Braves at Phillies series recap: A sweeping statement

*Braves 9, Phillies 0*

This was the perfect way for the Braves to start off this series, as Atlanta dominated this one from start-to-finish. The big story in this one was Austin Riley essentially picking up where he left off in that series win in Cobb County against the Marlins. He nearly had two dingers in that series finale, as one actually went over the fence and the other nearly went out but stayed in the stadium for a double. The ol’ bandbox in Philadelphia couldn’t contain Riley on this night, as he hit two bombs and plated four RBIs as he continued to make his presence felt for the Braves.

Saturday, April 18

*Braves 3, Phillies 1*

Right after the Braves got done shutting Philadelphia out with the unlikely-but-apparently-dynamic duo of Martín Pérez and Jose Suarez, it couldn’t have been a comforting thought for the Phillies knowing that their next trip to the ballpark meant that they’d have to contend with Chris Sale. Indeed, Sale ended up making life very difficult for Philadelphia’s lineup in this one as he finished up with just one run allowed on five hits while also striking out seven batters. The only blemish for Sale on the night came from Felix Reyes hitting a home run in the very fist at-bat of his major league career — outside of that, Sale did his job in ensuring that the misery continued for the Phillies.

Sunday, April 19

*Braves 4, Phillies 2*

We got another example of Walt Weiss putting his thumb on the scale when it comes to his bullpen decision-making. The Braves were clinging to the 4-2 lead (that eventually became the final score) in the fifth innings after they had pushed three runs across the plate in the top half of the inning in order to get to that point. Grant Holmes got into a situation where there was a runner on second with Kyle Schwarber set to come up to the plate. Instead of giving the Phillies a third crack at Holmes, Weiss made a shrewd decision to go to Aaron Bummer in order to get the final out of the fifth. While Bummer did give up a double to Schwarber, he induced a ground ball that Austin Riley made a great play on in order to end the inning. Again, that decision ended up being crucial since the game ended up finishing 4-2. I’m not going to sit here and say that former manager Brian Snitker is a bad manager because that would be a lie but also I think we all know that this would’ve been handled differently if Snitker had been in charge. It’s likely that Snit would’ve kept Holmes in the game in order to let him get through five and qualify for the win. Instead of being loyal to a fault, Weiss decided to go with a fresh arm in that situation and the decision paid off. There are pros and cons to both approaches but if you’d rather see managers approach games with more of a sense of urgency then you had to have liked what you saw from Weiss in this moment.