Orlando Arcia gave the fans in Philadelphia something to really boo him about tonight, as his two homers helped push the Atlanta Braves to a 7-1, season series-clinching win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Both teams stayed quiet for the first two innings of this game and this was actually pretty impressive as far as Reynaldo López was concerned. That’s because he found himself dealing with runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings. Bryce Harper hit his first double of the game by ambushing López on the first pitch he saw. Nick Castellanos followed that up with a walk and it’s a good thing that both of these events took place with two out since López was able to get a ground ball to end the frame.
Brandon Marsh made it all the way to third base in the second inning after he hit a one-out single, stole second and then made it to third on a productive out. Johan Rojas popped out to end the frame and two scoring chances for the Phillies went by the wayside early.
The Braves came to life in the third inning, though. Philadelphia villain Orlando Arcia came to the plate in the third inning and got showered with boos, as usual. The boos did nothing to stop Arcia from taking a cutter from Ranger Suárez that hung in the lower part of the strike zone and sending it a few rows deep into the seats in left field for a solo shot. Sean Murphy must’ve saw what happened and decided that he wanted to get in on the fun as well. Seven pitches later, he did just that as he hit a fastball and sent it flying far over the fence to make it back-to-back dingers for the Braves. The Braves went down in order after that but the damage had been done — in this inning, at least.
Atlanta was far from done when it came to putting runs on the board. After Reynaldo López shook off another double from Bryce Harper in the bottom of the third inning, Marcell Ozuna repaid him by hitting a double to lead off the fourth. Matt Olson continued to stay hot by following it up with a single and then a productive out from Ramón Laureano moved up each runner — Ozuna moved from third to home on the play so that made it 3-0. The line continued to move as Michael Harris II and Orlando Arcia loaded up the bases with a single and a walk, respectively. Sean Murphy returned to the plate and delivered the second productive out of the inning for the Braves, as his grounder to third allowed Olson to score in order to make it 4-0 Braves for the second night in a row.
Naturally, it would’ve been understandable to get a little nervous after the Phillies immediately responded to going down 4-0 once again by hitting a home run on the very next opportunity they had. Indeed, Bryson Stott hit the third pitch he saw of his leadoff appearance in the fourth inning and crushed it to right field in order to put the Phillies on the board. Fortunately for us, Reynaldo López sat down the Phillies in order to get out of the fifth inning with no further damage.
Both teams stayed quiet in the fifth inning, with the Phillies picking this moment in particular to go to their bullpen. By the time the sixth inning rolled around, Max Lazar got the ball and was tasked with making sure that the Phillies stayed within three runs. They ended the inning behind by five runs, as the Braves proceeded to make some two-run magic happen. We’re specifically talking about Orlando Magic, as Arcia thrilled his adoring fans in Philadelphia by hitting his second home run of the night in order to make it 5-1.
Sean Murphy followed that up with a walk and then Gio Urshela announced his return to the lineup by hitting one right down the third base line to score Murphy all the way from first base to make it a 6-1 game. Reynaldo López made sure that it stayed 6-2 by finishing his night on a high note. He struck out both Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos to run his tally up to six on the night and then sat down Bryson Stott with a ground ball to make it another great start against the Phillies. We will absolutely take six innings pitched with only one walk, four hits and a single run allowed.
The seventh inning saw both teams trade runs — Marcell Ozuna got Atlanta going in their half of the seventh with a one-out single that went off of Yunior Marte’s glove and then Matt Olson hit one deep into the gap in right-center to bring Ozuna home all the way from first base in order to make it 7-1 at the time. Olson got to third on a wild pitch from Marte but he ended up being a dead duck at home after J.T. Realmuto caught a pitch that got by him on a perfect bounce from the backstop. After Olson was caught out, Ramón Laureano grounded out to end the inning.
J.T. Realmuto wasn’t done being a baseball pest for the Braves, either. He led off Philadelphia’s half of the eighth inning by hitting one that got out in a hurry against Pierce Johnson. Johnson followed that up by walking Brandon Marsh but he was able to eventually clamp down and sit down the Phillies in order in order to preserve the five-run lead heading into the ninth.
Atlanta went down in order in their portion of the ninth and it was up to Dylan Lee to bring home the win for the Braves. Sure enough, Lee was impressive in the ninth inning as it went good morning (Austin Hays pop-out), good afternoon (Edmundo Sosa strikeout) and good night (Weston Wilson strikeout) to end the game and seal a comfortable win for the Braves.
Now that’s more like it! After the Braves missed an opportunity by blowing a four-run lead on Thursday night, seeing this result was really encouraging. The offense has continued to give opposing pitchers fits on this road trip and seeing them get some scoring done in Philadelphia for the second night in a row was really fun to see. Reynaldo López continued to confound the Phillies and the Braves just put in a really good performance in this one.
Max Fried will have a shot to redeem himself in Philadelphia after having an absolute nightmare start to open his regular season here back in March. If he can set the record straight with his start tomorrow night (starting at 7:15 p.m. ET on Fox) then the Braves could potentially take the lead in this series. For now, it’s time to enjoy taking the season series over the Phillies with this win tonight.
