Pallante also issued three free passes on the evening while recording only one strikeout. He kept the Braves off the board through the first three innings, but the wheels fell off for him in the fourth as they pushed three runs across — including a solo homer off the bat of Sean Murphy. Pallante also served up a solo homer to Matt Olson before exiting in the fifth. The right-hander got seven swings and misses on 83 pitches on the night, registering a CSW of 24 percent. He’ll look to bounce back as he brings a 4.05 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and a 16/10 K/BB ratio (26 2/3 innings) into Tuesday’s matchup against the Reds in Cincinnati.

Pallante had velocity issues this spring, but he figured it out at the end of March and actually averaged 95.2 mph with his fastball in his season debut. Since then, though, he’s fallen off to 93.8 mph, 93.2 mph and 92.4 mph tonight. He has a 3.22 ERA for the season, but he won’t keep that up for much longer if he can’t arrest this decline. He’ll face the Braves next.

Pallante worked around loads of hard contact to keep the Phillies off the board in this one. They had 10 hard-hit balls in total, but just two of those 10 were hit in the air. Half of their 18 balls in play were hit on ground, which is exactly what Pallante is out there trying to accomplish. Sometimes those balls find holes, and sometimes they practically all find a glove like they did in this game. He’s scheduled to face the Astros in another tough matchup next time out.

Pallante struck out six with a 30 percent whiff rate and 27 percent CSW, but he also walked three batters and had just a 41 percent zone rate on the day. As a result, he had thrown 92 pitches by the middle of the fifth inning and was pulled after allowing a solo home run to Rafael Devers. Pallante has a 3.86 ERA through his first two starts of the season but is tough to trust next week against the Phillies.