Phillies fall to Braves, 8-7, in 11 innings, fail to extend wild-card lead

After an offensive explosion in the first five innings of Sunday’s game, the Phillies’ bats fell quiet once they returned from a rain delay that lasted 2 hours, 5 minutes. They entered the delay with a one-run lead, and for a while, it looked like the bullpen was going to hold it. But David Robertson allowed an earned run before the game went into extra innings and the Phillies were unable to muster the run support needed to finish the job, falling to the Atlanta Braves, 8-7, in 11 innings.

Nick Nelson gave the Phillies team an inning of hitless ball. José Alvarado followed for the seventh inning, striking out the side and throwing his hardest pitch of the season, a 102.5-mph sinker. But in the top of the eighth, Robertson struggled to get the job done with two outs.

After striking out Travis d’Arnaud and inducing a fly out from Matt Olson, Robertson walked William Contreras and allowed a double to Eddie Rosario. He intentionally walked pinch-hitter Ronald Acuña Jr. to pitch to Robbie Grossman, but he threw a wild pitch that scored Contreras and tie the score at 6.

Seranthony Domínguez came in for the ninth and induced a fly out and allowed a walk to start his outing. Domínguez got some help from backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, who caught Michael Harris stealing for the second out. He struck out Austin Riley to end the inning.

Zach Eflin pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 10th, with one strikeout. He needed just 12 pitches to get through it. Andrew Bellatti allowed two runs (one earned) in the 11th on RBI singles by Acuña and Harris to give the Braves an 8-6 lead. J.T. Realmuto cut the deficit to on run with an RBI single in the 11th, but Nick Maton struck out to end the game. They split the four-game series with the Braves and remained 1½ games ahead of Milwaukee for the final NL wild-card spot as they embark on a three-city road trip starting Tuesday.

“It’s in our own hands right now,” left fielder Kyle Schwarber said. “We’re going to have to go out there and win some ballgames. I don’t think that there should be added pressure on that side. All we have to do is go out there and be prepared and play our style of baseball and we’ll take the result.

“I was kind of in a similar situation last year [with Boston], where it was all the way down to pretty much the last game. And it can be like that, but we’ve got to be able to enjoy it and have fun.”

Whether the Phillies will play in Citizens Bank Park again in 2022 remains to be seen. If they win the National League wild-card series, which they would play on the road because of their seeding, the Phillies would back at home for Game 3 of their National League Division Series.

“That’s what it’s about, is trying to get back here,” Schwarber said. “Have a playoff game, have a playoff atmosphere. Obviously that’s one of our goals. We still have to go down this line of how many games do you have left. But like I said, we’re going to make this fun, exciting times and not put any pressure on ourselves.”

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The Phillies offense has been showing more signs of life lately, and that trend continued early in the game. They got on the board with Schwarber’s home run in the first inning, followed by an RBI single from Alec Bohm and a force out that scored Bryce Harper. Schwarber added a solo home run that gave them a 4-3 lead in the third and Harper and Bohm hit back-to-back sacrifice flies in the fifth to give the Phillies a 6-5 lead before the rain started to fall.

Earlier in the week, it was the Phillies’ younger players who were pulling the offensive load. Sunday, it was top of the lineup: Schwarber, Bohm, Harper, Segura, and Realmuto accounted for the Phillies’ seven RBIs.

September has not been kind to Kyle Gibson. His ERA has soared from 2.30 in August to 9.86 this month, and this outing didn’t help. Gibson gave up seven hits, five earned runs, and two walks through five innings, allowing a home run and a wild pitch. But his velocity was up and he struck out nine. Overall, it was another rough day for the right-handed starter.

“I’d say it was probably the most frustrating thing about the last five starts,” Gibson said. “I went back and actually tracked each hit the last five starts just to see where I threw it, the pitches I was giving hits up on. It’s frustrating to see how many executed pitches I’ve been giving up on hits. My stuff feels great. Body feels great. It’s coming out of the hand good. Just a couple of crazy plays today and some things didn’t go my way. It’s frustrating when you feel like you’re making pitches and it’s not going your way.”

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Schwarber added two home runs to his NL-leading total, hitting one to right field in the first and another to left-center in the third. Schwarber’s first home run traveled 349 feet and the second traveled 361 feet.

Schwarber is the only Phillies player to hit five leadoff home runs and have six multi-homer games in the same season in franchise history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. His 42 home runs are the second-highest total by a Phillies outfielder. (Chuck Klein hit 43 in 1929.)