With the Atlanta Braves, the one thing that absolutely couldn't happen was the bullpen faltering. The rotation may be shallow behind Chris Sale and Tyler Mahle and the offense can be infuriating, but the bullpen has been their rock. Unfortunately, the relievers picked the absolute worst time to stumble.
It all started in the eighth where Braves manager Walt Weiss brought in Dylan Lee with a 3-1, which seemed like a great idea with some tough lefties coming up. Unfortunately, those tough lefties, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper hit a pair of absolute nukes off of him to tie the game. The inning wouldn't get worse than that thankfully, but the damage was done.
Unfortunately, that was not the only faltering the bullpen would do on this day. Didier Fuentes came in to get the final out of the ninth and helped force extra innings. He would return for the 10th and got two outs straight away, but Alec Bohm (of course) hit an opposite field home run that basically scraped the wall going out. It would prove to be the winning run.
ALEC BOHM GO-AHEAD HOMER
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2026
PHILLIES LEAD IN THE 10TH 🤯 pic.twitter.com/S4wFOFyDq1
The Braves' bullpen blew the one game they couldn't afford to to blow
The two homers from Schwarber and Harper were just on bad pitches from Lee, who continues to look incredibly shaky almost every time he is out there. Fuentes got a bit unlikely on a fly ball that didn't even get to 100 MPH EV, but he didn't look particularly great in Game One and looked flustered after the homer.
At the end of the day, the Braves can still go out tomorrow and win to advance. Facing Cristopher Sanchez was always going to be a tough win, but the Braves had a ton of chances to do just that. The offense is definitely not blameless, as this is a game that should have never gone to extras. Now, they lose a potential extra day off at best, and potentially face elimination at worst with a bullpen that is hard to have confidence in at the moment. There were two straight high leverage games and Weiss hasn't brought Robert Suarez in. That may be telling us something.
Even if the Braves win Game Three and get to the NLDS, does anyone want to watch these relievers try to keep the Dodgers in check. Atlanta is in trouble if the bullpen can't get their act together, no matter what happens against the Phillies.
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