Braves Bullpen Slips, Dropping Series Opener to Phillies

The Atlanta Braves dropped a lead late against the Philadelphia Phillies, losing the series opener 5-4 in Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday night.

Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.

Charlie Morton lost it, found it again, and lost it at the very end

Spoiler alert: The "it" is his curveball.

Charlie Morton didn't look great early in this outing - he took 23 pitches to get through the first inning, which started with a four-pitch walk of Kyle Schwarber and saw a second walk in the inning, resulting in runners on 2nd and 3rd with only one out.

(Runners being on base was a theme, in fact: Morton allowed the leadoff man for Philly to reach in five of his six innings.)

But sometime in the third inning, Morton fixed whatever issue was going on with his curveball. Starting the inning with eight straight non-benders, he finally broke the pitch back out and after a misfire to Edmundo Sosa, got four consecutive strikes on the pitch. The runners-being-on-base theme continued despite the curveball's re-emergence, with Philly getting someone on in every inning, but Morton stranded them every time...until the 6th inning.

After allowing two singles in the span of three batters, Morton hung a center-cut curveball to Brandon Marsh and he didn't miss - the homer plated three for Philly and cut Atlanta's lead down to just one run.

The frustrating thing is this: Atlanta had lefty groundball specialist Aaron Bummer up and ready in the pen, but they used a mound visit to chat with Morton and insteadof going to Bummer, left Morton in there to give up the bomb.

Even when Brandon Marsh has batted just .200 with a .534 OPS against lefties in 74 plate appearances this season and with Aaron Bummer literally being elite at both inducing groundballs and not allowing barrels, Marsh got to face the righty Morton for a third time instead of the lefty Bummer.

Related: Why Aren't The Braves Using Aaron Bummer?

The other frustrating thing is this: This isn't the first time manager Brian Snitker has left a starter in the game too long in Citizens Bank Park - Bryce Elder in the NLDS comes to mind, among other examples.

Morton finished the game with the three runs allowed in 5.2 innings, putting ten batters on (five hits, four walks, and a HBP) with seven strikeouts.

Matt Olson - so hot right now

Matt Olson came into tonight's game on his hottest streak of the season - since August 10th, a span of 18 games, he had five homers and a .921 OPS, getting on base in all but two of those games.

He was even hotter tonight.

Olson went deep twice tonight, finishing 2 for 4. His first homer was an absolutely majestic blast, going 450 feet to dead center and over the batter's eye.

The second was almost as impressive - 427 feet off the bat, he pulled an inside changeup for the homer at 110 off the bat. These were only the 2nd and 3rd career homers given up by Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez to a lefty.

The homers put the coda on several bits of domination for Olson: Over his last six games, he's 10-for-24 with four homers, five doubles, 12 RBI and nine runs scored. And in his career in Citizens Bank Park, spanning 22 games, Olson has 14 homers, 16 doubles, and 26 RBI - his third-highest homer total for any individual ballpark, behind only his current home ballpark of Truist Park and his former home ballpark, the Oakland Coliseum. Overall, Olson has 18 career home runs in 166 lifetime at-bats against the Phillies.

Maybe he'll take a page from Chipper Jones, who named his son 'Shea' as a nod to his success in the former home of the New York Mets, and name his next child 'Citizens Bank Park.'

Minnesota's bullpen usage impacted this one

The Braves had to throw their high-leverage relievers in both of the final two games in Minnesota to secure what became a sweep - Joe Jiménez and Raisel Iglesias both went on both of the final two days, combining for 71 pitches across the four outings.

So Atlanta went with Aaron Bummer and Grant Holmes in this one, but after Philly was blown out by the Houston Astros in their series finale yesterday afternoon, they saved their high-leverage arms.

And as we predicted last night , this discrepancy came back to bite the Braves.

Bummer and Holmes combined for two runs allowed in 2.1 innings, on two hits and two walks, with Holmes taking the loss after allowing a Nick Castellanos homer in the 7th inning.

The trio of Orion Kerkering, Matt Strahm, and Jeff Hoffman, however combined for 3.1 scoreless innings with no hits or walks, striking out five and sealing the win.

What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?

Atlanta's going to gear up for what is as close to a must-win as you can get in late August - Philly's lead in the division moved back to six games with tonight's victory, so three consecutive wins would lower it back down to a manageable three-game lead.

Reynaldo López (7-4, 2.02) takes on lefty Ranger Suárez (11-5, 2.82) at 6:40 PM ET.