The Philadelphia Phillies let a late lead slip away Sunday and dropped a 5-4 decision to the Atlanta Braves, a result that stung after they had held a three-run advantage with five outs remaining.
Aaron Nola gave the Phillies seven strong innings and allowed just one run. Two solo home runs then padded the lead, and the home crowd at Citizens Bank Park had every reason to believe the game was in hand.
Interim manager Don Mattingly did not sugarcoat how the night felt afterward.
“Oh, for sure,” Mattingly said. “Aaron (Nola) gets us where we need to go, seven solid innings. Then we get the two runs there with the solo home runs, and you feel good. It’s a tough one.”
Derek Hill and Kyle Schwarber supplied those homers. The extra cushion looked decisive until the bullpen could not close it out over the final two innings.
Rookie Alex McFarlane entered in the eighth. He had posted a 0.79 ERA across his first 11 major league appearances, and Mattingly stood by the decision to use him.
“I think it was the right (move) for today,” Mattingly said. “(Jonathan Bowlan) pitches last night. We’ve been seeing the second day the stuff ticks down a little bit. Alex is rested; he’s throwing the ball good. We felt like it was a good spot.”
McFarlane allowed consecutive hits with one out. That brought Ronald Acuña Jr. to the plate as the tying run. Acuña worked a seven-pitch at-bat, all fastballs, and then drove a 100.5 mph pitch over the wall for a game-tying homer. He enjoyed the trip around the bases and later gave himself a curtain call.
Mattingly replayed the sequence in his mind.
“Just watching the at-bat, you felt like he beat them on most of those. And then the six pitches, the first one I felt he was on time. Maybe there it’s something different, but I’m just kind of backseat quarterbacking.”
Atlanta added one more run in the ninth against All-Star closer Jhoan Duran. Two splitters caught too much of the plate, and the Braves turned them into extra-base hits that produced the winning run.
The loss landed at a bad time in the National League East race. Philadelphia needed the win to stay closer in the division standings. Instead the team now faces a steep climb if it hopes to catch Atlanta.
The Phillies remain a near-lock for the postseason. Their path to a division title, however, took a serious hit. They will likely enter October as a wild-card club unless something unexpected happens in the final weeks.
One remaining prize is home-field advantage in the wild-card round. That would require finishing ahead of the Chicago Cubs and claiming the National League’s No. 4 seed. Both clubs sit with 63 losses. Philadelphia must win one more game than Chicago the rest of the way.
The Cubs already own the head-to-head tiebreaker after taking six of seven meetings in April.
The two clubs wrap up their series Monday afternoon. Left-hander Jesus Luzardo will start for the Phillies. Right-hander Bryce Elder is scheduled for Atlanta. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. ET on Labor Day.
Players and coaches will try to put Sunday’s collapse behind them quickly. Nola’s outing gave them a chance they could not finish. Mattingly and the rest of the staff now have to decide how to use the bullpen in the series finale and beyond.
The late innings showed how thin the margin has become. One well-placed fastball or one pitch that stays in the zone can flip a three-run lead. Philadelphia learned that lesson the hard way on Sunday.
