Kyle Wright Twirls Six Shutout Innings as Braves Even NLDS

If Phillies fans had known three days ago that their squad would leave Atlanta with a split, they’d all have told you that was swell. It felt as though they were playing with house money after surviving a late onslaught by a Braves lineup that squandered two woulda-coulda-shoulda, difference-making bases loaded situations in Game 1 and escaping with the victory, and they had both Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola looming for the next two games. But at the mercy of Kyle Wright and Atlanta’s bullpen King Ghidorah of A.J. Minter, Raisel Iglesias, and Kenley Jansen, the Phillies were shut out in Game 2, sent packing in a 3–0 loss which didn’t even last as long (two hours and 49 minutes) as the rain delay that preceded it.

While leaving the den of the defending World Series champions even at a game a piece is, in a vacuum, a huge positive for the Phillies, the context of this split is somewhat alarming. The Braves have outscored them 8–1 over the last 14 innings, as Philadelphia mustered just three hits in this shutout loss. A masterful performance by Wright and opportunistic hitting in the sixth inning were pretty much all of what Atlanta needed to tie the series.

Wheeler largely performed as expected for most of the game. Second among big league starters in WAR across the last two seasons, he needed just 27 pitches to knife through three perfect innings at the start, his adrenaline-boosted fastball velocity a full tick above his 2022 regular-season mark. It’s especially encouraging to see that arm strength given that he is just a few starts removed from coming off the IL with forearm tendinitis.

It wasn’t until the sixth, thanks to some self-inflicted damage on Wheeler’s part, that the Braves broke through in a two-out rally. After he dispatched Marcell Ozuna and Eddie Rosario to start the inning, the righty hit Ronald Acuña Jr. with a fastball, resulting in a lengthy delay so the trainer could check on Acuña. (You know what it’s like to hit your funny bone on the door frame? Imagine the door frame is moving at 97 mph.)

Wheeler walked Dansby Swanson after that, followed by the Braves stringing together three ground ball singles, plating three runs in the process. And for the first time in this series, the Phillies’ sub-par defense really hurt them, as Rhys Hoskins was unable to handle a hot shot grounder off the bat of Matt Olson, allowing a run to score and prolonging an inning that they otherwise would have been out of unscathed. Olson, Acuña, and former Phillies prospect Travis d’Arnaud (dealt to Toronto in the Roy Halladay trade) all followed up their multi-hit Game 1 efforts by reaching base a combined five times tonight.

Matt Olson delivers!

The Braves have broken through first in this pitcher's duel as THEIR star first baseman goes through the defense for an RBI single. pic.twitter.com/TT4MqDvhfs

— Just Baseball (@JustBBMedia) October 13, 2022

The Phillies’ only real scoring opportunity came in the second inning on a Bryce Harper leadoff double, followed by a Nick Castellanos flyout, an Alec Bohm ground out, and Brandon Marsh fouling off a hittable 2–1 curveball from Wright before striking out to end the frame. The Phillies wouldn’t put another runner in scoring position all evening and picked up only two hits off of Wright, who deployed his curveball a whopping 46% of the time in this one, about as often as he did his fastball. Kyle Schwarber in particular had a frustrating night, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. He’s now hitless in 18 postseason plate appearances thus far.

Along with that hittable breaking ball that Marsh missed, the Phillies came up short on a handful of warning track fly balls. They had five of the six furthest hit balls in play throughout Game 2, according to Baseball Savant, but those mostly served to allow Michael Harris II to show everyone how comfortable he is sprinting back on balls over his head. Perhaps the balls would have carried differently in the middle of the day, rather than dying at the track in the damp chill of the Georgia evening after the rain delay.

In addition to Wright & Co.’s domination, the Braves made several slick defensive plays. d’Arnaud nearly ended the game by clearing the netting out of his own way on an elevator shaft popup in the ninth (it was ruled to have hit the net, but it’s not clear if that’s true). In the sixth, Swanson made an epic over-the-shoulder basket catch on a pop-up that seemed destined for no-man’s land in shallow left. Austin Riley made his own over-the-shoulder sliding play into the tarp next to the third base stands in the eighth, snuffing out a would-be Phillies rally that had started with a Jean Segura single and had the top of the order looming.

AUSTIN. RILEY. IS. HIM.

?: FOX and the FOX Sports App pic.twitter.com/4NtYmfbSSv

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 13, 2022

As both starters were nails in this one, there was very little managerial activity. The Braves never sent a pinch-hitter to the plate, and each of their relievers entered at the start of a clean inning. Phillies manager Rob Thompson lifted Marsh for Matt Vierling in the eighth, choosing to let a righty face a fresh Iglesias rather than have Marsh go left-on-left with Minter, who had worked the previous inning. It appears as though the Phillies will platoon Marsh with Vierling and Bryson Stott with Edmundo Sosa this postseason.

With an off-day tomorrow and Phillies righty Andrew Bellatti the lone arm to work both of the first two nights, both bullpens should be 100% for Friday’s Game 3 in Philadelphia. The Phillies will turn to Nola, but Atlanta hasn’t yet announced its starter. It could be veteran Charlie Morton or Rookie of the Year candidate Spencer Strider, who hasn’t pitched since September 18 due to an oblique injury. Either matchup promises a marquee, intradivision donnybrook.