What to remember from the Braves’ victory over the Phillies

The Atlanta Braves completed their winning streak against the Philadelphia Phillies with a 6-0 victory Sunday afternoon. The win moved Atlanta back to 10 games over .500 (49-39) and cut its NL East deficit to eight games. The Braves are 4-2 and have won both series against the Phillies this season. The two teams will meet seven more times, with a three-game series at Truist Park from Aug. 20-22 and a four-game series in Philadelphia from Aug. 29-Sept. 2.

The Braves desperately needed to win the series, especially after losing the opener and falling to a 10-game series. Atlanta entered Sunday with just a 12.3 percent chance to win the division according to FanGraphs, but this is an important step for Atlanta before the All-Star break.

The Braves will now hit the road for a seven-game road trip out West before heading into the break. They’ll play four in Arizona and then three in San Diego. As it stands, the Braves are three games ahead of the Padres for the top wild-card spot. The Diamondbacks are 2.5 games back of the Cardinals for the final wild-card spot. So even though there are still more than two months to go, these head-to-head games against playoff contenders are important. The Braves were just 5-4 at home and are a sub-.500 team since starting 20-9. Finishing the first half of the season strong and carrying some momentum into the break would be pretty important for a team that has largely struggled over the last two months.

Jarred Kelenic is releasing big hits

After hitting .304/.356/.543 in June, Jarred Kelenic has just 5 hits in 23 at-bats through the first six games of July. However, he had another big hit for the Braves on Sunday with a three-run home run off Phillies starter Michael Mercado, giving Atlanta a bit of a lead. When the season began, the Braves were hoping to move Kelenic to the bottom of the order and give him some room to grow. Injuries to Ronald Acuña Jr. and Michael Harris II, however, have thrust Kelenic into a much larger role, and he has largely delivered. Since May 7, Kelenic is hitting .277/.317/.514 with each of his 10 home runs.

Since taking over the lead on June 15, he’s hitting .298/.341/.560 and has reached base in eight of 21 games. Even before Sunday’s home run, Kelenic had become much of what the Braves likely wanted him to be: a guy who does massive damage on contact, even if he has to sacrifice a lot of batting discipline to do so.

Adam Duvall continues his upward trend

There’s a small caveat to that, but given Adam Duvall’s recent struggles, we’ll take any signs of progress into account. Duvall opened the scoring Sunday with a solo home run and finished three hits shy of the cycle. It was his second three-hit game in July.

We pointed out earlier in the home game that many of Duvall’s stats were in the right place, but the results just weren’t there. A course correction in this final stretch before the All-Star break could provide a significant boost.

Ozzie Albies gives a helping hand

Ozzie Albies had his nine-game hitting streak end Sunday, but he had a nice stretch at home. Albies had 13 hits in his last nine games, including three straight multi-hit games before going hitless Sunday. He homered in the first two games against the Phillies, giving him a home run in four straight games against Philadelphia dating back to the season-opening series. It’s the longest streak by a Braves player since Brian McCann homered in six straight games against the Phillies in 2012. Albies’ home run Saturday had an exit velocity of 113.7 mph, which was the hardest hit ball of his career.

Albies and Kelenic have both trended upward to the point where their offensive contributions are slightly above average, which is a big improvement from the xwOBA valley of around .300 they both found themselves in earlier.

Bullpen continues to pitch well

The Braves relievers entered Sunday’s game leading the National League with a 3.00 ERA. That was before they pitched three more scoreless innings to secure the series win. Atlanta’s relievers allowed just one earned run in nine innings in the series. Now if only there were a way to use them more often…

Spencer Schwellenbach continues his winning streak

Spencer Schwellenbach gave the Braves a huge boost Saturday by allowing just one run in six innings with six strikeouts. That outing came after Max Fried struggled in the series-opening loss. Schwellenbach still has a 5.02 ERA on the season, but his 3.57 FIP and 3.62 xFIP are more indicative of how he’s pitched lately. Since 1966, he’s the 11th pitcher in franchise history to record multiple outings of at least six innings while allowing one run or fewer in his first eight career appearances. He’s the first to do so since Bryce Elder in 2022. Atlanta allowed five runs to Schwellenbach in Saturday’s start, which no doubt helped. They’ve scored 11 runs in total in his first six starts combined.

Schwellenbach has already set a career-high in innings pitched as a professional, and it’s unclear how the Braves plan to manage his workload after the break. AJ Smith-Shawver is working his way back from an oblique injury, and Ian Anderson could also be an option for the final two months of the season. Schwellenbach, however, has done a good job of solidifying his fifth spot and is showing that he could play a significant role in the near future.

While most of Schwellenbach’s struggles have been due to his involvement in games, he has a very varied arsenal that makes him quite different from most starting pitchers the Braves have developed and/or deployed in recent history. It will be interesting to see if that works to his advantage or against him, and how his career goes from here on out – provided he can avoid injuries, which is a tall order for just about any pitcher.