It’s still June, right? Braves 5, Phillies 1

When previewing the series between the Phillies and Braves, I surmised that Kyle Schwarber’s red-hot month of June would continue and lead to a series win for the Phillies. But apparently, Schwarber has been faked out by the unseasonably mild weather, and his red hotness got left behind on the West Coast. He wasn’t the only Phillie to have a bad day, but his struggles were the most prominent as the team dropped a 5-1 ten-inning game to the Atlanta Braves.

If you just saw the 5-1 score, you might assume we got another poor start from Aaron Nola. But this was Nola’s best performance in a while, striking out five and only giving up two hits - one of which should probably have been caught by Schwarber in left field - in six shutout innings.

Unfortunately, the team probably needed to get seven innings out of him. Maybe you can get away with using the Yunior Martes of the world in key spots against the A’s, but the Braves are going to take advantage of a bullpen, once they get past the triumvirate of Gregory Soto, Jose Alvarado, and Craig Kimbrel.

To be fair, Marte was the victim of some bad luck in the tenth inning. The first batter to face him advanced the automatic runner to third, prompting a drawn in infield which Ronald Acuna promptly singled past. A single and strikeout left the Braves with runners at the corners and two outs. Marte then got Austin Riley to hit a line drive to left that Schwarber somehow did not catch.

It is currently ruled a hit but come on; The ball bounced off his glove! Marcel Ozuna followed with a two-run home run that ended any hopes of a Phillies comeback.

Normally, when the Phillies’ offense struggles at it did on Thursday, there are multiple wasted scoring opportunities with a lot of runners left on base. But Braves starter Bryce Elder held them in check all afternoon. The only time they had a runner reach second base in regulation came in the fifth when they had two on and two outs. That minor threat was ended by a Schwarber strikeout.

The Phillies only run came via Alec Bohm’s too little, too late sacrifice fly in the tenth. Fittingly, the game ended with Schwarber at the plate. His groundout capped off a 0-5 day.

The good news is that the Phillies are done with the Braves for a while. The bad news is that the Mets are coming to town next. And for whatever reason, poor efforts like the one we saw on Thursday have become commonplace whenever those two teams take the field.