ATLANTA -- Instead of entering an odd two-day midseason break fueled by what would have been one of the season’s most exhilarating wins, the Braves will have to dwell on being swept by the Yankees and the call that left many of their fans furious and bewildered.

Freddie Freeman’s deep flyout with the bases loaded ended what was a disappointment-filled 5-4 loss to the Yankees on Tuesday night at Truist Park. The Braves chased elite closer Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, but they were never able to distance themselves from the consequences of the disputed replay review ruling that denied Freeman’s bid to score in the fifth.

“On the board, the replays I was seeing, I thought it looked super close,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Like maybe his foot got in there, I don’t know if it was over or not. One of those bang-bangs that went our way.”

As the Yankees left town with an 11-game winning streak, the Braves entered their scheduled off-days on Wednesday and Thursday dealing with consecutive losses for the first time since July 16.

But even after being swept in this two-game series, Atlanta still holds a 4 1/2-game lead over Philadelphia in the National League East. The Braves gained cushion in this division race while constructing a nine-game winning streak they carried into this series.

“That streak we went on, there was going to be some pushback to that,” Charlie Morton said. “We’re going to run into good teams and we’re going to have to get that momentum going again. I still think we're in a really good spot.”

Freeman being ruled out while attempting to score on what would have been a game-tying single by Austin Riley in the fifth didn’t completely doom the Braves. Morton surrendered two home runs for the first time this season, and Atlanta also thwarted an eighth-inning rally with Riley’s aggressive attempt to reach second on a single.

And after Jorge Soler drew a bases-loaded walk off Chapman with two outs in the ninth to cut the deficit to one run, the Braves once again could dwell on what seemed to be a run-costing decision by both plate umpire Chris Conroy and Will Little, who was the umpire assigned to review the play in MLB’s Replay Center.

“How many years have we been doing replay now?” Morton said. “It happens where you see something up on the board and you see the replay on TV. They show it and you think you see something that someone else didn’t see.”

Multiple replay angles seemed to show show Freeman’s left foot touch the plate before Yankees catcher Gary Sánchez tagged him on the backside. As Freeman stretched to slide almost horizontally across the back of the plate, it also looked like Sánchez may have violated the plate-blocking rule.

Braves manager Brian Snitker said he wasn’t anticipating plate-blocking to factor into this ruling.

“Honestly, they figure if he’s sliding through, then they’re not blocking the plate,” Snitker said. “I thought he was safe. When I saw the replay, I thought he beat the throw.”

Morton received a two-run double from Dansby Swanson in the first inning and then allowed the Yankees to take the lead courtesy of home runs hit by Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu. But the homer that ultimately crushed Atlanta was the solo shot Rougned Odor hit off Chris Martin in the seventh.

The Braves made it interesting when Ehire Adrianza drew a two-out walk and Ozzie Albies raced down the line for an infield single -- using an elite sprint speed of 30.8 feet/second, according to Statcast -- to load the bases in the ninth.

Soler then drew an RBI walk that chased Chapman. Lefty Wandy Peralta entered and exhaled when Freeman’s game-ending flyball to left was caught a step shy of the warning track.

This was a fitting ending to an entertaining and exciting two-game series. But the fifth-inning review also created reason to question if the replay system should be altered in a way to allow an independent arbiter to make a ruling without knowing the original call on the field.

“It seems like we probably have the tools at this point to recognize that these close plays should go to somebody that is impartial that has tools at their disposal to slow down and really look at something without knowing what the call on the field was,” Morton said. “I think that’s really the only problem right now with replay. I think the call on the field just means too much.”