Good big inning
Braves use 7-run 8th to thump Phils in opener
PHILADELPHIA — The calendar still says March, so that’s prime time for the Atlanta Braves to beat up on the Philadelphia Phillies.
Friday afternoon’s matchup at Citizens Bank Park was just the first game of a long season for the National League East Division rivals, of course. Atlanta still has six months to figure out how to beat Philadelphia in those final October games after playoff losses the past two years have proved fatal to the Braves’ biggest goals.
Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson tied his career high with three doubles, including a bases-loaded drive in a seven-run eighth inning, and the six-time reigning NL East champions rallied to a 9-3 win in regularseason game 1 of a planned 162 for each team.
Braves center fielder Michael Harris II had three hits, and his RBI single off José Alvarado (0-1) made it 3-2 in the eighth and ignited the breakout inning. Alvarado allowed five runs and Connor Brogdon gave up two.
Pierce Johnson (1-0) tossed a scoreless seventh to earn the win for the Braves, who triumphed in their first trip back to Philadelphia since their 2023 season ended with a Game 4 loss in a best-of-five NL Division Series at this ballpark. That’s also how Atlanta’s 2022 season ended, despite finishing 14 games ahead of Philadelphia in the division standings each of those years.
This opening rematch came a day later than originally scheduled, with the decision made Wednesday to postpone from Thursday to Friday because of rain in the forecast.
Braves manager Brian Snitker
insisted his team was excited for any win — because it was needed, not necessarily because it was a potential table-setter toward a third straight October showdown.
“You can’t do that,” Snitker said. “I talked to the guys about that early on. It’s easy to do, it’s easy to say. But you’ve got to win today. If you want to fastforward, it doesn’t work that way.”
Brandon Marsh hit a tworun homer for the Phillies, whose late collapse in the club’s 142nd season opener wasted a strong outing for Zack Wheeler, who received a three-year contract extension through 2027 from the club in the offseason.
The 33-year-old righthander from the Atlanta area struck out five batters without issuing a walk while throwing 89 pitches and six shutout innings in his first time starting on opening day. His chance to figure in the decision ended when Adam Duvall ripped a two-RBI double to left field off Matt Strahm in the seventh that made it 2-2.
“That goes to show we’re never out of it with our lineup,” said Duvall, who signed earlier this month to begin his third stint with the Braves. “We can come back with anybody.”
Atlanta right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., the 2023 NL MVP, went 2-for-4 with a walk, an RBI, a run and a stolen base. The Braves, who tied Major League Baseball’s single-season record with 307 home runs last year, had their big day at the plate without going deep.
Braves ace Spencer Strider, a 20-game winner last year in his second MLB season, went five innings and surrendered Marsh’s shot to left in the fifth. The hard-throwing 25-year-old right-hander — who added a curveball to his repertoire in the offseason — pitched to derisive chants of “Stri-der! Stri-der!” from 44,452 fullthroated Phillies fans already in postseason form.
The Phillies and the Braves are entrenched in one of baseball’s most intense rivalries of
the past few years, with Philadelphia frustrating Atlanta in its bid to make another deep run after winning the 2021 World Series.
Philadelphia earned a wildcard berth out of the division the past two seasons and proved better than Atlanta in the playoffs, but the Phillies lost the 2022 World Series to the Houston Astros in six games, and they blew a 3-2 NL Championship Series lead to the Arizona Diamondbacks last year. So the Phillies have renewed their quest for a third World Series trophy to go with their 1980 and 2008 titles.
“Last couple of seasons, you get close. You can taste it, you can feel it,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “They want it, they really do. It’s not something we talk about every day. But it’s part of the conversation certain days.”
Atlanta catcher Sean Murphy left with left oblique tightness and was expected to go on the injured list.