Wheeler and Schwarber pull the Phillies back within four of Atlanta
Zack Wheeler struck out nine and Kyle Schwarber launched his 41st homer as Philadelphia beat the Braves 4-2 to keep the NL East race alive.
The Phillies needed a response, and they got one from the two players most likely to give it. A night after Atlanta took the series opener, Zack Wheeler and Kyle Schwarber carried Philadelphia to a 4-2 win at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday, cutting the Braves' NL East lead back to four games with 20 to play.
An early lead that held
Philadelphia jumped on the Braves immediately. Schwarber and Trea Turner opened the first inning with walks, Luis Arraez singled, and J.T. Realmuto worked a bases-loaded walk for a 2-0 lead, according to Philadelphia Baseball Review. Derek Hill tripled and scored in the second, and after Atlanta got one back in the third, Schwarber answered in the fourth — his 41st home run of the season, off Martín Pérez, restoring a three-run cushion at 4-1. Schwarber finished 2-for-3 with two walks, two runs and two RBIs.
Wheeler's night
Wheeler was the story on the mound: six innings, one run, nine strikeouts and two walks on 95 pitches, including striking out the side in the fifth. His splitter drew seven whiffs on nine swings. Atlanta scratched a run off the bullpen in the seventh, but José Alvarado worked a clean eighth and Jhoan Duran needed just 11 pitches for a perfect ninth and his 30th save.
The race tightens
The win squares this weekend's series after Chris Sale outpitched the Phillies in Friday's 5-2 Atlanta win. The table now reads Braves 84-58, Phillies 80-62 — a four-game gap that looked like it might stretch to six had Saturday gone the other way. The rubber game comes Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia, and with three weeks left, every head-to-head meeting between these two is effectively worth double.