Braves Walked Off In Extra Innings By Phillies, Dropping Series

The Atlanta Braves pitching staff can only do so much when the offense refuses to drive runners in

The Atlanta Braves battled but were ultimately walked off by the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 in 11 innings, to officially drop the four-game series in Citizens Bank Park.

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

Spencer Schwellenbach’s best start yet

If you gave Braves officials truth serum and asked them about Spencer Schwellenbach, they’d admit that there were no expectations that he would do this.

A college shortstop who added closing duties in his draft year and then missed a season after having Tommy John surgery after being taken by Atlanta, the righthander came up straight from Double-A Mississippi and has dominated. The 24-year-old is now 5-6 with a 3.69 ERA after tonight’s outing, even more impressive when you consider that he allowed nine runs over his first 9.2 innings.

That being said, this one hurts.

With Trea Turner on first and two outs in the 6th inning, Bryce Harper got a bloop double down the left field line after going down 1-2, advancing Trea Turner to third base. The next batter, Nick Castellanos, went down 0-2 and then this happened:

Schwellenbach badly missed that slider location - Travis d’Arnaud was set up down and away, but that pitch ended up middle-in and Castellanos didn’t miss it.

While the vibes were ruined late, it was still a great outing for Schwellenbach - 5.2 innings pitched with two runs on five hits, walking one and striking out two. Not a lot of swing-and-miss in this one (just six whiffs and a 21% CSW) but he mostly kept Philly off the board until that final inning.

(Also, this outing means the Braves starters have now gone twenty-one consecutive outings with three runs or less, extending their own franchise record.)

Money Mike taketh away, Money Mike giveth

Michael Harris II had what was the catch of the season last night, robbing outfielder Austin Hays with an amazing catch over the wall in right-center to take away a homer.

Money Mike continued tipping the balance in Atlanta’s favor tonight, launching his 9th homer of the season off of Aaron Nola in the third inning to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead.

It’s been an injury-riddled year for Harris, but if he can get going down the stretch, that’ll go a long way to elongating the lineup and helping Atlanta replace the missing offensive production of Austin Riley.

(Speaking of, ESPN’s Buster Olney reported during the broadcast that Riley is expected to return from his broken wrist closer to the front of the team’s ‘return to play’ window, so six weeks rather than eight.)

This one’s on the offense

A lot of the talk will go into the coaching staff’s decision to leave Spencer Schwellenbach in the game to face Nick Castellanos a third time rather than going to either righty Pierce Johnson or lefty Dylan Lee, both of who were up and throwing in the bullpen.

But that’s not why Atlanta lost.

We can debate the merits of the decision (and I’m willing to bet that we do on tomorrow’s episode of The Braves Today Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts), but the offense was the issue tonight.

Atlanta got the leadoff runner on in the next five innings after the game was tied up in the sixth and never brought them in, including leaving the bases loaded in the 9th and not even advancing the “ghost runner” to third base in the 10th.

For the game, Atlanta finished 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. (Philly wasn’t much better, going just 2-for-9 with RISP and stranding seven, but it was enough to win.)

Two things can be true at once

Yes, the offense lost Atlanta this game.

But can we talk about how Philly walked it off?

If you remember what happened in Thursday’s game, noted chase artist Nick Castellanos got a center-cut fastball from Grant Holmes in the 7th inning, promptly launching a two-run homer to score the winning runs for Philly.

After the game, Castellanos seemed surprised that the Braves threw him a fastball. “My style of hitting, which is always like glorified batting practice, I don’t really have an approach… I look for the baseball & hit it as hard as I can.”

So, logically, with Grant Holmes pitching to Castellanos in tonight’s 11th inning with runners on 2nd and 3rd…Castellanos got a center-cut fastball.

Couple issues here.

The first is, obviously, throwing the fastball. Did we not learn from the other day? Holmes was up 1-2 in the at-bat because after opening Castellanos with an elevated fastball that he took, Castellanos fouled off two low sliders, including one that was well below the zone. Just keep doing that! Either he strikes out (ending the inning) or…ends up on first base, which doesn’t matter because the winning run was on third.

But the other issue is this:

With runners on the corners and needing one out, why did you take Aaron Bummer out of the game? One of my final analysis pieces for Athlon Sports was about how Bummer is ELITE at both not allowing hard hits and inducing groundballs.

Given Holmes’ prior history against Castellanos and Bummer’s lack of platoon splits - righties and lefties are batting within five points of each other off of the lefty - just leave Bummer in the game for another batter.

To go from too passive with a pitching change to too aggressive with a pitching change in the same game is frustrating, to say the least.

What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?

Atlanta’s heading back home for a Monday off day before a six-game homestand against the Colorado Rockies and Toronto Blue Jays. While neither team is remotely near the playoffs, both matchups are now must-wins given that the Braves hold a slim one-game lead over the New York Mets for the final Wild Card spot in the National League.