Braves break out to beat Phillies, advance to NLDS vs. Dodgers
A ray of hope. A money hit. Some wizardry. The Braves are sailing on to Los Angeles.
Two homers and impeccable relief pitching sent the National League East champions to a 6-2 win Thursday over the rival Phillies at Truist Park. The Braves next face the Dodgers at 4 p.m. Saturday to begin the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Michael Harris II gave the Braves a 3-0 lead with a monster home run in the first. Ozzie Albies padded the lead with a two-run shot in the fourth.
Ray Kerr, a lefty reliever, became a postseason hero for a day by holding the Phillies scoreless for more than three innings. Chris Sale, yes, that Chris Sale, even came out of the bullpen to get the last four outs.
The Braves improved to 5-8 in winner-take-all playoff games and broke a six-game losing streak in such contests. They enacted a bit of revenge on the Phillies, who had eliminated them in the 2022 and 2023 playoffs.
And on this night they left little doubt in front of a rowdy crowd of 41,731.
Everything went according to plan for the Braves from the outset.
Kerr, a lefty reliever starting on the mound to counter the Phillies’ powerful left-handed hitters, allowed a one-out single to Kyle Schwarber and nothing else. The sellout crowd stood and chopped throughout.
In the bottom half, Phillies starter Aaron Nola walked Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson, respectively, with one out, then fell behind Harris 2-0. Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto called time and brought the entire infield in to settle Nola down.
It did not work.
The next pitch, an ankle-high sinker, was walloped 387 feet to right-center, putting the Braves up 3-0. Harris had been 7-for-35 with nine strikeouts previously in his career against Nola.
Nola didn’t make it out of the second. Phillies manager Don Mattingly came and got the veteran right-hander after a two-out infield single to Dominic Smith that was hit off Nola’s 38th pitch.
Kerr made it through 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He walked Kyle Schwarber to begin the fourth before a line drive, hit 102 mph off the bat by Bryce Harper, was knocked down by a diving Mauricio Dubón for a force out at second. Kerr left to a standing ovation and thunderous applause, waving to the crowd with his right hand, then giving one emphatic chop with the right arm before descending into the dugout.
The Phillies went to right-hander Zack Wheeler to start the third. He allowed a one-out single to Acuña that inning but nothing else. He was not so fortunate in the fourth.
After walking Austin Riley on nine pitches, Wheeler grooved a fastball down the heart of the plate that Albies crushed for a two-run shot to right field. The Braves were suddenly up 5-0, and Truist was turned up.
Grant Holmes succeeded Kerr, as was the expected plan going into the game, and completed two innings. He was lifted after a one-out single by Schwarber in the sixth and replaced by Robert Suarez, who gave up a double into the right field corner to Harper.
Schwarber would score on Alec Bohm’s grounder to third before Suarez got an inning-ending fly ball to right.
Olson put the game out of reach with a solo bomb in the bottom of the seventh, a 416-foot shot to center off Phillies reliever Jonathan Bowlan.
That turned out to be a crucial run as the Phillies scored in the eighth off Dylan Dodd with a Derek Hill triple and Trea Turner sacrifice fly. But that would be the last little bit of offense the Phillies could muster.