Phillies lose to Braves on walk-off hit as bullpen implodes against NL East rival

ATLANTA — It was bound to happen.

Sooner or later, with a half-dozen of their most trusted relievers on the injured list, the Phillies’ bullpen was going to implode. It was a matter of time. Given how shorthanded they are and how frequently they’ve had to lean on the healthy arms that remain, they have defied baseball logic for too long.

But that didn’t make what happened here Friday night any less devastating.

The Phillies led by five runs in the seventh inning and four runs in the eighth. They had near-perfect closer Hector Neris on the mound with a two-run lead in the ninth -- on his 30th birthday, no less -- and twice he was one strike away from ending the game in the opener of a three-game series against the division-leading Atlanta Braves.

Yet there was Neris making the slow walk back to the dugout after Brian McCann’s two-run bloop single into left-center field sent the Braves to an improbable 9-8 victory and the largest crowd of the season so far at SunTrust Park -- 41, 975 strong, all Tomahawk-chopping until the end -- into a state of delirium.

“Crushing loss,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “No way around it.”

Said Neris: “[McCann] got like terrible contact and he got a single. I don’t control that. I just throw the pitch that I wanted for a strikeout. I’ll come in tomorrow and do my job.”

Against all odds, the Braves won their eighth consecutive game -- and their sixth in a row over the Phillies in Atlanta, fast becoming a city of horrors for Kapler’s crew. They have won 11 of their last 13 games and built a 2 1/2-game lead over the Phillies in the NL East.

“Those guys are playing very, very well right now,” left fielder Jay Bruce said. “I think no one’s going out there not trying to do what they can to win the game. We had good at-bats, Pivetta did a good job, and these guys, they came out of the pen doing the best they can. I mean, they beat us tonight.”

The Phillies raced to a 7-2 lead on the strength of home runs from Bryce Harper, Scott Kingery and Rhys Hoskins. It marked only their third multi-homer game this month and just their eighth since May 7.

And the way Nick Pivetta was going, the lead seemed as safe as could be. Even after Pivetta gave up a solo homer to Brian McCann on a well-executed fastball to open the seventh inning, he seemed to be in control, so much so that Kapler allowed his pitch count to rise to a career-high 116 before turning to the bullpen.

“We consistently thought he was the best option to get the next couple of hitters out,” Kapler said.But Pivetta gave up a two-out double to Ronald Acuna Jr., then walked Dansby Swanson. The Phillies called on starter-turned-setup man Vince Velasquez, who gave up an RBI single to Freddie Freeman that chopped the lead to 7-4.

The Phillies scored another run in the eighth inning only to see lefty Jose Alvarez and right-hander Edubray Ramos combine to give up two in the bottom of the inning. Even then, though, Neris was 14-for-14 in save opportunities. No sweat, right?

Neris gave up a leadoff single to Swanson, and after retiring dangerous Freddie Freeman and Josh Donaldson -- both of whom had homered against Pivetta -- he walked Nick Markakis on four pitches.Upstart rookie Austin Riley lined an RBI double into left field to make it 8-7 and bring McCann to the plate.

The Phillies discussed walking McCann to load the bases for Ozzie Albies. But they decided against it.

“We felt like we had the right matchup there,” Kapler said. “Albies is the kind of guy that, if he puts the ball in play, he can beat out a single. There are so many things that can happen. [Neris'] split can go by the catcher. We just thought the right thing there was to let him go after McCann.”

And Neris did, working the count even at 2-2. The final pitch, a signature Neris splitter, was lifted into the gap between Bruce and Kingery.

“I felt like I had a fine jump. I felt like it was just placed perfectly,” Bruce said. “Hindsight’s always 20-20. If I dive for it, obviously we’ll never know. But I didn’t feel like I could get to it. Really, I didn’t.”

Swanson and Markakis scored, the Braves celebrated, and Neris made that long walk that was bound to happen sooner or later. The Phillies just would’ve preferred that it not happen against the team they’re chasing."It’s just a devastating loss," Kapler said. “That’s a game that we expect to win every time.”