Harris provides pinch-hit heroics as Braves beat Phillies again

It wasn’t quite Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series. It was still quite dramatic.

In a 3-2 game with two outs and runners at first and second in the sixth Friday night at Truist, with the chop and chant providing the soundtrack, Michael Harris II came off the bench to pinch hit. Harris had been scratched before the game with a stiff left quad muscle.

On a 2-0 pitch, Harris blasted a ball to deep left that a leaping Justin Crawford just missed. Two runs scored. The Braves took the lead and would go on to win 5-3 over the rival Phillies in the opener of a three-game series.

“Situation like that, if I was needed, I was available to go out there and try to get it done,” Harris said. “I figured I was going out there, felt a lot of emotion and stuff from the crowd, it was really loud in a big situation. Faced (Painter) last week, so I kind of knew what he had, and just went up there and tried to put my best swing on it.”

Harris is now 12-for-21 with 12 RBIs in his last eight games.

“I don’t think I can and I think that’s the best thing about it,” Harris answered when asked to explain his hot hitting of late. “Just let it happen. I can’t really try to figure out what’s going right, what was going wrong before. Now I know what feels good and just trying to stay this way.”

The big hit by Harris forced the Phillies (8-18) to continue to endure an April to forget as they lost their 10th game in a row. Their starter, right-hander Andrew Painter (1-2), was one out away from sending the visitors into the seventh with a lead.

But Braves Dominic Smith, not the fleetest of foot, legged out an infield single on a ball up the middle. Mauricio Dubón walked. Mike Yastrzemski flew out to left.

It was up to Eli White, starting in place of Harris. Braves manager Walt Weiss shot his shot and sent Harris to the plate instead. If there was any pain in Harris’ leg before, during, or after the memorable moment, he had no awareness of it.

“I couldn’t even tell you because I was worried about the ball getting down,” Harris said.

The Braves moved to 19-8 with the win and have won the first four games against the Phillies in a season for the first time since 2007.

“When things are going well - it snowballs either way, right, whether you’re having a tough year or you’re having a good year. Some breaks are going our way and I know it’s not always gonna be that way. But a lot of times you end up making your own breaks, and I think that we’ve done that, too. We’re tough to beat right now.”

Grant Holmes did his job on the mound for the Braves, too, keeping the Phillies’ struggling yet still-potent offense at bay. He battled through six innings, threw 89 pitches (59 for strikes) and induced 13 swings and misses (11 on his slider).

The Phillies had jumped on top long before Harris’ heroics. In the top of the third, Trea Turner smashed a fastball into the seats in right field for a two-run homer.

Ronald Acuña Jr. got those two runs back with a vengeance in the bottom of the inning when he turned on a 2-2 fastball and belted it 410 feet out to left. It was Acuña’s first home run since April 10 and just his second of the season.

Holmes encountered some one-out trouble in the fourth when he loaded the bases with two walks sandwiched around a fielder’s choice and an infield hit. Facing designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, Holmes threw a 1-2 curveball just above the dirt that Schwarber chased.

“We were attacking (Schwarber) with the cutter to start off with,” Holmes said. “We got two strikes, obviously, then going to the breaker. I put it in the right spot, thankfully, and he just hung over it.”

While Holmes survived the Schwarber at-bat, he did not fare so well starting the fifth against Bryce Harper. Harper took a 2-0 fastball on the outer half and went the other way for his sixth homer of the season to give the Phillies a 3-2 edge.

They took that lead to the sixth and nursed it until Harris’ hit. Jorge Mateo came in to pinch run for Harris, stole third and scored on a wild pitch, putting the Braves up by two runs.

Holmes (2-1) ended his night by retiring six of the next seven batters he faced, including three straight in the sixth, before turning it over to the relief corps.

“There were some pitches I would love to have back,” Holmes said. “The Harper homer, I gotta tip my cap to him. I’ve been throwing a lot of sliders to him the game before last. And today I threw one heater away and he put a good swing on it. Can’t do much about that. A couple walks here and there, but I’m just thankful I went six innings and took a little load off the bullpen.”

Aaron Bummer logged a scoreless seventh, Joel Payamps induced three fly outs to right in the eighth and Robert Suarez got his third save of the season by stranding two runners in the ninth.