Braves Knock Out Phillies 6-2 in Game 3, Set Up NLDS Showdown With Dodgers
Michael Harris II's first-inning homer and Chris Sale's relief stint sent Atlanta through the NL Wild Card Series.
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File photo: Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves, seen from the first-base line in 2017 before its name change. Photo: Andrew nyr, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Atlanta Braves are moving on. Thursday night's 6-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 settled the National League Wild Card Series, with Michael Harris II supplying an early three-run blast and Chris Sale working in relief to finish it.
Having taken the series two games to one, Atlanta travels to Los Angeles for Saturday's opener of a best-of-five Division Series against the Dodgers, winners of the last two World Series, The Associated Press reported.
Harris makes amends
Harris had grounded into a pair of double plays as the Braves lost Game 2 4-3 in 10 innings. This time, after Aaron Nola walked Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson in the first, he sent a pitch out of the park. "Just found one pitch to put my best swing on and hopefully we got some runs out of it, and we did," Harris said.
Ozzie Albies took Zack Wheeler deep for two more runs in the fourth, and Olson tacked on a solo home run in the seventh.
Kerr, Sale shut the door
Left-hander Ray Kerr, an unexpected choice to start, held the Phillies to a single hit over 3 1/3 shutout innings in his first postseason outing and just the fourth start of his career. Sale, 37, who had started the Braves' 5-3 Game 1 win only two days earlier, got Bryce Harper on strikes to escape the eighth, then retired the side in the ninth.
"I told our guys, `Man, all year long when the stakes have been the highest, when the challenges have been the toughest, we've been at our absolute best.' So it doesn't surprise me that we played the way we did tonight," Braves manager Walt Weiss said.
First series win over Philadelphia
The victory gave the Braves their first playoff series triumph since lifting the 2021 World Series trophy — and their first ever over Philadelphia, which had knocked them out in the 1993 NLCS and in back-to-back Division Series in 2022 and 2023. Truist Park was sold out, with 41,731 in attendance.
"If you don't win the last game, it's a crash landing no matter what," Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said.
Sources: ESPN; CBS Sports (The Associated Press)
