Phillies bounce back with Wheeler on the mound, beat Braves 4-2
After that lifeless opener, Saturday didn’t start with much promise but the Phillies answered exactly how a contender should, led by a vintage Zack Wheeler escape act that flipped the whole game.
The Phillies beat the Braves 4-2 to even the biggest series of the year at a game apiece, and it was the kind of punch-back win that tells you they might be figuring this thing out at the perfect time.
Wheeler backed himself into a nightmare immediately, allowing a leadoff single, another single, walk, bases loaded with nobody out for one of the hottest hitters alive in Michael Harris II.
Disaster city, but Wheeler stayed aggressive, got ahead 0-2 and coaxed a soft foul out for a massive first out. Dubon worked it to 2-2, Wheeler fired a fastball upstairs, it got called a ball, and Realmuto, owner of the best challenge rate in baseball, immediately challenged it.
ABS ruled it strike three, and the Bank went absolutely nuclear. Wheeler then got Albies to fly out on the first pitch. Bases loaded, nobody out, zero runs across. You could feel the entire building exhale, and that escape lit the fuse for everything that followed.
Phillies Offense Hit Parade
After going 0-fer with runners in scoring position Friday, the offense came alive right away. Schwarber and Turner drew back-to-back walks off lefty Martin Perez to open the first, and then Schwarber, in classic big-fella fashion, tagged up on a Harper fly to left and used those surprising wheels to slide around Riley’s tag at third.
Arraez, who lives in RBI spots, lined a single to score him, and Realmuto later worked a bases-loaded walk to make it 2-0. Then in the second, Derek Hill led off with a triple and scored on a Matt Olson bobble when he aggressively broke for the plate. That’s the opportunistic, grind-it-out ball that shows up when this team is right.
Acuna Made Sure Everyone Hated Him
Time for the villain, because Ronald Acuna Jr. gave this crowd every reason to boo him into the ground. First he robbed Bryson Stott, back after a Friday scratch for the birth of his third kid (congrats!), of a bases-clearing hit with a lunging grab in right.
Then he greeted Wheeler with a 450-foot bomb into the second deck, and proceeded to slow-trot the bases, stare into the Phillies dugout, flip his bat, and bust out his signature step-back on the way to third. It drew maybe the loudest boos the Bank has produced all year. The man loves playing the heel in South Philly, and he kept Atlanta hanging around.
Schwarber and Wheeler Got the Last Laugh
The Phillies punched right back in the fourth, because of course they did. Schwarber annihilated one, 108-plus off the bat and 435 feet, for his 41st homer of the year. That was the cushion Wheeler needed, and he ran with it.
Outside of those first three hitters and the Acuna shot, he was nearly perfect, leaning on the four-seamer and throwing it for a strike 73 percent of the time. That’s the second straight start he’s cranked up the four-seam usage since his mechanical tweak, and the results were filthy: six innings, one run, NINE strikeouts, his most since July 21.
And the loudest K of the bunch was the sweetest. Wheeler blew Acuna away swinging in the fifth, and after all that bat-flip theater, the crowd came unglued. Poetic justice, plain and simple. That’s the trust tree paying off, folks. Told you he’d be fine.
Duran Slams the Door and Makes History
It got sweaty late, naturally. Bowlan coughed up a homer for the third time in four outings, a Riley solo shot to pull Atlanta within two.
Then Alvarado let the leadoff man reach in the eighth with Acuna looming, but Acuna grounded into a double play, and Alvarado punched out Olson to escape while pounding his mitt. Big-time work from a guy who’s barely sniffed leverage all year.
That set up Jhoan Duran, who closed it out for his 30th save, becoming the first Phillie to hit that mark in a DECADE, first since Jeanmar Gomez in 2016. Hell of a pickup.
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