ATLANTA – The Phillies played a home run derby against the best team in baseball on Monday night, beating the Braves 7-1 with longballs from five different players and six sharp innings from standout Zack Wheeler.
Wheeler surrendered a home run to the second batter he faced, Ozzie Albies, and then was flawless the rest of the way with a fastball that averaged 96 mph and had even better command. It was a big win after he allowed six runs and three home runs against the same Braves at home last Tuesday. Monday’s series opener was the Braves’ quietest offensive game since May 12, the only other time this season they were limited to one run on three hits or worse.
“You kind of want to show them after the last outing, ‘Hey, you still have to take care of me,'” he said. “The mental aspect, for her and for me, just getting back on track. They know I’m still me, I guess you could say.”
Wheeler retired the Braves three times in a row in his six innings. He is 12-6 with a 3.63 ERA in 30 starts. He is scheduled to have two more hits in the regular season, both against the Mets. The last one could be a shortened start if the Phillies have secured the first wild card spot by then.
The Phils (82-68) lead the Diamondbacks by 3½ games over the fourth-seeded team, which carries home-field advantage in the wild-card round. They also own the tiebreaker over the Diamondbacks, giving them a 4½ games lead with 12 games left to play. The Phillies’ magic number to clinch the first wild card spot is 9.
Rookie midfielder Johan Rojas was the first of the visitors to go deep. He hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the second inning, giving them a lead that lasted until the end. The first home run of his big league career came as a position player, so this was his first “real” home run. He was a big difference maker in the field and a spark plug man who held his own at the bottom of the order, hitting .300 with a .344 on-base percentage in 133 plate appearances.
“Moments like this not only give us confidence, but also build chemistry in the clubhouse,” Rojas said. “Seranthony (Dominguez) joked with me a while ago and said, ‘You finally hit a home run off a real pitcher.’ It’s the little things like this that are really good for the group.
“Overall, I feel pretty good here in the big leagues. I give 100 percent, it’s always about the maximum effort that people will see from me. I’m enjoying this moment as much as I can. I feel.” Here we are all a family. We see ourselves as a family. I’ve always wanted to be here and I enjoy every second of it.”
Bryce Harper, JT Realmuto and Nick Castellanos hit solo home runs in the third, fourth and sixth innings. Harper’s was a thing of beauty, a simple swing on a pitch off the plate that he hit the other way.
Three batters after Castellanos’ home run, Kyle Schwarber hit by far the hardest of them all, hitting 483 feet to right field. It was the second-longest home run in Truist Park’s seven-year history, trailing only a 495-foot run by Ronald Acuña Jr.
“Damn, I would have taken it if it had gone to the front row,” he said. “It was an all-round good offensive day for all of us. Home runs are home runs, but I felt like the at-bats were pretty good.”
Schwarber has 45 home runs, Trea Turner has 26, Castellanos has 25, JT Realmuto has 19, Harper has 18, Alec Bohm has 17 and Bryson Stott has 15. The Braves are the only team since the All-Star break with more home runs than the Phillies.
“We swung the bat pretty well against everyone,” manager Rob Thomson said. “The really encouraging thing is we kept their runs down. Wheeler did a great job. That’s what you have to do.”
The Braves have won six straight division titles and celebrated their most recent title just last week at the Phillies’ home stadium. Despite the Braves’ dominance, the Phillies are 39-43 against them since 2019, a winning percentage of .476. Over that same period, the rest of MLB is 249-401 against Atlanta, a winning percentage of .383. If the Phils had the same success rate as the rest of the league, they would have lost eight more games to the Braves than they did in that five-year period.
The Phillies aren’t intimidated by the Braves, just like the Marlins aren’t afraid of the Phils. They could be back in Atlanta in three weeks because the Braves would be the NLDS opponent if the Phillies advance out of the wild card round.
After losing five of seven games at Citizens Bank Park last week, the Phillies have won three of four to begin a six-game road trip. They want to win the series on Tuesday night. Cristopher Sanchez will start and be piggybacked by Michael Lorenzen. Ace Spencer Strider chooses Atlanta.
“Whenever we play these guys,” Schwarber said, “we always feel like it’s going to be a dogfight.”