Spencer Schwellenbach cruised through the Phillies’ lineup and set a new career high in strikeouts Saturday night in Atlanta.
The Braves righty dominated in a 6-1 Atlanta victory at Truist Park. He logged seven innings, notched 12 strikeouts, and allowed one run, three hits and one walk.
Jesus Luzardo started for the Phillies and fell to 7-4 this season. He went five innings, conceded two runs and seven hits, struck out seven and walked three.
The Phillies dropped to 48-35 with their fourth defeat in the past five games. They’ve totaled two runs in the losses and scored 13 runs in the lone win Friday night.
Atlanta jumped out to a first-inning lead. Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson’s singles put runners on the corners. After Luzardo struck out Marcell Ozuna looking, Austin Riley’s nubber to second base wound up becoming an RBI infield hit.
The bottom of the Braves’ order worked deep counts in the second inning. With one out, Eli White walked and Stuart Fairchild lined an opposite-field double. Nick Allen’s single to left field drove in White, but Max Kepler threw out Fairchild by a wide margin at home plate and the Phils kept their deficit at 2-0.
Schwellenbach was very sharp all night, piling up the whiffs and troubling the Phillies with well-located off-speed pitches.
Nick Castellanos waved at a high-quality slider to wrap up a 1-2-3 top of the fourth. Schwellenbach needed just seven pitches to retire the Phillies in order in the fifth inning. The Phils swung at 14 of his sliders and missed nine times.
Luzardo’s third and fourth innings were smoother than his first two. He then escaped damage in the fifth by recording two groundouts and a strikeout with a pair of Braves in scoring position.
The Phils got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning. Brandon Marsh singled with one out, Kyle Schwarber reached on a two-walk, and Alec Bohm delivered an RBI single up the middle.
The Braves broke the game open against Jordan Romano.
Sean Murphy demolished a first-pitch slider for a seventh-inning grand slam, extending Atlanta’s advantage to five runs. The exit velocity on Murphy’s blast was 114.4 mph.
The series decider will be Saturday at 1:35 p.m ET. Ranger Suarez (6-2, 2.08 ERA) is slated to face Spencer Strider (3-5, 4.07 ERA).
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