Daily News | Braves take advantage of a rare Seranthony Domínguez meltdown and pile on the Phillies
ATLANTA — Facing the reigning World Series champion Braves in their home ballpark never was going to be an easy, and for the first seven innings of Friday’s game, the Phillies played a pesky brand of baseball, one that seemed to be working against the Braves, and held a one-run lead. Then came the eighth, the turning point in their 7-2 loss Friday night.
“He was just spraying the ball a little bit,” said interim manager Rob Thomson of Domínguez. “His velocity was good. But you can’t walk the leadoff hitter, that’s the old saying, right. It just got away from us.”The Phillies’ J.T. Realmuto is dominating the bases unlike any other player in baseball Unable to finish the inning, Domínguez exited for Nick Nelson, who allowed two hits and another earned run to give the Braves a six-run-eighth inning and a 7-2 lead. To make matters worse, the Phillies outfielders botched a routine fly ball from Ozzie Albies that would have ended the inning. Instead, it scored a run. It was an ugly sequence of events.
It was a stark turnaround from what they had been doing earlier in the game. They worked Braves starter Max Fried to to 110 pitches through six innings. The lefty gave up three walks for the month of August but allowed three walks against the Phillies. In the top of the fourth inning, Kyle Schwarber worked a 10 pitch at-bat, which ended in a line-drive home run, his 39th of the season, which is a career-high for him.
After William Contreras tied it up with a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, Jean Segura responded with another solo home run of his own an inning later.