Braves vs. Phillies series recap: Atlanta navigates NL East gauntlet with flying colors

The Braves found themselves in what was an increasingly familiar position once the third inning rolled around: Trailing the opposition. Indeed, Atlanta went behind in the top of the third inning after Trea Turner reached back to his days of being a regular Braves tormentor by hitting a two-run dinger off of Grant Holmes to break the deadlock. Fortunately for Holmes, his lineup responded immediately and got after Andre Painter with a leadoff single from Eli White and a two-run response dinger from Ronald Acuña Jr. to bring the game back to a deadlock.

Philadelphia once again went ahead in the fifth inning with another long ball — this time it was Bryce Harper hitting a solo shot as he began his usual routine of gleefully drawing the ire of Braves fans. Atlanta didn’t respond immediately but it didn’t take long, either. Once they did, it was a true game-changer and another example of Walt Weiss hitting nearly all of the right buttons to start this season. With two outs in the sixth inning and two men on, Weiss went to the late scratch Michael Harris II for a pinch-hitting opportunity. The crowd erupted once Money Mike came out of the dugout and he repaid that excitement by hitting a deep fly ball that just about eluded the grasp of Brandon Marsh in left-center for a huge two-run double that gave the Braves the lead. Weiss promptly put in Jorge Mateo to run the bases, he stole third base and then ended up scoring after Andrew Painter uncorked a wild pitch. Both moves paid off in spades, Joel Payamps pitched a crucial scoreless eighth inning and then Robert Suarez finished things off in the ninth to give the Braves an exciting victory.

The pregame was all about Brian Snitker, who was rightfully inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame in a ceremony that took place before the game started. Rain also pushed back the start by 55 minutes and while Walt Weiss and the Braves players never want to make excuses, their outfielders had a devil of a time dealing with the wet track on the field. The Phillies hit three triples in this game and aside from Ronald Acuña Jr. simply misjudging a jumping catch (which resulted in a run for the Phillies), the other two triples were aided by some literal slipshod defense. Philadelphia went up 1-0 in the first inning thanks to Mike Yastrzemski coming up short on a diving catch that allowed Adolis García to scamper to third and then later on in the eighth inning, Kyle Schwarber picked up a stand-up triple (good luck seeing that again) after Eli White never really looked comfortable trying to get to the ball. This was all a bit of a crying shame for the Braves because had even one of those plays in the field resulted in outs, the Braves probably end up holding on to a slim win. The bats for the Braves continued to get it done, as they were able to get to Zack Wheeler in the fourth inning with a Michael Harris II sacrifice fly and an RBI double from Austin Riley that kept Wheeler from cruising and made it a tie ballgame. Ozzie and Mike linked up together again in the sixth inning as Ozzie’s double tied it at three and then Money Mike’s RBI single actually gave the Braves the lead.

Unfortunately, tonight ended up being The Bryce Harper Show. The man who apparently enjoys tormenting Braves fans as much as he enjoys raw milk ended up with four RBIs on the night and all four of them felt like big whammies. His RBI single off of Bryce Elder in the fifth made it 3-2, his sacrifice fly in the eighth inning made it 4-4 and then he came up with the big bases-loaded knock in extras to make it a 6-4 game for the Phillies. By the time the Braves had a chance to respond, it was 8-4 after Jose Suarez had a bit of a nightmare in the tenth. Atlanta actually got the tying run up to the plate after Drake Baldwin delivered an RBI single but the game ended with Michael Harris II grunding out to none other than Bryce Harper, who flipped it to a late-covering Kyle Bachus to end their miserable (joyful for us) 10-game losing streak.

Remember last season when it felt like the Braves couldn’t buy a win in rubber games? Boy, oh boy, times have sure changed. Not only did the Braves end up winning yet another rubber game to keep their streak of avoiding series losses going, it felt almost business-like. Chris Sale got the ball and with all due respect to Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes who delivered perfectly fine starts of their own, Sale proved why he’s at the top of the rotation with yet another great start. Sale went six innings without giving up a run and he only gave up a hit and two walks in the process. He struck out nine batters and at one point had a run where he struck out five-straight Phillies batters. He even made an incredible heads-up catch where it seemed like he was either going to catch it or sacrifice a digit after the batted ball got through with him. Either way Philadelphia couldn’t do anything with Sale a week ago and they certainly couldn’t handle him on this particular Sunday.

While Sale was making things miserable for the Phillies, the Braves were making things miserable for Aaron Nola early on. Matt Olson got things going in the first inning after he crushed a three-run shot that may have landed in the actual city of Atlanta and then they added three more runs in the second inning. Mauricio Dubón hit a triple that felt eerily similar to the triples that they gave up the night before and then Eli White left no doubt by crushing one into the road bullpen to make it a 5-0 game. Drake Baldwin eventually came up to the plate with one out and Ronald Acuña Jr. at second base (following Acuña’s sixth stolen base of the season so far) and Baldwin duly delivered with a liner that found green and plated Acuña to make it 6-0.

The only two runs that Philadelphia could muster came in familiar fashion, as Kyle Schwarber got a hold of one in the eighth from Aaron Bummer and sent it to the Chop House for a typical Schwarber bomb that made it 6-2. Fortunately, that’s how it ended! Robert Suarez finished things off in a non-save situation in order to put the Phillies right back in the “L” column after a one-night respite. The Braves and Phillies won’t see each other again until September, which makes it all-the-more sweeter that the Braves have already banked five wins in six opportunities against them. If the Phillies eventually wake up and start trying to seriously dig themselves out of this early-season hole, they’ll have to do it while relying on other teams helping them out against the Braves. That is going to be a tough task in itself since the Braves have continued to rack up the wins. They’re the first team to reach 20 wins this season and although the Padres an Dodgers have gotten off to just as good of a start so far, it’s still just really nice to see that nice, round number on the leaderboard. This upcoming week could be tricky with the Tigers bringing in the top of their rotation for a three-game series starting on Tuesday and then going to Colorado is always an unpredictable situation (even if the Rockies are bad like usual). With that being said, the Braves still have some breathing room to play with in the division with their scalding-hot start to the season. They’re already 10 games clear of both the Phillies and the Mets and earlier on in this 13-game NL East Gauntlet, the Braves took care of both the Marlins and the Nationals as well. The Braves are going to eventually slow down but their quality of play seems to indicate that whatever valleys they may reach likely won’t be as deep as they had been in both 2024 and 2025. That middle game against the Phillies was a great example, in my opinion — Atlanta didn’t play all that well and they still had a shot to keep the game going in the tenth inning with one swing of the bat. If you’re winning a ton of games and your losses look like that, that’s a sign that things are really clicking for you. Hopefully they continue to click like this, since this is certainly a lot more fun than how things started last season. Atlanta didn’t win their 20th game of the season until May 12 and they didn’t go over .500 for the first time until nearly a week after that. That one day over .500 was all they had last season — now, this appears to be a matter of just how high and far the Braves can get over .500 this season. It’s a much better situation, isn’t it, folks?