Austin Riley's eighth-inning hammer gives Braves Game 1 — and finds the Phillies' sore spot
A three-run homer off Jhoan Duran flipped the NL Wild Card Series opener to Atlanta, 5-3, and aimed October straight at Philadelphia's shaky bullpen.
The Braves and Phillies opened their NL Wild Card Series at Truist Park on Tuesday exactly the way their regular seasons predicted: close, tense, and decided by the bullpens. Atlanta won Game 1 5-3, and the blow that decided it landed on Philadelphia's most sensitive spot.
One swing in the eighth
Trailing late, the Braves loaded the moment in the eighth: Michael Harris II — 3-for-3 on the day — singled, Ozzie Albies was hit by a pitch, and Austin Riley turned on a Jhoan Duran offering and sent a three-run homer to right-center, according to CBS Sports' recap. It was Riley's first postseason home run after a .219 regular season, and it hung the loss on Duran, the All-Star closer the Phillies brought in to end games like this one. Raisel Iglesias closed it out.
The starters had held up their end. Philadelphia's Jesus Luzardo allowed one earned run over five innings; Atlanta's Chris Sale struck out nine across 6.1. J.T. Realmuto tripled home two in the Phillies' two-run seventh before the lead evaporated.
The fault line
Philadelphia's bullpen carried a 5.79 ERA in September, the worst in baseball — and Game 1 played out like a proof of it. Atlanta, the NL East champion at 94-68 to Philadelphia's 88-74 (Torch standings), entered as the No. 3 seed hosting the series precisely because of how the East finished.
Where the series stands
The Phillies refused to let Game 1 become the story. On Wednesday they answered with a 4-3, 10-inning win — featuring back-to-back homers from Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, per the Philadelphia Inquirer — to force a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday in Atlanta. Which means the series now comes down to a single game between two rivals who split 162 games' worth of arguments, with the team that trusts its late innings most likely to survive.