two nasty strikeouts to hold the one run lead. The pitchers continued to settle into the game in the third, as they traded 1-2-3 innings each with two Ks.

A pair of doubles from Austin Riley and Adam Duvall gave Sale another run to work with in the fourth, but Duvall just over slid the base for a split second and was called out on a Phillies challenge to end the inning (resulting in his hit being scored a single). The Phillies had a baserunning blunder of their own in the bottom of the frame, as an overzealous Castellanos was easily thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. Sale dismissed Realmuto with a strikeout and Merrifield with a lineout for the other two outs of the inning.

After nothing going for the Atlanta offense in the fifth, Sale found himself in serious trouble in the bottom of the frame, as a soft single, a walk, and a batter hit in the leg while trying to bunt loaded the bases with no outs. Sale got Schwarber to ground into a double-play, trading a run for two outs and struck out Trea Turner to preserve a one run lead. The Braves’ offense couldn’t get anything going against Hoffman, first out of the Philly pen, and Chris Sale gave up a single and a deep flyout before his outing was ended by Brian Snitker. 5.1 innings of 2 run ball with 7 K, 2 BB, and 1 HR allowed is a solid debut for the lefty. Joe Jimenez got the call and quickly got two contact outs, aided by some nice defense from Austin Riley.

Ozuna singled, but that was the only baserunner for Atlanta in the seventh and Joe Jimenez came back out to pitch. Jimenez walked Stott to lead off the inning and Snitker waited until the Phillies announced the lefty Marsh as a pinch-hitter before going to the lefty Aaron Bummer in the pen. Bummer toasted Marsh with cutters and sliders to strike him out for the first out of the inning. Bummer then went up 0-2 on Rojas and got what we thought was an inning-ending double-play on one of Bummer’s signature induced ground balls, but was changed to the runner being safe at first on challenge in a bang-bang play. Schwarber lined a ball to center field for a single to pass the baton to Trea Turner with men on first and second. Trea Turner delivered for Philly with a ground ball through the right side to tie the game and put runners on the corners for Bohm. Atlanta allowed Turner to steal second and bummer went 3-0 down against Bohm, battled back to a full count, but ultimately allowed a two run blooper that was about 3 inches from finding Duvall’s glove to end the inning. the margins between this being a scoreless inning and a three run Philly inning to take the lead were razor-thin, between the overturned double play and this blooper that just eluded Duvall’s grasp. Bummer did get a groundout from Castellanos to finally end the inning there.

Kelenic got the call as a pinch-hitter with one out in the eighth and worked a really good at bat against Seranthony Dominguez, before smoking a double that would be a home run in some parks to left-center, setting the table for Ronald Acuna. Ronald struck out on a full count, but Albies brought Jarred home to cut the lead in half. Austin Riley got a very lucky bloop to left field and Ozzie snuck into third on the play, setting up runners on the corners for Matt Olson, who warranted a pitching change, as the Phillies went to the lefty reliever, Soto. Olson just got under a fly ball, ending the inning with a one-run Philadelphia lead. AJ Minter got the bottom of the inning and worked an easy 1-2-3 inning, putting the game in the hands of the middle of the Braves’ order, starting with Marcell Ozuna.

The Phillies turned to Alvarado to close the game for them, after he had a brutal outing on Friday. Alvarado cut Ozuna down on three pitches and got Duvall to pop up to second base. Michael Harris came up as the Braves’ final hope with the lefty-lefty matchup and hit a ball well but right to Castellanos for the final out.

Those few inches ended up decisive in the pivotal seventh inning. Join us again tomorrow as the Braves face the lowly White Sox in Chicago at 2:10 PM ET, but keep an eye out on our page for updates, as the weather looks nasty for that whole series.