ATLANTA — Alec Bohm’s 10th-inning home run completed the Philadelphia Phillies’ comeback and kept their season alive with a 4-3 win over the host Atlanta Braves on Wednesday afternoon, forcing a winner-take-all Game 3 of their National League wild-card series on Thursday.
After the first two batters of the frame were retired, Bohm lifted a 1-1 fastball from Didier Fuentes (0-1) 357 feet and just over the right field fence for his third career postseason homer, his first since 2023.
Phillies right-hander Andrew Painter (1-0) entered in the eighth and threw the final three innings, striking out pinch hitter Dominic Smith on an ABS challenge to strand two runners and record the win in his postseason debut.
Bryce Harper and Bohm each had two hits and homered for the Phillies (1-1).
Matt Olson had two of the three RBIs for the Braves (1-1), who left 11 runners on base, including getting nothing out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the sixth.
Trailing 3-1 and down to their final six outs, Philadelphia sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Harper led off the eighth with back-to-back homers off Dylan Lee to tie the game.
Harper’s homer, which avenged a mistake he made misjudging a flyball to give Atlanta the lead in the prior inning, completed the Phillies’ first set of back-to-back postseason homers since Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell did it on Oct. 3, 2007 against the Colorado Rockies.
Lee had allowed just three home runs in 71 regular-season appearances.
The dramatic finish overshadowed what had been a stellar pitching duel. Atlanta right-hander Tyler Mahle, making his postseason debut, tossed seven innings of one-run ball on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts.
Phillies ace Cristopher Sanchez similarly got through six innings of one-run ball before the Braves tagged him for two more runs in the seventh on Drake Baldwin’s double which Harper misjudged and an Olson sacrifice fly.
Sanchez went 6 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and five walks, striking out six.
For the second straight day, the Phillies opened the scoring in the first inning, with Bryce Harper’s single plating Trea Turner after his leadoff double. But Mahle got a pair of clutch outs to strand runners on the corners.
The Braves immediately erased that lead when Olson blooped a two-out single to right to score Ronald Acuna Jr., who led off with a walk and stole two bases to advance to third.
–Curt Weiler, Field Level Media
