Braves to face rival Phillies to open playoffs

MIAMI — One of two National League wild-card series this week will be an all-NL East affair.

The Phillies (88-74) will come to Atlanta to face the Braves at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Truist Park. The Phillies needed a 7-3 win over the Rays on Sunday to clinch the NL’s final playoff spot and No. 6 seed in the six-team NL bracket.

“Like I say, whenever we play them, there’s not going to be any surprises,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said Sunday. “We play each other all year, and the games are always tight. I don’t expect anything different.”

In the regular season, the Braves went 9-4 against the Phillies and outscored them 66-43. The Braves went 5-1 against them in April, including a three-game sweep in Philadelphia, and 4-3 against them in September.

A little more than three weeks ago, the Braves went into Citizens Bank Park with a five-game lead to play the Phillies for four games. Ronald Acuña Jr.’s three-run, game-tying homer in the eighth inning of the third game threw some flames on the already intense rivalry.

“I think that probably more so from a viewer perspective more than anything,” Braves outfielder Mike Yastrzemski said about the rivalry aspect of the matchup. “But we’re just gonna go in there ready to play our game and do what we can to win.

“Obviously, we were going to play a good team no matter what. To be determined whether it’s a good thing or bad thing that we’re so familiar with them. It’ll be, obviously, a great atmosphere. So that’s probably the most exciting thing that comes from this. The crowd will be into it, and it’ll be fun.”

The Braves took the division lead April 8 and held it for the rest of the regular season in front of the second-place Phillies, who climbed within two games in the standings July 18 but never managed to get any closer.

Under interim manager Don Mattingly, who took over the club April 28 after the firing of skipper Rob Thomson, the Phillies needed a win Sunday or a Diamondbacks loss to qualify for the postseason. They left nothing to chance by jumping on the visiting Rays for four runs across the first two innings, then pulled away from there.

Phillies left-handed ace Cristopher Sánchez (18-7, 2.91 ERA) could start Tuesday’s matchup at Truist Park, though he just pitched Friday. In two starts during the regular season, Sánchez went 0-2, allowed six runs (three earned) over 12 innings, struck out 13 hitters, gave up 13 hits and walked four.

Jesús Luzardo (14-5, 2.87), a lefty, returned from the injured list and pitched one inning Sunday — he had not appeared in a game since Sept. 7, when he shut out the Braves in a two-hit, 12-strikeout complete game. Righty Zack Wheeler (14-5, 3.00) started Sunday’s win in Philly.

The Braves have never faced the Phillies in the wild-card round. In the 2023 and 2022 best-of-five division round, the Phillies beat the Braves 3-1 both times. The Phillies won the 1993 best-of-seven National League Championship Series 4-2. In the 1914 World Series, the Boston Braves swept the Philadelphia Athletics in four games.

Marlins 5, Braves 3

The Braves dropped their regular-season finale Sunday, losing 5-3 to the Marlins at loanDepot Park.

Rookie right-hander JR Ritchie (1-5) allowed four earned runs on seven hits and two walks in 5⅔ innings. For the season, Ritchie had an ERA of 4.91, a 1.47 WHIP, walked 43 batters and struck out 68 over 73⅓ innings.