GDT 10/12/22 Philadelphia Phillies (Wheeler) @ Atlanta Braves (Wright)

[EastFallowfield]

I was worried when they got to this round that we'd have one game at CBP and it would be the finale of the Braves sweeping. Now I'm just dreading a best of 5 version of the 1983 World Series.

[Aquapong]

Man Arod jumped on Hoskins first thing in the post game.

[LoneStarPhan]

Truth is that I also hoped to take one in Atlanta before coming back to Philadelphia. Then we win the first game and visions of a sweep danced in my head. Wheeler was matching Wright shutout inning for shutout inning until the HBP with two outs in the sixth. Unlike yesterday, the fielding to bail him out failed and the Braves scored. Neither team scored in any other half inning. The Phillies had only 3 hits; the Braves 4. A very tough loss but the Phillies come home with the series tied up at one game each.

[zambonir]

"I think if you asked Rhys he'd say he should have made that play..." - Thomson

[VoteForKalas]

Phillies dropped a golden opportunity unfortunately, but we still have home field and have Nola going in Game 3.

Hoskins definitely needs to make that defensive play, but the offense also slept walked through most of the game.

Win Friday and the pressure is back on the Braves big time

[allentown]

It seemed that the manager's optimism led to Wheeler being tortured in the sixth. He threw a ton of pitches, was laboring, and had clearly lost his control, if not his velocity. I hope we don't read about an aggravation of Wheeler's arm injury. It was unclear whether his hit batsman was the first sign of loss of control or if this unnerved him.

[zambonir]

All true but no manager in baseball gives Wheeler a quick hook there, and if Rhys makes the play, inning over. And not sure anyone could (or should) have been warmed up before it was 2-0.

Let's hope he was unnerved, or even just a little tired, and not more than that.

[flyers19rw]

It was a marvelous display of gamesmanship by the Braves after the HBP. Wheeler was on a roll and they were doing little against him. Needed to break him from his rhythm. Not going to say the the HBP didn't sting Acuna but the amount of time that he spent recovering there was better than a rain delay. He stayed in the game and showed little impact from being hit.

[zambonir]

Having just read Rosenthal's article about it I think that was just good luck, as it were. He could not squeeze the trainers hand. They wanted him to come out. He refused. Even on the replay you could see it was probably just numbness or a bruise. They still rushed him to the training room the minute he scored to be sure he could throw well enough to go back on in defense.

I'm assuming Wheeler was unnerved that the pitch didn't go where he wanted as much as that he hit a guy.

[andyb]

I can't really fault Thomson for leaving Wheeler in. He got a little flustered after the HBP (the walk mainly) but other than that it is not as if he got hit really hard. Overall pitch count was fine and they did pull him after the long inning.

This was kind of baseball karma evening out after game 1 where we got all the key 2-out hits. None of this works unless we get our top of the order going.

[David_Criss]

Did Wheeler get to throw a couple warm up pitches after Acuna and the trainers halted play for so many minutes?

[gmwannabe]

good point. didn't see.

[EDmuch]

As this whole plot line develops., I think we need to win the start by Morton. Strider dominate us. So we have to step up when Morton u is a on the mound.

[zambonir]

Fortunately Strider is a big question mark in terms of his exact availability. And so is Morton, lately, in terms of his performance. Phils have the edge in Game 3 regardless so if you are the Braves do you put Morton in that game and go bullpen vs. bullpen in Game 4 or do a bullpen game (including Strider) vs. Nola (and then hope Morton beats the Phillies' patchwork in Game 4.

If they save Morton for Game 4 Strider might be available for another short outing in Game 5 too.

[Lucky_Beagle]

I didn't read anything about the comment Smoltz (I think) made about wondering why Wheeler threw an offspeed (slider? at least not a fastball) when he was throwing the fastball past him.

[EDmuch]

I would think they would start Falter in Game 4 rather than a bullpen game. If Nola could deliver a Game 3 win that would really set us up.

[zambonir]

I consider Falter and "bullpen game" to be synonymous. He won't face the top of Braves order three times, and they might even let Thor or Gibson (yeah, I know) open.

[EastFallowfield]

Yes he did, you could hear it happening, fans booed a little too.

[EDmuch]

If he would start Gibson in game 4, the Phil’s should cancel his contrsct

[Sabin]

I consider Falter and "bullpen game" to be synonymous.

Yeah, but they really aren't.