Seemingly everything has gone wrong for the baseball club in Atlanta this season, but this game always has something waiting around the corner that pulls you back. For Braves fans this weekend, it’s a meeting with the division-leading Phillies that could potentially put them right back in the conversation for the NL East.
Perhaps that still happens to some degree, but Friday night didn’t produce the result they were hoping for, especially considering the offense actually showed up, while the pitching finally faltered.
Entering last night, Max Fried had posted a 2.08 ERA over his last 14 starts. The Braves were 10-4 in such games; however, the Phillies gave him problems in the opening series of the season, and that continued last night.
The damage began in the fourth inning as eight Phillies came to the plate, leading to three runs, which was capped off by a two-run shot off the bat of Trea Turner. More from him later.
The Braves would respond, however, in the bottom half of the frame when Austin Riley stepped up to the plate with a runner on and delivered a laser over the centerfield fence to cut the lead to one. Max Fried would then retire the Philadelphia offense in order in the top half of the fifth, but in the sixth, Trea Turner once again came up with a runner on base, and for the second time of the night, he left the yard. This time, launching a monstrous 459-foot home run that the outfield merely had to take a peak at before it landed 30 rows up the bleachers.
The Braves entered yesterday a remarkable 0-27 in their last 27 games in which their opponent scored four or more runs, with their last win coming on April 17th against the Astros. That trend would continue on Friday, but not because the Braves bats went to sleep. Ozzie Albies and Marcell Ozuna would both homer, leading to six runs. However, a trio of errors by the Braves in the 8th led to three more Philadelphia runs and yet another loss, Atlanta’s sixth in their last nine games.
With the defeat, the Braves now sit a full 10 games back in the NL East with the All-Star break approaching. There have been unthinkable division comebacks in the past, like when the Braves gunned down the Mets after trailing by 10.5 games in 2022. But this year certainly feels much different.
The Phillies don’t seemed to be phased by anything, and they have a chance to put a nail in the Braves coffin by weekend’s end with a couple of more wins.
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Photo: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire
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