ATLANTA — The Braves dominated division rival Philadelphia this season, winning nine of 13 games in the series and snapping the Phillies’ two-year streak as National League East champions.
Atlanta will now attempt to carry that over into the postseason and break out of a recent downward playoff trend when it opens a best-of-three NL wild-card series against visiting Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon.
The Braves (94-68) haven’t won a playoff series since their 2021 World Series title, losing in the NL Division Series in 2022 and 2023, falling in the wild-card round in 2024 and missing last year’s postseason, which ended their seven-year streak.
Two of those exits — 2022 and ‘23 — came at the hands of the Phillies, both by a 3-1 margin in years when Atlanta won the division over Philadelphia.
“It seems fitting to run into them,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said of the Phillies. “We got a lot of respect for them. Solid team. It’s a matchup that we always kind of look forward to just because you know they’re going to be competitive.”
Atlanta was the best team in baseball for the first two months, with a 45-21 record on June 7. It is 49-47 since then but still managed to hold onto the NL East lead it took on April 8 and never relinquished.
Clinching the division title Sept. 20 allowed the Braves to align their rotation for the postseason. Chris Sale (14-9, 2.16 ERA) gets the ball for Game 1 coming off another stellar season anchoring Atlanta’s rotation.
While he isn’t likely to win his second Cy Young Award in three seasons with the Braves, Sale has remained a rock for Atlanta, with his 2.36 ERA over the last three seasons trailing only Yankees starter Cam Schlittler (2.23) among major league pitchers in that span.
This will be Sale’s first time pitching in the playoffs for Atlanta. He’s 1-3 with a 6.35 ERA in 10 playoff appearances (seven starts) with Boston, the last of which came in 2021.
“It’s definitely exciting,” Sale said. “Being able to pitch for the first time for this organization in the postseason means a lot.”
Philadelphia (88-74) did not have the same luxury of lining up its pitching for the postseason. In fact, it’s something of a miracle the Phillies even made the playoffs for a fifth straight season after their 9-19 start got manager Rob Thomson fired before April concluded.
The Phillies rebounded under interim manager Don Mattingly and threatened Atlanta’s NL East lead on several occasions.
Philadelphia, which is 10-14 in September, could have clinched its playoff berth as early as Wednesday. But an untimely four-game losing streak paired with Arizona’s six-game winning streak meant the Phillies didn’t punch their ticket until beating the Rays 7-3 on Sunday.
In the final regular-season series, they had to use top starters Cristopher Sanchez, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Jesus Luzardo — who returned from a brief stint on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation to pitch an inning of relief Sunday.
But now that the Phillies have survived, they know they have the star power to find success in October. This core of players — anchored by Kyle Schwarber, who finished tied for the major league lead with 45 homers this season, and Bryce Harper — lost in the World Series in 2022 and fell in the 2023 NL Championship Series before NLDS exits the last two seasons.
“Everybody knows the numbers and what happened in the regular season. It’s kind of been like that the last couple years,” Harper said. “Once postseason starts, it’s a whole different game. Just try to do the best we can and understand we’re a very good baseball team, and we’re ready to go.”
Luzardo will be the Phillies’ opener in Game 1. It’ll be his first start since Sept. 7, when he diced up these Braves, allowing two hits and one walk while striking out 12 in his first career complete game and shutout. A first-time All-Star this season, Luzardo (14-5) has a career-best 2.86 ERA, with 221 strikeouts and 52 walks over 179 2/3 innings. He’s 0-4 with a 4.84 ERA in six playoff appearances (four starts).
“Gives us the best chance to try to get the game off on a right foot,” Mattingly said when asked about the decision. “The bullpen games haven’t went great for us this year, but that’s where we’re at.”
The Phillies will be without second baseman Luis Arraez for this series after he sprained his left ankle Thursday. Arraez finished the season one point short of his fourth career batting title with a .310 average.
–Curt Weiler, Field Level Media
