Braves 6, Phillies 5: Harper’s four RBI not enough, Braves walk it off in ninth

Coming off of the heels of an impressive seven to three victory on Monday night, the Phillies looked to make it two in a row in Atlanta.

Standing in their way, was sensational lefty Max Fried. Opposing the Atlanta ace was veteran right hander Kyle Gibson.

J.T. Realmuto opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the top half of the second, to plate Jean Segura. Atlanta quickly responded in the bottom half of the inning. Dansby Swanson and Ronald Acuña Jr. each plated a run on a pair of RBI singles.

Kyle Gibson worked his way through five innings, allowing two runs on seven hits. The former Texas Ranger also struck out eight, his highest total since his first start of the season.

An Alec Bohm double would put the Phills in a position to tie things up in the top of the sixth. They would do just that as Bryce Harper doubled home Bohm to tie things up a two.

In a peculiar move, Joe Girardi opted to use mop up man James Norwood for the bottom of the sixth inning in a tie game. Norwood entered the night with a 7.11 ERA and left the game with a 8.53 ERA.

Matt Olson took the righty deep to start the proceedings. Norwood allowed three hits, one walk, and two earned runs, failing to record an out.

Andrew Bellatti was next up as he entered to attempt to work through a bases loaded jam. An inherited runner, Ozzie Albies came in on an Acuña sac fly to push Atlanta’s lead up to two runs.

Bellatti finished the inning with a pair of punch outs, not allowing a base runner of his own.

Philadelphia cut into the lead on a Bryce Harper RBI single to score Roman Quinn in the first half of the seventh.

Brad Hand worked an uneventful bottom half of the frame, lowering his season ERA to 1.59.

Fast forwarding to the top of the ninth inning where the Phillies trailed four to three.

Atlanta closer Kenley Jansen would enter to protect the one run, as he looked to work through the top of the Phillies order.

Rhys Hoskins went down on a pop up to start of the final frame. Alec Bohm was able to work a quick walk to put the tying run aboard for Bryce Harper.

The 2021 NL MVP stepped up to the plate and wasted little time making an impact.

Harper turned on a pitch and demolished it to right field to give the Phillies a five to four lead. The long ball was the third hit of the night for Bryce, as he drove in his third and fourth runs of the ballgame.

After he worked an efficient bottom half of the eighth inning, Nick Nelson remained on the bump for the ninth. Yet another puzzling decision by Joe Girardi.

Dansby Swanson jumped on a Nelson fastball, to put the tying run in scoring position for the top of the Atlanta lineup. A wild pitch snuck past J.T. Realmuto and the tying run moved 90 feet away with Acuña at the plate.

On a ball that would have been deep enough for a sac fly, Roman Quinn and Nick Castellanos let it drop between them. This allowed Swanson to score easily, however Acuña was not running out of the box, as he was held to a double.

William Contreras ripped a single to score the Atlanta leadoff man, as the Braves walked it off with a six to five victory.

An unlikely comeback by the offense was wasted by poor decisions and bad defense. James No rwood entered a spot that he was not fit for. Nick Nelson was left in a high leverage spot against the top of the Braves order.

These two teams meet again on Wednesday night for another 7:20pm first pitch.