Joey Votto may have delivered the most painful sound bite of Phillies-Braves Game 3, and it came at exactly the wrong time for Philadelphia.
With Zack Wheeler having just retired the first hitter of the fourth inning, Votto went on the air and declared the game "up for grabs" because, in his view, the Braves weren’t going to score again off the right-hander. That call aged about as badly as it possibly could.
The next Braves batter reached, and then Ozzie Albies turned around and absolutely launched a two-run nuke off Wheeler. For a Phillies club already staring at a 3-0 hole, it was the kind of swing that made the whole inning feel even more brutal.
From Philadelphia’s side, the pain was less about Votto’s confidence and more about what followed. A game that was already frustrating got even more torturous in a hurry.
The booth noticed it, too. CJ Nitkowski warned Votto not to open social media, and Scott Coleman chimed in with the blunt assessment: "Might be best for Joey Votto to sit a couple plays out"
The night had a little more energy than the two afternoon games before it, but the on-field reality still tilted quickly against the Phillies. Aaron Nola appeared to feel the pressure of the short rest right away, losing the zone after retiring his first batter and then having to come back over the plate to Michael Harris II just to get something he could live with.
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