The Braves had this one in hand late, and then it slipped away in the kind of tight, ugly game that was always lurking between these two clubs. Philadelphia walked out with a 4-3 win, a result that can feel brutal if you’re looking at the blown lead - or perfectly plausible if you were expecting a duel like Cristopher Sanchez against Tyler Mahle from the jump.
Mahle was sensational. The Phillies barreled up a few balls in the first inning, but he limited the damage to one run, with Brandon Marsh helping by badly expanding the zone on his splitter.
After that, the rest of the lineup spent the afternoon flailing at the pitch. Per Savant, nearly 60 percent of Mahle’s offerings were splitters, and over the final six innings he allowed just three hits, all of them singles.
He was so good that when he left, the game was tied 1-1, and he had essentially gone pitch for pitch with one of the two or three best arms in baseball not named Chris Sale. For a midyear pickup, he’s been a revelation.
The real swing came in the late innings, where this team always seems to live. The Braves have hit .240/.301/.393 in the first seven innings during the regular season, then .272/.340/.467 after that, and this game followed that pattern right down to the end.
In the bottom of the seventh, Bryce Harper lost a ball in the shadows and it dropped for an RBI double. Then in the eighth, Walt Weiss turned to Dylan Lee to handle Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, and both went deep on back-to-back solo homers to tie the game. Alec Bohm then cracked a wall-scraper in the top of the tenth for the go-ahead run.
It’s one thing to lose late. It’s another to lose after holding a lead. But this one never quite felt like a game the Braves had truly earned, which made it easier to see it as the baseball Gods giving and taking in the same breath.
The teams were matched up exactly the way the series suggested they would be. These clubs split the first seven games they played against each other a few weeks ago, and outside of one 12-2 blowout, the rest were tight.
Both lineups are filled with underperforming veterans on expensive contracts, and both rotations are banged up. The Braves may have the better bullpen and a little more roster depth, but these Phillies have burned them before.
Now it’s on to tomorrow, with Johnny Wholestaff lined up for what looks a lot less like a pitcher’s duel. Zack Wheeler, meanwhile, is apparently already trying to talk his way into the ball on short rest in an elimination game.
In Other News...
Braves Enter Do Or Die Game 3 With One Huge Pitching Problem
The Braves head into a must-win Game 3 against a division rival with the kind of pitching uncertainty teams try to avoid in October. Philadelphia is expected to counter with Zack Wheeler, which only sharpens the pressure on Atlanta to piece together a workable plan on the mound. Grant Holmes and Ray Kerr are expected to be central to that approach, but the larger issue is simpler and more unsettling: there is no obvious traditional starter waiting to take the ball.
Tyler Mahle gave Atlanta a strong outing in Game 2 and has been one of the brighter signs recently, but even that was not enough to change the result. The Braves lost anyway, undone by a quiet night for the lineups power and a bullpen that could not hold the edge. Now the series has reached the point where every pitching decision matters, and Atlanta still has to answer the biggest question of all before the first pitch is thrown. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Just Got A Real Opening In Winner-Take-All Game 3
The Phillies have handed Aaron Nola the ball for their winner-take-all Game 3 against the Braves, a choice that immediately changes the feel of this Wild Card finale. Atlanta now gets a different look than many expected, with Philadelphia going with the veteran right-hander instead of Zack Wheeler, whose strong season made him the more obvious option on paper.
For the Braves, the opening is in the matchup itself as much as the name on the lineup card. Nola has been uneven this season, but his history of success against Atlanta in past postseason moments gives the Phillies a reason to trust him, even if the move has sparked some second-guessing about leaving Wheeler out of the biggest start of the year. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Waste A Start That Should Have Changed This Series
Tyler Mahles first postseason start gave the Braves exactly the kind of pitching backbone they needed in a tense Wild Card Game 2 against the Phillies. After a shaky beginning, he settled in and worked effectively through seven innings, keeping Philadelphia in check and striking out several key batters along the way. For a team trying to swing the series back in its favor, it was the sort of outing that should have set up a much different night.
Instead, Atlanta kept leaving chances on the table. The Braves had multiple opportunities to break through, including a bases-loaded situation in the sixth inning, but could not fully cash in when the game was there to be taken. With the pitching doing its part and the offense unable to finish the job, it became one of those postseason losses that felt bigger than the final score. [Read more 🡒]