The Atlanta Braves obliterated the Philadelphia Phillies in game two of the series, winning 12-2 on Saturday night in Truist Park.
Here is Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
The bottom of the 4th inning.
Winning 1-0 and with lefty Tim Mayza handing off to Brooks Raley, Philly had to be feeling good about the way their bullpen game started - three scoreless innings.
They were not feeling the same way about 30 minutes later.
Raley picked up two quick outs, sandwiching a Ronald Acuña Jr. solo shot with strikeouts of Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson. But after he walked Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II drove Ozzie to third with a single back up the middle, manager Don Mattingly went to Grant Holman for his first MLB action since last year.
About that.
Harris stole second and Mauricio Dubón drove both runners in with a single to left, but Holman rebounded and got the groundball he needed to get out of the inning. The only problem was that no one told either Bryson Stott or Alec Bohm, with Stott throwing the ball short to first and Bohm being unable to make the scoop to complete the out and end the inning.
And Atlanta capitalized on the mistake: Ha-Seong Kim drew a walk, a run scored on a wild pitch, and then Drake Baldwin drove two more in on a fly ball high off the right-center wall. Ronald Acuña Jr., who started the scoring earlier in the inning with the solo shot, added an RBI single that scored Baldwin from second. By the time that Matt Olson flew out to end the inning, Atlanta had put a snowman on the board, now leading 8-1.
Holman was tagged for five of those runs on four hits and a walk, although they were all unearned after Bohm’s error. The inning took 31 minutes and required 61 pitches, with 12 Braves coming to the plate.
Today’s Player of the Game
Tyler Mahle won his 5th Player of the Game award after this one.
The righty went seven innings with just one run allowed, a solo shot from Bryce Harper in the first inning. Harper had a long & drawn out home run trot after the homer, but went 0-2 with a strikeout the rest of the way.
Mahle, for being a four-seamer/splitter guy, wasn’t unusually dominant in the swing-and-miss department today, getting only seven whiffs and three strikeouts. But his pinpoint control allowed him to keep the splitter down and get eleven groundball outs, giving up only five singles (outside of the Bryce Harper homer) and holding Philly to an average EV of 88.2 mph (just 82.6 mph on the splitter itself, which was put into play 14 times).
And if you were concerned about how a two-pitch pitcher can survive a postseason start without whiffs, Mahle and catcher Sean Murphy spent moments after the big eight-run inning working in sliders to the pitch mix, something that Mahle virtually eliminated from his arsenal after the trade. It’s potentially a sign that Atlanta’s cognizant of the limitations of the approach for Mahle and working on giving him another weapon for October, one he can surprise teams with if they can get him comfortable throwing the pitch that San Francisco thrust on him during the offseason.
What You’ll Be Talking About
That’s going to seal the division for the Braves.
Philadelphia was already in a tough spot here, not having Jesús Luzardo and needing to win both final games of the series to keep their divisional hopes alive. But now Atlanta’s lead is seven games with only thirteen games remaining for both teams (and only one between the two clubs).
And while the Braves have a tough matchup next week, heading to historic Wrigley Field for three against baseball’s best offense in the Cubs (and likely NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong), Philly’s still got three against the Brewers on the docket. And the second-hardest remaining matchup for each team favors the Braves, as well; Atlanta gets Houston, while the Phillies host Tampa Bay.
Atlanta’s focus is now on potentially trying to catch the Dodgers for the #2 seed, which would secure a first-round bye. While LA’s schedule is infinitely easier than Atlanta’s - the only ‘tough’ matchup the Dodgers have remaining is three against San Diego - they did drop tonight’s matchup to the Marlins and have looked vulnerable at times. Without Shohei Ohtani, who is on the injured list, can LA protect their narrow 2.5-game lead for the #2 seed?
Looking for more discussion about this game?
Here’s tonight’s Postcast, with me and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni, as we went live to break down the contest.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta’s looking for a sweep on Sunday afternoon, with Grant Holmes (9-5, 3.46) taking on youngster Andrew Painter (3-9, 5.741) at 1:35 PM ET.