Trying to build off their series win against the Dodgers, the Braves used some of their old late-inning magic to defeat the Phillies 9-5 to open a three-game series Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Here are five takeaways from Tuesday:
1. The Braves are back to .500 at 29-29 after an eighth-inning surge. Entering the inning down 5-4, the Braves scored five times to put the game away. It started with Austin Riley’s game-tying homer off Connor Brodgon. Five of the next six Braves reached, beginning with Dansby Swanson walking and Abraham Almonte’s single. The Phillies brought in Sam Coonrod, who gave up a go-ahead RBI single to William Contreras, who had a three-hit game.
Coonrod fielded a grounder from Guillermo Heredia and sailed the throw to second, allowing Almonte to score. Ronald Acuna’s singled to left added another two runs for a 9-5 lead.
“We never quit, never gave up tonight,” Riley said. “A lot of big hits up and down the lineup. That was huge to see.”
2. Acuna smashed the hardest-hit homer of his young career in the third inning. It was clocked at 116 mph, the hardest-hit home run by a Braves player in the Statcast era (since 2015). It traveled 460 feet to left field. Acuna had three hits, three RBIs and scored two runs.
“I feel like I got that one pretty good,” Acuna said via team interpreter Franco Garcia.
“Just the pure power of what he did,” manager Brian Snitker said. “That might be the best one I’ve ever seen, really.”
3. Braves reliever Shane Greene, sporting No. 61, made his season debut in the sixth, with the Braves holding a 4-3 advantage. Greene, 32, signed in May and had been preparing in Triple-A until he was promoted Sunday.
It wasn’t how Greene would’ve drawn up his first outing: He surrendered a game-tying homer to the first batter he faced, J.T. Realmuto. Making matters worse was a missed strike call earlier in the at-bat.
Greene coaxed an infield popup from Andrew McCutchen for the first out. He gave up singles to Alec Bohm and Ronald Torreyes in the ensuing at-bats, leading Snitker to swap him out for southpaw Tyler Matzek.
Snitker, looking at process over results, felt encouraged with what Greene showed.
“I told him I thought his stuff was good,” Snitker said. “I thought his sinker looked really good. The sliders were good. I thought the stuff was real good. That was really encouraging for me, to me. The velocity was probably more than we saw last year. The action on the sinker was pretty good. I thought it was a great first outing for him.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
4. Starter Drew Smyly couldn’t make it through five innings. The Braves lefty went 4-1/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on five hits. He issued three walks and didn’t record a strikeout. It was the second consecutive start Smyly failed to complete five innings. In 10 starts, Smyly has reached the six-inning mark four times and hasn’t gone beyond that.
5. The Braves lost six of their last seven in Philadelphia entering the night, including a three-game sweep to open the season. They gave up 14 home runs in that stretch. Maybe Tuesday’s victory turned the tide.
Stat to know
2-1/2 (The Braves moved to within 2-1/2 games of the Mets for first place in the National League East after New York lost to Baltimore Tuesday.)
Quotable
“I don’t feel like we’d had one of those in a while. That was a hard-fought win.” - Snitker
Oh, hey there
Every now and then, Atlanta sports teams cross paths on the road. It happened Tuesday, with the Hawks facing the Sixers in Game 2 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals across the street from Citizens Bank Park. The evening didn’t go well for the Hawks, who fell apart late and lost 118-102 as the tied best-of-seven series shifts to Atlanta.
Up next
Tucker Davidson makes his third start Wednesday against Phillies righty Zach Eflin. Davidson, a lefty, held the Nationals to one hit over 5-2/3 innings in his last start.
