The offense disappeared on Friday. They reappeared on Saturday. They disappeared again on Sunday.
A solo home run from Sean Murphy in the second inning was all the Atlanta Braves could muster up as far as scoring was concerned on Sunday afternoon. Philadelphia’s lineup didn’t do much better against Spencer Strider and Atlanta’s bullpen but a good performance from Atlanta’s pitching staff once again went to the wayside as the lineup mostly wilted in a 2-1 series loss to the Phillies.
It didn’t take too long for the scoring to get underway between these two teams. n fact we got a nice little callback to last night’s breakout moment for the Braves. Sean Murphy was the one who cracked last night’s game open with a grand slam and sure enough, Murphy was the one to deliver the first run of this game on a solo shot. At this point, the Braves were on the front foot and looking to take advantage, though runs proved hard to come by in this one.
Indeed, both Spencer Strider and Ranger Suárez were busy trading zeroes for the most part while they were out there. Both pitchers only had one inning where they gave up a run and unfortunately for Strider and the Braves, those runs came in the top of the fifth for Philadelphia. Bryson Stott and Otto Kemp got things going for Philly with a single and a double, respectively, with Kemp’s double being a sharp liner near the third base line that plated Stott to tie the game up. Philadelphia then proceeded to A-B-C their way into taking the lead — Brandon Marsh’s sacrifice bunt moved Kent over to home and then Trea Turner hit a deep fly that was enough to bring home Kemp and push the Phillies ahead by a run. Kyle Schwarber got on with a walk and then stole second in order to get into scoring position but nothing materialized from the threat as Strider finished off the rest of the inning.
From that point forward, it was all about the pitching. Both starters were done after the seventh inning and upon reflection, this wasn’t a bad start from Strider at all. The strikeout numbers certainly weren’t as gaudy as you’d like to see them but I think every baseball fan on Earth would take seven innings with just two runs allowed from their starter, right? Strider had to deal with a lot of traffic (as the five hits and three walks allowed would indicate) but ultimately, he kept the Braves in the game. Instead, Atlanta just had another rough time dealing with Philadelphia’s pitching staff as Ranger Suárez and company were too effective for the Braves lineup to handle once again. On the other side of things, both Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias pitched scoreless innings today and it’s especially nice to see Iglesias continue to work out the kinks that have thrown his season for a loop so far.
Eventually, this game got to the bottom of the ninth with the score still 2-1 and Trea Turner’s sacrifice fly still being the difference in the game. Atlanta looked to seize upon a little bit of hope after Ozzie Albies delivered a one-out single and ended up on third with two outs after Matt Strahm uncorked a wild pitch as the fourth ball to Eli White. A hit would’ve tied the game up at this point but with Stuart Fairchild coming up to bat, it was a longshot. Fairchild gave it a ride with a fly ball to right center but it eventually landed harmlessly in Brandon Marsh’s glove in order to give the Phillies the series win.
Well, if you can’t score then you can’t win! Another anemic performance at the plate doomed the Braves to yet another loss. They only had two baserunners make it to second base in this one (much less past it) and you read about them in this recap: Sean Murphy’s second inning home run and Ozzie Albies getting all the way to third on a wild pitch after he had been awarded a free trip to second base any way on the walk during the ninth inning. All credit is due to Ranger Suárez and the rest of Philadelphia’s pitching staff for completely clamping down on Atlanta’s lineup once again but at the same time, we’ve seen this disappearing act from Atlanta’s lineup one too many times so far here in 2025 — and I doubt that we’ve seen the last of it, either.
Anyways, the Braves will now get an off day to ruminate on their current lot in baseball life and they’ll be facing the Angels on Tuesday starting at 7:15 p.m. ET. Hey, at least Matt Olson’s on-base streak is now up to 30 games, so there’s that?