Bullpen, bats bail Sale out in Braves 7-5 win over Phillies

“I just have to find the groove,” Sale said. “It’s not clicked yet. It’s not all put together, which is frustrating because I felt like I was kind of there in spring training. I felt like I had a really good spring training other than one wonky start but everything else just kind of felt in sync. Once the season started, everything just fell off the rails a little bit. But if this was easy everyone would do it. It’s part of the game. It’s frustrating, obviously. We won this game, but I still know I’m going to be staring at a ceiling until 3 a.m. tonight. I have some days to figure it out. We have some time.”

Braves catcher Sean Murphy went 2-for-4 with four RBIs including a three-run home run in his season debut at the plate and a sixth-inning RBI single. Murphy’s home run gave the Braves a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second, but Sale allowed three runs on four hits in the top of the third as the Phillies regained the lead, 4-3.

“[Sale] was just grinding tonight,” Murphy said. “Everybody has those [nights]. We were so spoiled last year. Every time he went out it felt like he had a shutout. I’m sure he’s going to find his footing here.”

It was the second time Atlanta tallied 10 or more hits this season. The Braves (2-8) had 16 hits in a 10-0 win over the Marlins on April 4 as Atlanta avoided a 1-9 start and gained a game on the division leaders.

“Winning fixes everything, really,” Sale said. “How we started the season, it’s not been great. We took a tough [4-0 loss to Miami] in our last one. We had a couple days off. To come in against a team like [7-3 Philadelphia], we just kind of keep scrapping. Our bullpen threw [half the game] and flatlined them. This game was about a lot of things that we did right, which is fun,”

The Braves were facing a tough customer in Phillies starter Zack Wheeler. Wheeler (1-0) entered the game with a 1.38 ERA, but the Braves tagged him for five earned runs on eight hits and drew three walks over his 5 1/3 innings. Wheeler tallied seven strikeouts.

“They’re going up against one of the best,” Sale said of the Braves against Wheeler. “Wheeler is about as good as it’s going to get out there. I put them in a hole early, they come back and I put them right back into a hole, but they never quit fighting, they never gave up. They never cashed it in. I can’t say enough about our bullpen. Coming in, leaving runners on and throwing up zeros, that’s the reason we won this game.”

Atlanta’s four unanswered runs came in the latter half of the game. The Braves scored two runs in the sixth, one in the seventh and one in the eighth.

“We [needed] that,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That’s an understatement. It was good to play a game like that. We haven’t. And to win it, especially [when] Chris didn’t have his best stuff. He just kept battling like he always does. We got a couple of really big hits. It’s good to have [Murphy] back. That was a nice little shot in the arm overall for us with the way we’ve been struggling. We have to make it happen and we did.”

Three Braves relievers – Enyel De Los Santos, Daysbel Hernández and Raisel Iglesias -- went the aforementioned 4 1/3 innings and allowed no runs on no hits with four strikeouts and two walks.

“[De Los Santos] was really good,” Snitker said. “That was big right there to come in. All of them, they kind of picked each other up. It was good to see. They’re working [with] five days off. You just never know if they’re going to be rusty or anything like that from not being out there and [getting] the blood pumping. They were all just nails and kind of picked each other up, which is good.”

Third baseman Austin Riley hit a seventh inning RBI double to right-center field that gave the Braves a 6-5 lead and proved to be the game-winner.

“You kind of hope that something like that does relax him,” Snitker said. “He hit it right where he lives. That’s his power alley right there. When he’s going good, that’s where he hits the ball. Hopefully that’s a sign of good things to come for him. That’s one of the bigger at-bats we’ve had all year. I’m glad he’s the one who got it.”

The Braves will look to win the three-game series outright on Wednesday in Game 2 against the Phillies. Grant Holmes will start on the mound for the Braves, opposed by Taijuan Walker.