PHILADELPHIA -- For six innings Friday night, the Phillies were close enough to make Chris Sale sweat.
Then Atlanta slammed the door.
The Phillies opened perhaps their most consequential series of the season with a 5-2 loss to the Braves at Citizens Bank Park, a night defined less by one crushing mistake than by a collection of opportunities Philadelphia simply failed to cash.
And once those chances disappeared, so did the Phillies’ offense.
Atlanta pitchers retired the final 12 Phillies hitters in order, turning what had been a one-run game into a clinical finish. Raisel Iglesias completed it with a perfect ninth inning for the save.
That is what September baseball against a division rival is supposed to look like.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, it was Atlanta delivering the lesson.
Philadelphia finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position despite collecting six hits against Sale over six innings. Alec Bohm accounted for essentially everything the Phillies produced, driving in both runs with an RBI double in the second and a solo home run in the fourth.
Around him, the lineup never found the hit that could change the game.
Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper — the three hitters at the top of the order — combined to go 1-for-12. Harper finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Schwarber went hitless in four at-bats.
The defining opportunity came in the fifth.
J.T. Realmuto walked and Turner later ripped a two-out double into left, putting runners at second and third with the Phillies trailing 3-2.
That brought Harper to the plate.
It was the matchup Philadelphia wanted: two runners in scoring position, Sale approaching the back end of his night and the Phillies’ biggest hitter with a chance to flip the game.
Harper popped out to Austin Riley.
An inning later, Luis Arraez opened the sixth with a double. Bohm grounded out. Edmundo Sosa struck out. Bryan De La Cruz struck out.
Arraez never moved.
And remarkably, no Phillie reached base again.
Sale deserves plenty of credit.
The veteran left-hander threw 103 pitches over six innings, striking out seven while allowing six hits, two runs and one walk. He leaned heavily on his slider, throwing it 52 times — more than half of his total workload — while mixing a fastball that averaged 96.4 mph.
The Phillies put some balls in play hard against him, but Sale repeatedly won the important at-bats.
Philadelphia never did.
Cristopher Sánchez at least gave the offense every opportunity to recover.
Atlanta scored three times in the second inning, with Lane Thomas walking, Mauricio Dubón singling and Austin Riley delivering an RBI hit that was compounded by a Bryce Harper fielding error. Ha-Seong Kim followed with a run-scoring groundout before Ronald Acuña Jr. made it 3-0 with an RBI single.
For a moment, it looked as if the Braves might knock Sánchez out early.
Instead, he stabilized the game.
Sánchez allowed only two more hits over his final four innings and finished with three earned runs over six, striking out five while throwing 108 pitches.
The Phillies slowly worked their way back.
Arraez singled and Bohm doubled him home in the second. Bohm then took Sale deep in the fourth for his 15th home run, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
For several innings, that was the game.
One run.
One swing.
One mistake.
The mistake eventually came from the Phillies’ bullpen.
Orion Kerkering entered in the eighth and retired Matt Olson before walking pinch-hitter Mike Yastrzemski. Dubón followed by launching a two-run home run to left-center field, stretching Atlanta’s lead from 3-2 to 5-2.
That was effectively the end.
Didier Fuentes had already retired all six Phillies he faced over the seventh and eighth innings. Iglesias then worked a perfect ninth, finishing a stretch in which Braves pitching set down Philadelphia’s final 12 batters consecutively.
No comeback.
No late traffic.
Not even a baserunner.
There is a larger concern here than one loss.
The Phillies have spent the second half fighting their way back into relevance. They have made the National League East race interesting enough that this series matters.
But making the race interesting and actually catching Atlanta are two different things.
Friday showed why.
The Braves went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
The Phillies went 0-for-6.
Atlanta survived Bohm’s damage.
Philadelphia received almost nothing from its biggest hitters.
The Braves found a late insurance homer.
The Phillies disappeared offensively after the sixth inning.
This is the point of the season when competitive losses stop carrying much value.
Philadelphia did enough Friday to stay close.
Atlanta did enough to win.
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