Phillies chip away at NL East lead following victory over first-place Atlanta Braves
Kyle Schwarber hit home run No. 41, extending his MLB lead as the Phillies shaved the race for the lead in the National League East to four games.
The bases were loaded with one out in the first inning, and you could feel the anxiety over the status of the Phillies’ longtime ace creeping back to DEFCON levels.
If ever Zack Wheeler needed a strikeout, it was now.
And J.T. Realmuto made sure he got it.
Wheeler threw a two-strike fastball that clipped the outer edge of the plate. After umpire Todd Tichenor called it a ball, Realmuto tapped his head to initiate a challenge call. The call was overturned.
One pitch later, Wheeler was out of the inning.
A sold-out crowd exhaled, but none more than Wheeler, who dominated for the next five innings in a 4-2 victory over the first-place Braves that shaved the lead in the National League East back to four games.
The Phillies scored twice in the first inning, once in the second, and again in the fourth on Kyle Schwarber’s majors-leading 41st homer, a missile that deflected off an ad hanging over the second deck in right field.
José Alvarado safeguarded a two-run lead in the eighth inning, temporarily quieting concerns about the Phillies’ setup crew, before Jhoan Duran nailed it down in the ninth.
But nothing was more significant than Wheeler.
Six days earlier, after a scuba-level dive into his delivery and biomechanics, Wheeler adjusted how he holds his glove. He allowed one run in six innings in a victory in Anaheim but stayed measured in declaring everything was fixed.
“I’m still not out of it,” he said.
And given how the first inning began against the Braves — back-to-back singles by Drake Baldwin and Ronald Acuña Jr., and a walk to Matt Olson — it was clear that Wheeler’s reservations were well-founded.
But after dangerous Michael Harris II fouled out and Realmuto got the overturned call to strike out Mauricio Dubón, Wheeler got Ozzie Albies to fly out on the first pitch.
Except for Acuña’s solo homer in the third inning, the Braves scarcely threatened him again. Wheeler struck out the side in the fifth, punctuating it with a fastball on the outside corner to get Acuña.
The Phillies jumped on Braves lefty Martín Pérez in the first inning on Luis Arraez’s one-out RBI single and a bases-loaded walk to Realmuto. They added a run in the second when Derek Hill led off with a triple and scored on Schwarber’s groundout.
With the minor league season winding down, Phillies farm director Luke Murton returns to Phillies Extra to discuss the state of the system and upcoming changes to his role. He also offers an encouraging update on injured top prospect Aidan Miller. Watch here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Previous episodes: Mike Hazen | Tony Gwynn Jr. | Kevin Stocker | Bobby Dickerson | Jim Bowden | John Middleton | Ryan Howard | Dan Baker | Ricky Bottalico | Preston Mattingly
