The Braves slayed their demon in Game 1. The Phillies still have theirs in an overworked and shaky bullpen
It will come as no surprise the Phillies' issues begin in a bullpen that has been short on arms all season. Now, they’ll need to win two straight games with a closer who threw 27 pitches in Game 1.
ATLANTA — For eight innings, all of it was there. The demon lurking in the corners of their minds, memories of postseasons past. Three losses in four games in 2022. Three losses in four games in 2023. Orlando Arcia poking the bear. J.T. Realmuto racing around the bases. This was the postseason and it was the Phillies and it was the Braves and thus, all of it felt as if it’d already been written.
And then it didn’t. One swing of the bat was all that it took. It came in a manner that, from the other dugout, felt like an exorcism. Two on, two out, one-run lead, Jhoan Duran on the mound, the Phillies four outs away from stealing a Game 1 win on Tuesday in which everything seemed to be going right.
Austin Riley, who was present for each of the Braves’ two previous playoff losses to the Phillies, sent a first-pitch fastball soaring into the center field seats.
» READ MORE: Austin Riley’s three-run homer off Jhoan Duran lifts Braves to 5-3 victory over Phillies in Game 1
Ballgame.
It was a stunning loss only in the sense that it left the Phillies in a place they have not been against the Braves. Winners of Game 1 in both 2022 and 2023, they are suddenly one game away from the end of their season, and forced to reckon with the fact that their mojo disappeared so suddenly.
David Murphy alerts
Until Riley stepped to the plate, Game 1 of this wild-card series was everything you might’ve expected based on prior results.
Jesús Luzardo going toe-to-toe with Phillies killer Chris Sale?
Realmuto, fresh off ending an 0-for-33 skid, hitting his first triple of the year to drive in two and giving the Phillies the lead in the seventh?
Jhoan Duran attempting to pitch two innings, neither of them the ninth?
Yes sir, yes ma’am and affirmative.
The Phillies entered the eighth inning up 3-2 thanks to Realmuto’s two-run triple, a cue shot off the end of the bat that saw Braves right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. misplay the ball in the corner. It probably should have been ruled a double, E9. Nevertheless, it went in the books as Realmuto’s first triple since last October, when he plated two off Shohei Ohtani to give the Phillies an early lead in Game 1 of their National League Division Series against the Dodgers.
The Phillies took an early 1-0 lead on a double by Alec Bohm in the first inning, but would live to regret their inability to do any more damage as Sale struggled to find the strike zone. The Braves’ veteran lefty had been masterful in his previous six outings against the Phillies, holding them to seven runs in 38 innings. The Braves won five of those starts.
» READ MORE: The Phillies are forced to get creative with their pitching vs. the Braves
For a Phillies team that won a lot of games based on its starting pitching advantage, they faced a troubling amount of uncertainty on their own mound. Luzardo, electric for most of the season, missed 20 days in September due to a shoulder strain. He entered Tuesday having thrown just one inning since a complete-game shutout of the Braves on Sept. 7.
As it turned out, Luzardo was masterful, every bit the ace that Sale was. Somehow, he made it through five innings, carrying the Phillies’ through the top of the Braves’ order three times. He allowed one run on 77 pitches.
The only problem: there were four innings left.
Interim manager Don Mattingly tried to piece it together, using setup man Alex McFarlane in the sixth and then Duran in the seventh hoping he would go two. It’s hard to say that it almost worked, because the Phillies still would have had the ninth inning to kill and no palatable options to take the ball. That said, Duran retired the first five batters he faced before allowing a single to Michael Harris II and then hitting Ozzie Albies with a pitch. The next pitch he threw caught too much of the plate. Riley didn’t miss it.
The issues are twofold for the Phillies. It will come as no surprise that those issues begin in a bullpen that has been at least one arm and usually two short all season. Now, they’ll need to win two straight games with a closer who threw 27 pitches in Game 1. Not good.
The second issue is the demons the Braves slayed with that swing from Riley. The Phillies’ psychological advantage may not have been decisive, but it was a factor. For much of Game 1, it looked like it was once again in play. That advantage is no longer.
