For three innings, things were going well for the Phillies. Despite being forced to utilize a bullpen game, they had a 1-0 lead over the Braves. By the time the fourth inning ended, they found themselves trailing 8-1 as Grant Holman had a debut he (and everyone else) would like to forget. The rest of the game was mostly cursory as the Braves coasted to a 12-2 win.
After Friday night’s game when extra innings forced the Phillies to use five relievers, it certainly wasn’t welcome news that Jesus Luzardo was experiencing shoulder stiffness and wouldn’t be able to make his start. Don Mattingly would need to piece together nine innings from his beleaguered bullpen.
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Tim Mayza got the start and thanks in part to inducing two double plays, he pitched three scoreless innings.
He got some early run support off the bat of Bryce Harper who hit one deep and then apparently tried to send a message with an especially slow home run trot.
You know what else would send a message, Bryce? Avoiding mistakes on the basepaths! Or getting back to the patient approach that was working so well last month. I think that would make much more of an impact than a home run trot in the first inning of a game you’d eventually lose by double digits.
After Mayza’s time was up, Brooks Raley was the next man in. After his failure on Friday night, Raley spent Saturday putting himself up there with Brandon Workman and Asdrubal Cabrera in terms of worst trade deadline pickups ever.
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With one out, Ronald Acuna tied the game at one with a solo home run.
Raley actually struck out the next batter before allowing a walk and a single. This was a critical spot of the game, so naturally Mattingly decided this was the time for Grant Holman to make his season debut.
Holman spent the previous two seasons with the A’s, but was placed on waivers in May, and subsequently claimed by the Phillies. He pitched pretty well in AAA as a reliever and has been on the roster since the beginning of September, but the team didn’t trust him to appear in a game…until now.
How did that go?
It went stolen base, single, fielding error by Bryson Stott (who has apparently forgotten how to play baseball), walk, wild pitch, double, single, fly out. By the time the inning was over, the Braves led 8-1.
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The rest of the game was mostly cursory. The Braves scored a few more. The Phillies got one back on a Justin Crawford home run of all things, and Garrett Stubbs pitched the final 2.2 innings.
Andrew Painter will start the series finale on Sunday as the Phillies will attempt to salvage the final game of what has been a disastrous series so far.
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