Phillies find success against a lefty, hold off Atlanta Braves on Craig Kimbrel’s historic night

ATLANTA — A few weeks ago, hitting coach Kevin Long predicted that if Trea Turner put together some good at-bats — maybe three out of four — then he might start looking like the Turner the Phillies signed to a $300 million contract this past offseason.

Time will tell if Long’s prediction proves correct, but Friday night’s 6-4 win over the Atlanta Braves — a win punctuated by Craig Kimbrel’s 400th career save — was a promising start. Turner went 1-for-4 with a walk, but, more importantly, he generally laid off of pitches outside of the zone, swinging at only four pitches that weren’t strikes. There were no emphatic swings at balls in the dirt, like on Wednesday.

In the seventh inning, his patience was rewarded. He lined the ninth pitch he saw from reliever Lucas Luetge, a cutter just inside the zone, to center field for an RBI double. It might have been his best at-bat of the season — and it came against a lefty, no less.

“He’s just slowing the game down,” said manager Rob Thomson. “Take some pitches when he can. Get his timing. Get his rhythm. His at-bats the last three days have been a lot better.”

Turner has struggled in general, but particularly against lefties this season. The right-handed hitter entered Friday’s game batting .182/.260/.318 against them with a .579 OPS. That isn’t much worse than how the Phillies have hit lefties as a whole. Their team OBP of .287 against left-handed pitching ranks 29th in baseball.

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The entire lineup showed some promise in that regard. The Phillies faced lefty Jared Shuster, who’s the Braves’ top prospect according to MLB Pipeline, and worked three walks while scoring three runs and in his 5⅔ innings. They faced another lefty in Luetge and tacked on two more runs and another walk.

“I was [encouraged],” said Thomson. “Especially [with Brandon] Marsh. He had the big hit through the [third base-shortstop] hole. [Bryson] Stott was on base and stealing bases. We created some things tonight, which was good to see.”

The Phillies haven’t gotten much production out of the one- and two-holes in their lineup this season. But on Friday, Stott and Turner collectively went 3-for-7 in those spots. Stott reached base four times, with two hits and two walks. He stole three bases. It isn’t hard to envision how Stott and Turner might change the dynamic of the lineup if they’re both hitting.

“Like I said, he’s the best shortstop in the world,” Stott said. “I mean, I was running like crazy today.”

The Phillies played a better, more aggressive brand of baseball after a game full of sloppy mistakes on in Thursday’s 8-5 loss to Atlanta. When the Braves took a 3-2 lead in the fifth, the Phillies took it back in the next inning and piled on again in the seventh. Unlike Thursday, they were able to keep their lead. Taijuan Walker gave them his longest start of the season — 6⅔ innings, in which he scattered 10 hits and a walk to allow just three runs.

He made two mistakes — a cutter down the middle to Eddie Rosario in the fourth inning for a sacrifice fly and a splitter close to the middle in the fifth inning that Michael Harris hit for a two-run home run. But aside from those two pitches, Walker kept the damage to a minimum.

“He got soft contact when he needed it,” Thomson said. “[First baseman Alec] Bohm made a great play. ... That’s what you have to do.”

There were no ugly defensive errors. They were no ugly baserunning errors. There were no ugly throws to the wrong base. Their lineup capitalized on the Braves’ mistakes, even when the pressure was on. Marsh and Nick Castellanos each had two-out RBIs as the Phillies went 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

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The most adversity they encountered came in the eighth inning, when Marcell Ozuna hit a solo home run off of Matt Strahm to cut the lead to 6-4. But things didn’t spiral out of control, and Strahm got out of the inning.

Kimbrel ended the Phillies’ win with a bit of history, becoming the eighth pitcher in baseball history to reach the 400-save milestone when Ronald Acuna Jr. grounded out to third, representing the tying run. And the momentous save came against the team with which he spent his first five seasons.

All in all, it was good, clean win, the type of win the Phillies need more of.

“I thought we played really well,” Thomson said. “We got a good outing from Taijuan. ... Got good defense. Swung the bats well. Seven walks. That’s good. Those are good at-bats.”