Where’d the dingers go? Braves 3, Phillies 1

A lot of home runs have been hit in the majors this season. In fact, so many have been hit that a new record was set with over two weeks left to play.

Unfortunately, of those 6,106 (and counting) home runs, none of them were hit by the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night. One night after their batters went deep five times, the Phillies were kept in the park, and that’s a large reason why they lost to the Braves 3-1.

Of course, home runs aren’t the only way for a team to score a run. It’s also possible for an offense to string a few hits together in an inning, but the Phillies didn’t do much of that either. Their lone run came via an RBI ground out by Scott Kingery in the fourth. Aside from that, they were held in check by a series of pitchers who weren’t on the Braves’ roster at the beginning of the season.

The vaunted Braves lineup didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball either, but thanks to an error by Jean Segura and an inability by Zach Eflin to put away hitters with two strikes, they were able to score some runs in the fourth. Eflin was one pitch away from getting out of the inning, but instead, he let Tyler Flowers hit one of those home runs that are so in vogue.

The Phillies’ bullpen held the Braves scoreless for the rest of the game, which somehow makes the loss even more frustrating. The maligned relief corps has mostly held the Braves’ in check through the first three games of the series, and yet the Phillies have still lost two of the three.

The Phillies will get another shot at the Braves pitching staff on Thursday. If they want to salvage a split of the series, it would probably behoove them to join in with the rest of baseball and hit a few balls over the fence.