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Atlanta Braves: 3 Takeaways from Opening Day Loss to Phillies

By Jake Mastroianni

PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 28: A general view of Citizens Bank Park during the national anthem before the game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves on Opening Day at Citizens Bank Park on March 28, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 28: A general view of Citizens Bank Park during the national anthem before the game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves on Opening Day at Citizens Bank Park on March 28, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images) /
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The Atlanta Braves got the 2019 season started in Philadelphia where they lost 10-4 to the Phillies. Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Some of the issues that concerned Atlanta Braves entering the season reared their ugly on Opening Day in a 10-4 loss.

It’s only one game of 162, and it’s honestly one that didn’t look good on paper for the Atlanta Braves, but it’s still not fun losing on Opening Day.

Here are three takeaways from this game:

– Julio Teheran Looks Sharp: One of the real positives from this game was the outing by Teheran. After giving up a leadoff home run, he looked really sharp.

His fastball was up as high as 94, and that slider was devastating. If we get that Julio for the rest of the year, I feel really good.

He ran into some bad luck in the fourth as Dansby Swanson stumbled after making a back-hand play and Freddie Freeman wasn’t able to save his errant throw to first. It went down as a hit, but Dansby and Freddie make that play nine times out of 10.

His final line was 5 innings pitched, 3 earned runs, 4 hits, 2 walks (one was intentional), and 7 strikeouts. This was a really encouraging start for Julio and Braves fans.

– Bad Start for Ender Inciarte: You certainly don’t want to overreact to one game, especially when it was against a top-five pitcher in the game, but things couldn’t have gone much worse for Ender Inciarte.

Most Atlanta Braves fans were already upset he was batting leadup, and he didn’t help things by striking out three times against Aaron Nola.

Inciarte has also got off to slow starts with the Atlanta Braves, so it’s important he doesn’t let that happen this year.

This will be something we watch closely for the first month, but I expect Ender to bounce-back nicely in the next two games over the weekend.

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– Different Year, Same Bullpen: A lot was made about the front office not making any upgrades to the bullpen this offseason, and it seemed to bite the Braves on Opening Day.

Shane Carle came on in the sixth in what was a 3-1 game. He then walked two batters before giving up a three-run home run.

The very next inning Matt Joyce hit a two-run bomb that could have tied the game up. Those are the things that are sickening as a fan.

And then we bring in Luke — how did he make this roster — Jackson, and he walks a couple of batters and gives up a grand slam, killing any momentum we had from Joyce getting us back in the game.

You’ll hear me say this a lot for the first month — it’s early — but I think Brian Snitker and the front office has to have a short leash with this bullpen.

If they continue to walk batters you have to give other guys a chance or make a trade to get some guys in the bullpen who can throw strikes. We cannot go through another season of watching the bullpen walk everyone.

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It was not the Opening Day we were hoping for, but you know, baseball season is back. And our beloved Atlanta Braves will be back out there Saturday to try and get that first win of the season.

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