3 Takeaways from Friday night’s Atlanta Braves big comeback vs the Phillies

It was unlikely, improbable, and impossible and yet our Atlanta Braves pulled all of that off – again – in a game that should have the Phillies muttering about themselves.

8 WINS IN A ROW.  As great as it was to see this comeback from the Atlanta Braves last night, this was a contest that will probably eat at the visiting team for some time to come.

Why is that?  Because it wasn’t so much that Atlanta stopped the potent Philadelphia offense:  Max Fried gave up 5 runs and they added 3 additional runs later from various bullpen efforts (though 2 were unearned).

Overall, they recorded 9 hits (3 homers) and were walked 5 times.  Certainly, Braves fans were holding their collective breath every time they came to the plate thanks to only a pair of 1-2-3 innings.

Instead it was all about the Philadelphia pitching… or was it?  We’ll explore that later…

• Nick Pivetta:  excellent early, but in an ironic twist, was left in the game too long, giving up 3 runs in the 6th and 7th innings (4 total from 3 homers).
• No Philly reliever left unscathed with all giving up hits
• In the end, though it was 2 of their most reliable arms that gave up the most damage:  5 runs.

Jose Alvarez had a string of 18 straight appearances in which he gave up exactly 1 earned run between April 19 and June 7.  Since April 10, nothing above 1 run at all.

Last night:  it was 2 runs allowed… raising his ERA by around 4/10th of a run.

Hector Neris:  before last night, his ERA had been 1.88.  He had given up 2 runs this year on 2 occasions – one of those being Opening Day against the Braves, but never since April 25th.

Neris had been on a solid streak of his own:  17 appearances with just 2 earned runs scoring.

Friday night?  He gave up the critical 3 runs to end the game.  His new ERA stands at 2.76.

With that as a backdrop, here’s 3 Tomahawk Takeaways to Friday’s victory.