Spencer Schwellenbach dominates and Sean Murphy delivers the knockout blow

It was a thorough complete team victory for Atlanta on Saturday night

Having stagnated well behind the mark in both the division and the wild-card, the Braves are in desperate need of a winning streak that has yet to come. They are running out of time and have suffered injuries, but they still have two stellar Spencers to start games and Schwellenbach was the Spencer on the mound tonight. That makes it as good an opportunity as any to start a run.

Things got off to a good start, as Schwellenbach worked around an Eli White miss-played ball turned double in center with two strikeouts for a scoreless frame. Ronald Acuna started things off with a leadoff single in the bottom of the first, as he often does, and came around to score with a solid single from Olson and a swinging bunt single from Riley. Ozzie grounded into a double play with runners on first and second to end the threat. Spencer struck out another two Phillies in the second and the offense again got to work, as an Eli White single and a Stuart Fairchild double off the wall put runners on second and third with one out for Nick Allen. Allen came through with a line drive RBI single, but Fairchild was thrown out at home with a good throw as he tried to score from second. Ronald walked, but Olson was unable to keep the rally going, as he grounded out.

From there we settled in for a few innings, as Schwellenbach continued to mow down Phillies and Luzardo settled in. Ronald walked and Olson doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs in the fifth, but a swinging bunt from Ozuna, a Riley strikeout, and an Albies groundout ended the threat without a run. The Braves had a 2-0 lead, but they had either failed to capitalize or minimally capitalized on a number of major opportunities at this point and were leaving the door open to Philly, despite Schwellenbach’s dominance. A single a walk and a single brought a run back for Philly in the sixth, as Schwellenbach suffered some unlucky BABIP.

Sean Murphy led off the home sixth with a double over Castellanos’ head against Joe Ross in relief of Luzardo. Eli White grounded out and a pinch-hitting Verdugo struck out, but a Nick Allen walk kept the opportunity alive for Ronald Acuna. Acuna worked a full count, but ultimately struck out on a borderline called strike at the top of the zone. Another opportunity squandered.

Spencer Schwellenbach, for his part, closed his outing out with another two strikeouts in a scoreless seventh. That marks a career high in strikeouts at 12 and his fourth straight start of 7+ innings, doing so tonight on only 90 pitches. Spencer only issued one walk and only allowed a run at all on BABIP luck, as he was absolutely dominant and continues to content for the league lead in innings pitched.

Ozuna, Riley, and Ozzie loaded the bases with one out on consecutive singles. This looked like it might be another setup to waste an opportunity when Ozuna stuck at third on Ozzie’s single, but in a plot twist, Sean Murphy delivered in a huge way with a grand slam and his first homer in a month, the Braves’ first grand slam of the year, a bomb launched 455 ft. at 114.4 MPH.

Raisel Iglesias cruised through the eighth with two strikeouts and Rafael Montero managed to finish things off in the ninth.

Join us tomorrow as the Braves look to win the series at 1:35 PM ET.