Braves get pilloried by Phillies, 19-4

Welp! Sometimes you’re the mauler and other times you’re the one getting mauled. The Atlanta Braves have now experienced both ends of that struggle on consecutive days, as they followed up a blowout win in Miami with a blowout loss in Philadelphia to the Phillies, 19-4

The first inning was a lovely one for the Braves, as Aaron Nola got off to an uncharacteristically bad start (at least against Atlanta. Phillies fans are probably used to that from him this season). Jurickson Profar got things going with a single, Matt Olson walked afterwards, Drake Baldwin delievered a one-out single to load the bases and then Ozzie Albies took a bases-loaded walk (!) to put the Braves on the board. Michael Harris II then immediately followed that up with a single to make it a 3-0 game and just like that, it sure seemed like the Braves were off and running and the Phillies were sputtering. The ever-patient and always calm fans in Philadelphia were booing their own team, as usual. The vibes were excellent, even after Ozzie Albies got thrown out trying to steal home on a “double steal.” This was looking like it might’ve been fun! How naive I was!

Then Cal Quantrill took the mound and the Phillies came up to bat and things went sideways immediately. Kyle Schwarber began his historic home run rampage by hitting one in his first at-bat and that was the first of three dingers that Quantrill would give up in the first inning alone. Once the smoke cleared, it was 5-3 Phillies and all of the good vibes from the first inning were gone completely.

That was especially the case as Aaron Nola eventually settled in and got six innings under his belt while only giving up four hits. The Braves met the 2025 version of Nola in the first inning but for the rest of the game, they got the version of Nola that has usually tormented them over the course of his career. On the other side of things, Quantrill only went 3.1 innings but managed to squeeze in nine erned runs on nine hits and four home runs allowed. For those keeping track at home, that’s 19 Phillies runs over 10.2 innings against Quantrill this season. Yeah.

Anyways, two of those four homers that Quantrill gave up were hit by Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber was nowhere near done after that, as he hit another one in the bottom of the fifth inning and then he made history by crushing his fourth homer of the night with a dinger off of Wander Suero in the seventh inning. In fact, Schwarber arguably could’ve made even bigger MLB history by hitting five in one night as he eventually got an at-bat against Vidal Bruján (who, I remind y’all, is not a pitcher). Instead, Bruján did what Cal Quantrill, Austin Cox and Wander Suero (who are pitchers) couldn’t do on this night and that’s keep Schwarber in the ballpark. Schwarber was definitely swinging for the fences but Suero got him to pop out and that was how his wildly successful night ended.

By the time the Phillies were done, they had 19 runs on the board after crushing seven dingers on the night, as J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper both got their licks in since there’s no such thing as an embarrassing loss for the Braves to the Phillies without those two getting involved. The three runs the Braves scored in the first inning looked like they were going to be all she wrote for this one, but Matt Olson showed some signs of life as he hit a hanger from Nola over the fence in right-center for a solo shot. Outside of that, this game was all Phillies as the Braves were completely unable to keep up with Philadelphia in this one.

The hopes weren’t particularly high for Cal Quantrill in this one and unfortunately, he “exceeded” expectations with the way he got blown up by the Phillies tonight. Atlanta’s pitching staff also made some unfortunate history, as they became the first professional baseball team since 1948 to give up four home runs to one player in a single game twice in the same season. Yes, I wrote “professional” because this includes every level of pro baseball. Atlanta’s pitching staff has had some struggles this season and the valleys have been as low as you could ever fathom (credit to Jacob Pomrenke for digging up that particular gem).

There’s no choice but to go again, as the Braves will now turn to Bryce Elder to stop the bleeding as he’ll get the start tomorrow night. In related news, I am now counting the minutes until Chris Sale returns to the mound.