Braves give up consecutive walk-offs, lose road series vs. Phillies.

The Atlanta Braves lost an away series against the Philadelphia Phillies two games to one after a strong first game followed by bullpen struggles that have plagued the Braves all season.

In the first game of the series, the Braves were able to weather a middle inning storm from the Phillies to win 9-6. Atlanta struck first in the game on an RBI double by third baseman Austin Riley. Second baseman Ozzie Albies was walked on the previous at-bat and was able to round the bases on Riley’s hit to score a run.

After a scoreless second inning, outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. took a first-pitch fastball by Philadelphia starting pitcher Aaron Nola to the stands with a 430-foot home run to take a 2-0 lead. This was his 18th home run on the season, to take the lead in the MLB. The Phillies responded quickly with Nola hitting a sacrifice grounder to drive third baseman Alec Bohm home to make it a 2-1 game.

The fourth and fifth innings continued the competitive game, with each team scoring a single run in each inning to make it a 4-3 game. Philadelphia responded in the sixth inning with two runs on a home run by catcher J.T. Realmuto and an RBI single by pinch hitter Brad Miller to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead.

The game stayed silent until the eighth inning, when the Braves caught fire. Riley hit a solo home run to spark the bats, and Atlanta followed with what would become a five-run inning to give the Braves a 9-5 lead that they would hold onto with a pair of strong closing innings by pitchers A.J. Minter and Will Smith. 

On Wednesday, the Braves got an impressive starting performance by pitcher Tucker Davidson, who gave up four hits and no runs in six innings. After a scoreless five innings, the Braves were able to rally in the sixth after hitting into a double play. Shortstop Dansby Swanson and outfielder Abraham Almonte reached base before catcher William Conteras delivered an RBI single to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead.

After a strong bullpen performance in the first game on Tuesday, the woes returned with closing pitcher Will Smith giving up a walk-off two-run homer by Luke Williams. This was the first career homer for Williams in his first career start in the MLB to give the Phillies a 2-1 win to tie up the series going into Thursday. 

Starting pitcher Ian Anderson followed Davidson’s big performance on Wednesday with a 7-inning start where he gave up zero runs and added four strikeouts. Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler pitched a gem with eight scoreless innings to go along with 12 strikeouts.

Philadelphia scored the first run of the game in the eighth inning on an RBI double by second baseman Jean Segura, but the reigning NL MVP Freddie Freeman struck back in the top of the ninth with a straightaway home run to tie the game at 1-1. After a quick ninth inning by pitcher Luke Jackson, the final game of the series went to extra innings.

With Swanson starting at second in the to of the 10th, Almonte grounded out to send Swanson to third with one out. After walking outfielder Guillermo Heredia, a wild pitch by pitcher Jose Alvarado gave Swanson the window to make it home to take the lead while Heredia advanced to second. After a hard fought trio of at-bats, Freeman came up to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded. After another wild pitch, Heredia was able to steal home to take a 3-1 lead before Freeman grounded out to first to send it to the bottom of the 10th.

With the game on the line, closing pitcher Chris Martin came into the game to earn a save. After a passed ball allowed catcher Rafael Marchan to move to third, Bohm singled to make it a 3-2 game. In the next at-bat outfielder Odubel Herrera delivered a double that moved Bohm up to third with no outs. After a first-pitch strike to Segura, he connected on a double after a hanging slider by Martin that sent home Bohm and Herrera to give up a walk-off on consecutive days.

The Braves moved to 29-31 and drop behind the Phillies at third in the NL East and fail to move back to .500 on the season. After a disappointing series, the Braves go on the road again, this time in a weekend series against the 26-35 Miami Marlins, starting on Friday.