Braves come up short in 2-1 loss to Phillies
The Atlanta Braves struggled to produce any offense against Zack Wheeler and came up short in a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Charlie Morton and Wheeler went back and forth for the first four innings. The Phillies broke through first against Morton in the fifth. Brandon Marsh singled and then moved all the way to third on a double by Kody Clemens. Bryson Stott followed with a sac-fly giving the Phillies a 1-0 lead. Trea Turner extended the lead with a double that scored Clemens to make it 2-0.
Morton returned for the sixth and allowed a leadoff single to Alec Bohm. He then struck out Brandon Marsh, but allowed another single to Clemens. That would end his afternoon as Brian Snitker turned to A.J. Minter. Minter got Stott to fly out to left for the second out and then escaped the jam as Turner grounded out on a nice play by Austin Riley to keep the deficit at 2-0.
Morton had plenty of traffic on the bases allowing seven hits and four walks, but kept the Braves in it with nine strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.
strikeouts for Uncle Charlie. pic.twitter.com/PNFt847ocu — Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) May 27, 2023
The Braves had no answer for Wheeler though as he dominated his way through eight innings. He retired the first eight men he faced until he hit Michael Harris with two outs in the third inning. Ronald Acuña Jr. followed with a single, but Matt Olson flew out for the final out.
Sean Murphy doubled with one out in the fourth, but Wheeler retired Marcell Ozuna and Eddie Rosario to leave him stranded. He retired seven more in a row before Austin Riley extended his hitting streak to 10-straight games with a two-out double in the sixth. However Wheeler struck out Murphy to again keep the Braves off the scoreboard.
Wheeler allowed just three hits and a walk over eight shutout innings. He struck out a season-high 12 while throwing 106 pitches.
Murphy brought the Braves to within a run with a solo home run in the ninth inning off of Craig Kimbrel. However, they would get no closer as Kimbrel struck out Ozuna and Rosario to end the game.
The loss is Atlanta’s second straight and drops their season record to 31-21. They will try to salvage a split in the series Sunday with Spencer Strider on the mound.
Source: Battery Power
