ATLANTA — The Phillies had a chance to take a commanding lead against the Braves Monday night in the National League Division Series.
How imperative?
Atlanta was four outs from needing two wins against Philadelphia and needed another win in a must-win game with Zach Wheeler starting to avoid elimination.
Instead, the Phillies were sent home in a split Monday night. That would have sounded satisfying before the series started, but not so much after taking a four-run lead in the bottom of the sixth inning of Game 2.
“No, obviously we wanted to win both games against a really good team,” said Wheeler, who dominated until the bottom of the seventh inning. “I think we’re happy with the split, but we probably should have won that game.”
We lost 5-4. The Braves, who had hit a major league record 307 home runs this season before losing in Game 1, overwhelmed the Phillies with two runs in the seventh and eighth innings.
The Phils scored one run in the first inning and two runs in the third. After the fourth inning, he was chasing starter Max Fried (96 pitches). Nick Castellanos added another run in the fifth inning when he singled, stole second, advanced to third base on an errant pitch, and scored on Bryson Stott’s sacrifice fly.
Everything was coming towards the Phillies.
Wheeler walked Ronald Acuña Jr. with two outs in the sixth inning. The Braves’ only runner up to that point came on a defensive error by Trea Turner in the second. Ozzie Albee followed Acuña with a single to right field, and Acuña scored when Turner failed to catch Castellanos’ throw cleanly into the infield.
Wheeler was in a pinch in the sixth inning, but struck out Austin Riley to end the game. Oddly enough, that may have hurt the Phillies. Left-hander Jose Alvarado was warming up in the bullpen to face MLB home run king Matt Olson if Riley reaches. Olson was supposed to be the tying hitter, and manager Rob Thomson wanted him to be a left-handed player.
However, when Wheeler finished the sixth inning with the Phillies still leading by three runs, Thomson decided to eject him. Olson singled to start the seventh inning, and after Wheeler struck out the 10th batter of the game in Marcell Ozuna, Travis d’Arnaud hit a two-run home run that sent him to the left field seats, cutting the Phils’ lead by one run. It was reduced to
“It’s frustrating, but it’s my fault that I gave them the momentum,” Wheeler said. “I got them back in the game right away.
“Not only did I pitch, but I gave them momentum, which is hard to do especially in the playoffs. Momentum is a big part of it, and that was the case last year as well.”
The Braves won the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with a full-count home run from Jeff Hoffman with Riley two out. Hoffman rarely struggled in 2023, with the only runs allowed since Aug. 25 being two on a late lead on Sept. 20 in Atlanta and two on Monday night.
When Riley was awake, the base was open. If Hoffman had given up the walk, the Phillies would have brought in left-hander Gregory Soto to face Olson.
“I was trying to make a good pitcher’s pitch with the bases loaded, and of course that didn’t happen,” Hoffman said. “Good hitting team, they’re going to score, but I’ve got to do a better job of not letting that happen and do my job with the long bases.”
The game ended with a dramatic defensive play reminiscent of Endy Chavez’s Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.
Bryce Harper walked and got on base in the top of the 9th inning. With one out, Braves center fielder Michael Harris II, one of the game’s best defenders at any position, flew to the wall and stole the extra base from Castellanos. He fired back toward the infield, and the Braves doubled Harper from first base to round out the victory. Harper ended up in second place and was unable to move back to first in time.
“He played well,” Harper said. “He probably shouldn’t have gone past second base, but he made his decision and he’s going to live with it.”
Monday night was brutal for the Phillies, though it brought back memories that no Phils fan would want to relive after losing a 4-0 lead in Game 2 of 2011. The series isn’t over yet. The next two games will be played at Citizens Bank Park, with the Phillies expected to have Aaron Nola face either Bryce Elder, AJ Smith-Shover or the opener in Game 3. If the series returns to Atlanta for a must-win Game 5, Wheeler will be on the bump.
“We have home field advantage right now, and really, that’s what you need after these two games,” Thomson said.
“It’s a little disappointing. We were up 4-0 against these guys and had some chances to break out, but we didn’t and they came back. We didn’t score in the last four innings of the game. There wasn’t.”
Has the momentum changed? Harper doesn’t think so.
“You definitely want to go into the game and win 2-0, but we did our job, won 1-1 and went back home to play two games in front of our home crowd. “I think everyone is looking forward to it,” he said.
“We have the best fans in the world. They have to come and beat us.”
