ATLANTA — The first 15 innings of the NLDS couldn’t have gone much better for the Phillies.
After upsetting the Braves in Game 1, they carried a four-run lead into the sixth inning of Game 2.
They had their ace on the mound with a fully-stocked bullpen behind him. They’d shut down the best offense in baseball, one of the best lineups MLB has ever seen.
Then it all unraveled.
Zack Wheeler gave up a two-run homer to the final hitter he faced, Travis d’Arnaud, with one out in the seventh inning.
Jose Alvarado came in and retired three in a row before being lifted for right-hander Jeff Hoffman with the righty-heavy top of Atlanta’s lineup due up. Hoffman hit Ronald Acuña Jr. with a pitch, induced an Ozzie Albies groundout, and worked ahead 1-2 on Austin Riley. Hoffman needed one more strike to end the eighth inning with the Phillies up one, but Riley ran the count full and hit an 89 mph slider that caught too much plate over the wall in left field for a go-ahead home run.
The game ended with Nick Castellanos drilling a ball to deep right-center that Michael Harris II leapt to catch against the wall. He fired back into the infield and the Braves doubled Bryce Harper off of first base to close it out.
A 4-0 lead blown in Game 2 of the NLDS. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The same thing happened to Cliff Lee and the Phillies in Game 2 of the 2011 NLDS against the Cardinals, a series they lost in heartbreaking fashion.
Hoffman has been so good this season, a key find by the Phillies’ front office, signed to a minor-league deal on opening week. He posted a 2.41 ERA in 54 appearances and earned manager Rob Thomson’s trust as the go-to right-handed reliever in the middle of an inning. Nearly half of his appearances came in “dirty innings” with men on base. Time and again, he worked out of those jams.
The only runs Hoffman has allowed since August 25 have come in Atlanta. He was in a similar spot on September 20 against the top of the Braves’ order and the Phillies lost an eighth-inning lead that night as well when Albies and Riley got to him.
It spoiled a dominant start by Wheeler, who no-hit the Braves for 5⅔ innings and didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until the fifth. He struck out a playoff career-high 10.
It’s been a season of deja vu moments for the Phils. A slow start. A low-point close to Memorial Day. A June turnaround. A second-half surge. A wild-card round sweep. A victory in Game 1 in Atlanta over a team that won 100-plus games.
One detail the Phillies hoped would go differently was Game 2. They were shut out in this same spot a year ago, with Wheeler on the mound and a chance to send the Braves to the brink of elimination.
Now, they’ll head home tied 1-1, just as they did in 2022 when they won the NLDS in four games.
They had more runs and hits behind Wheeler by the end of the first inning Monday than they did in Game 2 last year. Trea Turner doubled and scored on an Alec Bohm single, then the Phillies loaded the bases with singles by J.T. Realmuto and Castellanos before Atlanta lefty Max Fried escaped.
Realmuto added to the lead, further subduing the crowd with an opposite-field, two-run homer over the Braves’ bullpen in the third inning.
The fourth run scored when Castellanos singled, stole second, advanced to third on d’Arnaud’s errant throw and scored on a Bryson Stott sacrifice fly. The Phillies are running wild in the postseason. They’re 9-for-10 stealing bases in four playoff games and 7-for-8 in the NLDS alone. They’ve taken five more extra bases by reacting immediately to pitches in the dirt.
It looked like the combination of starting pitching, small ball and timely home runs would put them in a commanding spot as the series transitioned to Philadelphia. Instead, they’ll board the flight home with just a split, a result that might have sounded satisfying to begin the series but won’t sit well given how close they were to landing the plane Monday night.
