Duel, Interrupted: Phillies Come Back To Beat Braves Late, Even Series
On September 6 and then again on September 12, Tyler Mahle squared off with the Phillies. Both times, he left them frustrated and flailing; he allowed three runs across 13 innings in two Atlanta victories. In each of those games, Mahle leaned on his splitter quite a bit, something he’s done more frequently since joining the Braves at the trade deadline. That set up an interesting mind game in Wednesday’s Game 2. Seeing the same opponent for the third time in a month, would Mahle change his ways? Would the Phillies change their own approach? And could they overcome the Braves, who had been their nemeses throughout the year, and prolong their season for another day with their Kryptonite on the mound?
Mahle’s splitter was devastating last outing, so clearly the Phillies would have to sit on it. But wait! Mahle knows that the Phillies know that they won’t beat his splitter unless they key on it. So clearly, he should throw them fewer splitters. But wait! The Phillies know that Mahle knows that they will probably be sitting on the splitter. So clearly, they can’t look for splitters. But wait! Mahle knows that the Phillies know that… Well, you get the idea. There are levels to this, to paraphrase Kendrick Lamar.
Or maybe not. The Phillies either went too many levels up, or they didn’t even get into the endless iocaine powder reasoning loop I just described. Because Mahle came out leaning on his splitter, just as you’d expect, and the Phillies came out with absolutely no solutions. As Arthur C. Clarke said, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And to Philadelphia, Mahle’s splitter might as well have been Power Word: Whiff. They surely knew it was coming – it just didn’t matter.
Ben is a writer at FanGraphs. He can be found on Bluesky @benclemens.
Man oh man what would the good denizens of Philadelphia have to say about Bohm and Harper had they not covered their defensive shenanigans with the tying and winning home runs?
From goat to hero in less than an hour. Ah, baseball!
Absolutely unreal swing from Alec Bohm in the 10th. No righty had ever hit a pitch that fast in that up-and-in part of the plate for an opposite-field homer in the Statcast era. Incredibly gutsy performance by Painter as well, and a great story.
After the 7th inning, I’m guessing the Phillies beat writers already had their obituaries about this era of Phillies baseball written, but now it’s the Braves who are looking at a nightmare offseason if they lose tomorrow. The stakes feel like they couldn’t be higher even though both teams would be heavy underdogs next round anyway. Baseball!
Good comments on Alec Bohm. Impressive swing to muscle one over.
I feel different about the Braves facing a nightmare offseason. A loss in a short series happens in baseball. Can’t really draw any conclusions from it. Both teams are flawed and the one that loses tomorrow might be the team that played better but didn’t get the bounces.
Losing a series you were six outs away from sweeping is absolutely brutal, and four straight first-round exits after winning the World Series is tough to answer for.
Gonna be real; I didn’t think it was a good swing. 98mph off the bat and went 350 feet. Stepped in the bucket and inside-outted a fastball. Gutsy swing for sure, but there’s a bit of good fortune that ball left the yard.
As a Braves fan I wish these other series would have some close exciting games so I could watch good baseball without anxiety.
Nope. All the other series are done and dusted. Red Sox and Cubs might want to try to score some runs next year when these things roll around…..
Just a reminder that both teams in this series are a blown save away from having won the series. Not just the Braves.
One nice thing about the Phillies combination of excellent pitching and terrible offense is lots of close games. All the other series have been super boring so far.