Atlanta Braves Fight Back Against Phillies, But Falter In The 10th

Braves Fought, But Couldn’t Finish…Atlanta Loses 7-4

The Atlanta Braves lost the game and the series to the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday evening.  Phillies are now 20-15 for the 2016 season and the Braves are now 8-25 and 2-17 at home.

Braves starting pitcher Aaron Blair walked the first batter of the game, Odubel Herrera and that immediately hurt.  Herrera stole second base…because well, we had A.J. Pierzynski behind the plate and Bartolo Colon could probably steal a base off him.  Then Andres Blanco singled to move Herrera to third.  Next batter, Maikel Franco hit a sac fly to center which scored Herrera.  Braves down 1-0.

Fourth Inning Blunder

In the fourth inning, Blair again walked the first batter of the inning…this time it was Ryan Howard.  Next batter was Freddy Galvis who hit a deep pop up to right field that cleared the wall and landed in the third row.  Later in the inning now with two outs, Herrera hit a single which scored Vince Velasquez.  Braves down 4-0.

Prior to the Herrera single, Fredi Gonzalez pulled Blair in favor of Eric O’Flaherty.  EOF gave up the single, but the run was charged to Blair.

“Our bullpen was fairly fresh with the past three starters going deep in ball games and the off day so our bullpen was in good shape,” Gonzalez explained about his decision to pull Blair.  “We tried to stop it right there and O’Flaherty did a good job and Bud Norris pitched two great innings.”

Blair’s stats were 3.2 innings pitched, six hits, four runs (three earned runs), two walks, two strikeouts.

“Fastball command at the start, kinda hurt me,” Blair said after the game.  “I walked two batters to leadoff the inning in four innings…that’s not a good combination.”

That’s exactly it, coaches always preach ‘you can’t walk the leadoff hitter of an inning’ and that’s what Blair did twice.  Both times, runs were scored.

“I had a lot of up-and-away misses to left-handers, something I’ll go back and work on in the next five days,” Blair explained.  “I’ve got to be more aggressive in the strike zone and throw more strikes.  Let the defense work.”

“I didn’t have a good feel for the curveball, it was kind of popping out or I was pulling it.  My changeup was there about 50-50.  It’s just one of those days.”

“Aaron was missing glove side with his pitches and wasn’t consistent with his fastball,” Fredi said about Blair.  “Especially to left-handed hitters, his fastball just kept running away from the strike zone.  He just never got it going.  His breaking ball wasn’t consistent and his changeup he just couldn’t control that.  He was behind in the count a lot.”

7th Inning Comeback

Down 4-0 heading into the bottom of the 7th inning, the Braves offense started to click.

Freddie Freeman singled to center.  Kelly Johnson walked.  Pierzynski singled to load the bases.

Gordon Beckham then doubled on a sharp line drive to center field which scored Freeman, Johnson and AJ.

Jeff Francoeur continued with a single to center that scored Beckham and just like that the Braves have tied the game!  Braves and Phillies tied 4-4

Extra Baseball At The Ted

The Braves bullpen helped Blair and kept the Braves in the game.  Atlanta’s bullpen threw 5.1 innings giving up two hits, zero runs and zero walks.

Then the 10th inning came.  Jason Grilli pitching, Herrera once again was a thorn in the Braves side.  He led off the inning with a triple.  After a hit by pitch and a huge strikeout, Fredi decided to go with Ian Krol on the mound.  Krol struck out Darin Ruf on three amazing pitches, but then walked Galvis to load the bases.

Cameron Rupp was next and Krol threw a fastball right down the pipe.  Rupp crushed the pitch between left and center to score three runs.  Braves down 7-4.

Down Go The Braves

“It would have been great if we won the game, I mean comebacks are great, but if you don’t win the game it doesn’t much matter,” Pierzynski said after the game. “Yeah, we’ve always fought and no one quits.  We play the game right and play hard.  Everyone runs balls out and everything like that, but at the end of the day you want to win games.  Seems like we are right there and in games with a chance to win, but just not getting that hit, pitch or play.”

Atlanta continues to battle and fight to get w’s, but come up short once again.  Believe it or not, this team isn’t far off.

“They’ve played hard under all the circumstances,” Gonzalez told reporters after the game.  “A couple of eight game losing streaks, nine games and only winning one game here at home…they’ve played hard.  All the questions they’ve had to answer, it’s not their burden to carry and they’ve carried it really well.  It’s been good to see the character of our game.”