Atlanta had the series in its hands late Wednesday afternoon, a two-run cushion in the eighth inning and Tyler Mahle’s sharp postseason debut in the books. Instead, the Braves will carry a 4-3 extra-inning loss into a winner-take-all Game 3 against the Phillies at Truist Park.
Alec Bohm broke the tie with a two-out homer off Didier Fuentes in the 10th, turning the National League Wild Card Series from a possible Atlanta sweep into a deciding game. The Phillies had come back from a 3-1 deficit after seven innings, exposing the bullpen concern that has suddenly followed the Braves through the first two games.
Dylan Lee opened the eighth against Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, and the two Philadelphia sluggers immediately erased Atlanta’s lead with consecutive home runs. Lee had uneven stretches during the second half, but Fuentes had been one of Atlanta’s steadiest relief options during the regular season. His postseason has been tougher: he also surrendered J.T. Realmuto’s two-run triple in Atlanta’s Game 1 win.
Mahle gives Atlanta seven strong innings
The late collapse denied Mahle a victory after the right-hander delivered an impressive first postseason start. He permitted one run on six hits over seven innings, keeping Philadelphia quiet while Atlanta built its lead.
Mahle became the first Braves pitcher to work at least seven innings while allowing no more than one run in a postseason game since Max Fried did it against Cincinnati in Game 1 of the 2020 National League Wild Card Series.
Atlanta took a 1-0 lead in the first when Matt Olson singled home a run. That remained the only offense against Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez until the seventh, when the Braves capitalized on a sequence of Philadelphia miscues.
Sean Murphy led off the inning with a walk. Ha-Seong Kim put down a sacrifice bunt and reached safely when Bohm, playing first base, made a late throw to second. Drake Baldwin then lifted a routine fly ball to right that Harper misplayed into an RBI double.
With Ozzie Albies intentionally walked to set up a left-on-left matchup, Olson added a sacrifice fly that pushed the advantage to two runs. It was the kind of inning that seemed built to send Atlanta onward. Schwarber and Harper changed that feeling in two pitches to begin the next half-inning.
Game 3 schedule remains conditional
The clubs will meet Thursday in Game 3 of the best-of-three series, with the first pitch dependent on the status of the other Wild Card matchups. Phillies-Braves is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET unless it is the only series still in progress, or unless White Sox-Astros is the only other active series. In either of those scenarios, Atlanta and Philadelphia would move to 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
For the Braves, the assignment is straightforward after a difficult pair of late relief innings: recover quickly, lean on the work that put them in position to win Wednesday, and find one more October answer at home.
