PHILADELPHIA — Charlie Morton had thrown 100 pitches. A lefty, Aaron Bummer , was ready in the Atlanta Braves bullpen Thursday night. The Philadelphia Phillies saw it.
They anticipated it. But Rob Thomson was not going to pinch-hit for Brandon Marsh . It was the sixth inning, Thomson had already used one of his bench players to replace an injured Alec Bohm , and the Phillies manager said he would have let Marsh hit against Bummer.
Advertisement There are only five lefty hitters with as many at-bats as Marsh who have worse numbers against lefties this season. Marsh has three extra-base hits all season against lefties. Teams have deployed lefty relievers against Marsh all season.
Maybe the Braves aren’t as confident in Bummer, a pitcher they acquired last winter in part to combat all of the Phillies’ lefty hitters, but Marsh against any lefty is not a favorable matchup for the Phillies. Maybe they thought the Phillies would pinch hit. But this is what the Braves chose — Morton vs.
Marsh — and that is when Thursday night took a dramatic turn. A four-run Phillies comeback will not decide the division, but the Phillies went to bed with a six-game lead — not a tenuous four-game one — and it felt rather significant. “There wasn’t a lot of life at all, really,” Nick Castellanos said.
“And then that kind of jumpstarted everything.” Phillies 5, Braves 4. Another classic between these two rivals.
Castellanos won it with a two-run homer in the seventh. Marsh’s t.