After three encouraging games from the Atlanta Braves offense, they were silenced by Aaron Nola and the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night.
As good as the Atlanta Braves offense looked in the last three games, great pitching will still always beat good hitting.
Aaron Nola has been up-and-down over the last year-plus now, and unfortunately the Braves caught him on a night when he was in complete control.
It also didn’t help that the Braves were without the best player on the planet in Ronald Acuna Jr. for the second straight night. And hours before the game their number three hitter, Marcell Ozuna, was scratched with abdominal pain.
The bottom of the order that had been doing so good was non-existent on Thursday with Adam Duvall, Orlando Arica, and Guillermo Heredia combining to go 0-10 with 4 strikeouts.
Because of the absences of Acuna and Ozuna, Ozzie Albies was forced back to the top of the lineup — even against a righty for some reason — and was 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.
If you’re looking for encouraging signs from the offense on Wednesday, Dansby Swanson, Austin Riley, and William Contreras all picked up hits continuing their hit streaks.
And perhaps the most encouraging development of the night was Matt Olson who picked up a pair of doubles. His double in the ninth was particularly nice as he was able to pull his hands in on a 93 MPH fastball on the inside black and drive it off the right field wall with an exit velocity of 102 MPH.
The low output from the offense shouldn’t overshadow a great start from Kyle Wright, which doesn’t look as great after Will Smith allowed a couple of inherited runners to score with two outs in the 7th that pretty much put the game away for Philadelphia.
Brian Snitker already said Acuna will not play on Friday, but Ozuna was on deck in the ninth as the potential tying run had Adam Duvall reached, so he’ll likely be back in the lineup on Friday.