ATLANTA – The Phillies had a chance to take a commanding lead over the Braves in the National League Division Series on Monday night.
How commanding?
They were four outs away from getting Atlanta to a point where it should have won twice in Philly, and then again in a must-win game that Zack Wheeler started to avoid elimination.
Instead, the Phillies flew home with a split on Monday night — a result that would have sounded satisfying before the series began, but not so much after they held a four-run lead in the bottom of the sixth inning of Game 2.
“No, of course you wanted to win both games against a really good team,” said Wheeler, who was dominant until the end of the seventh period. “I guess we’re happy with the split, but we probably should have won the game.”
They lost 5:4. The Braves, who had tied the major league record with 307 home runs this season before being shut out in Game 1, hit two runs in the seventh and eighth innings to stunned the Phillies.
The Phils scored once in the first inning and twice in the third. They chased starter Max Fried (96 pitches) after four innings. They scored another run in the fifth when Nick Castellanos singled, stole second, advanced to third on an errant throw and scored on a sacrifice fly by Bryson Stott.
Everything came to the Phillies.
Wheeler struck out Ronald Acuña Jr. with two outs in the sixth. The Braves’ only baserunner to date reached the game on a fielding error by Trea Turner in the second. Ozzie Albies followed Acuña with a single to right field, and Acuña scored when Turner failed to cleanly deflect Castellanos’ throw back to the infield.
Wheeler found himself in a jam in the sixth inning but ended it by striking out Austin Riley. In a strange way, that could have cost the Phillies. Left-hander Jose Alvarado was warmed up in the bullpen to face MLB home run leader Matt Olson if Riley had reached. Olson would have provided the game-winning run and manager Rob Thomson wanted a left-hander against him.
But with Wheeler in the sixth and the Phillies still leading by three runs, Thomson decided to send him out again. Olson singled early in the seventh, and after Wheeler struck out his tenth batter of the game in Marcell Ozuna, Travis d’Arnaud singled him to left field for a two-run home run that cut the Phils’ lead to one.
“It’s frustrating, but I’m letting them get going somehow. It’s my fault,” Wheeler said. “I let them right back into the game.
“The way I pitched, I gave them momentum, and that’s difficult, especially in the playoffs. Momentum is a big part of it, we saw that last year.”
In the end, the Braves won the game on Riley’s two-out, full-count home run off Jeff Hoffman in the bottom of the eighth quarter. Hoffman has rarely struggled in 2023, but the only runs he has allowed since Aug. 25 have come in Atlanta, two on a late lead on Sept. 20 and two more on Monday night.
When Riley was awake, a base was open. Had Hoffman gone with him, the Phillies would have brought lefty Gregory Soto into the game to face Olson.
“I tried to get a good pitcher to throw with the base open, but obviously that didn’t happen,” Hoffman said. “Good batting team, they’ll do their best, but I’ve got to do a better job of not letting that happen, using extra bases and doing my job.”
The game ended with a dramatic defensive play reminiscent of Endy Chavez in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.
Bryce Harper walked in the top of the ninth. With one out, Braves centerfielder Michael Harris II, one of the game’s best defenders at any position, dove into the wall to rob Castellano’s extra bases. He fired back toward the infield and the Braves doubled Harper from first base to secure the win. Harper had made it to second place and couldn’t get back to first place in time.
“He played a good game,” Harper said. “I probably shouldn’t have gone past second base, but I made a decision and I’m going to live with it.”
As brutal as Monday night was for the Phillies, as much as it brought back memories of the blown 4-0 lead in Game 2 of the 2011 NLDS that no Phils fan wanted to relive, the series is far from over. The next two games are at Citizens Bank Park and the Phillies should host the pitching duel in Game 3, with Aaron Nola facing either Bryce Elder, AJ Smith-Shawver or an opener. If the series does indeed return to Atlanta for the must-win Game 5, Wheeler would be safe.
“We have home advantage now and that’s what you’re looking for after these two games,” Thomson said.
“It’s a little disappointing. You’re up 4-0 against these guys and you had some opportunities to break the game open and you didn’t and they come back. “We didn’t score in the last four innings of the game.”
Has the dynamic shifted? Harper doesn’t think so.
“You really want to come in and win 2-0 but we did our job, we won 1-1 and we’re going back home to play two games in front of our home crowd and I think we’re all looking forward to that. “That,” he said.
“We have the best fans in the world. They have to come in and beat us.”