September 30, 2026
Brett Davis/Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
It was a wild afternoon for Bryce Harper Wednesday.
Just when you think you're out, they pull you back in.
After what looked like another managerial screw up of epic proportions, the Phillies clawed back to a win, 4-3, over the Braves in Atlanta Wednesday afternoon — keeping them alive and setting up a winner-take-all Game 3 Thursday in the NL Wild Card Series.
Only three times in the (relatively short) history of the current Wild Card format has a team come back from losing the first game to advance. Only never — in their 100-plus-year history – have Phillies won a postseason series after losing any Game 1 in any round (they're 0-for-9, according to Bob Vetrone).
Could they make history?
Three completely unexpected solo home runs from Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm revived a team on life support. Here's a look at the good, the bad
• It felt like the Phillies were just counting down the outs until locker room clean up day, after a brutal seventh inning (more on that later). But Schwarber had something to say about it, blasting a homer 447 feet. Seconds later, Harper followed, going deep 418 feet. It was a tie game.
BRYCE HARPER
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2026
BACK-TO-BACK
THIS GAME IS TIED pic.twitter.com/fiIJdIM4oz
Not long after, in extra innings, Alec Bohm hit what looked like a routine fly ball that just kept going and going and going until it left the yard. It looked like he got jammed — but somehow used his lanky frame to get it out of the ballpark. And more importantly, it gave the Phillies a 4-3 lead:
ALEC BOHM GO-AHEAD HOMER
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2026
PHILLIES LEAD IN THE 10TH 🤯 pic.twitter.com/S4wFOFyDq1
• Ace starter Cris Sánchez is a ground ball monster, and one of the biggest of his career came in the bottom of the sixth, as the Braves loaded the bases with one out. A grounder from Michael Harris went right to Bohm, who has really grown into the everyday first base role. He flung the ball to J.T. Realmuto who stepped on home before completing the twin-killing back to first. The game stayed at 1-1 and the momentum finally shifted in Philadelphia's corner.
3-2-3 DOUBLE PLAY
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2026
The Phillies escape the bases-loaded jam! pic.twitter.com/5lKM9tYRjr
• For the first time in weeks, the Phillies scored in the first inning on back-to-back days. Trea Turner hit a lead-off double to set the tone, and was plated by a Bryce Harper single. Bohm hit a single to put runners at corners but Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh were easy outs as Atlanta limited the damage.
• I don't have a single bad thing to say about Sánchez. I was exhausted just watching him in the seventh inning, setting a career high with 116 pitches. It's not his fault he didn't get run support. It's not his fault he doesn't play on a team with a sturdy bullpen. And it was not his decision to stay in the game that long. He went 6.2 innings, struck out five and kept the Phillies in it. He's an ace, was a top three pitcher in the NL this season and you can't ask for much more from your top starter than Sánchez gave Philly in this one.
• Major props to Andrew Painter, who came out of the bullpen for the first time ever, in his first playoff game ever, and threw six balls in a row. He sturdied himself after that in a huge way, bailing out a Phillies team that has basically no bullpen whatsoever and earning an improbable win out of the pen. He navigated his way through the ninth and tenth innings with men on base each time. Perhaps we'll see him in that role again.
• Sánchez was a little slow to get the strike zone out of the shoot, and it cost him. A lead-off walk to Ronald Acuña Jr., and two stolen bases, led to the Braves scoring in the bottom of the first with just one single.
In the third, Sánchez issued another lead off walk to nine-hole hitter Ha-Seong Kim — but he cleaned up his mess this time with two strikeouts and a foul pop out. And in the seventh, another free pass started things off and obviously led to the Phillies giving the Braves the lead.
• Strikeouts are one thing — the Phillies are an aggressive team and have one of the prolific strikeout kings on offense in Schwarber. But swinging and missing on pitches out of the zone, as several hitters including Schwarber and Harper (who did it to end a pathetic 1-2-3 fifth inning) is a sign of desperation. It's a tie game. You have your ace on the mound. Where's the patience?
During August, the Phillies best month of the season, the team led the league in OBP and in walks. Something shifted in September, as the race for the NL East tightened and shortly after that the Wild Card race. The winning mentality that saw the Phillies taking pitches and picking their spots is elusive, for some reason. It's what did them in during their last few postseason failures, and it's one of the biggest reasons they're missing Luis Arráez badly — the centerpiece acquisition from the trade deadline who strikes out as sparingly as any hitter in the majors.
• Harper made an out trying to score on a grounder to the pitcher in the first. It's a tough spot — and with one out Harper made sure that his rundown between third and home plate didn't result in a double play — but you have to keep a runner on third in this scenario. The base-running blunders were frequent during the regular season and his postseason mistake bailed out the Braves.
• Braves Game 2 starter Tyler Mahle isn't intimidating. He throws in the mid-90s, relies on a splitter and made his first ever postseason start Wednesday at age 32. But man did he have the Phillies number. Keeping hitters off balance all afternoon, Mahle tossed seven innings of impressive one-run baseball, never looking rattled. Struggling against Chris Sale is one thing. The Phillies have to be patient and beat a guy like Mahle.
• Another game, another bad decision by a Phillies fielder. On a strongly hit sac bunt attempt from Kim, Bohm labored a throw to second to try and get a lead runner — the throw wasn't in time – instead of taking the sure out by throwing back to first base. The Phillies cannot field bunts. It undid them against the Dodgers last year too.
But wait, it gets worse. Harper spent 11 seasons playing right field. How is this even possible?
DRAKE BALDWIN COMES THROUGH
— MLB (@MLB) September 30, 2026
BRAVES LEAD IN THE 7TH! pic.twitter.com/R6hBHRekdd
Why wasn't he wearing those sunglasses? The Phils coughed up the lead and an insurance run with a sac fly one hitter later.
• Already down one infielder in Arráez, Edmundo Sosa came up limp running out a single in the ninth. It looks like a soft tissue injury and if it is, the Phillies will be very thin and forced to move Harper to first and Bohm to third going forward.
• A little positivity here. Yes, these Phillies are beyond frustrating. The front office, the management, and the players stuck in their ways and unable to adapt. But the Phillies have made the postseason for five years in a row, the second longest active streak behind the Dodgers. It's rare in this sport.
The Chase Utley-Jimmy Rollins Phillies did it, and won just one World Series title. The legendary teams of the 1970s and 1980s never had a consecutive five-year run of success like this.
We've seen what it looks like when it's bad. There have been lean years and we could be on the cusp of more of them, with an aging core and an impending likely lock out. It's worth taking a moment to appreciate this team, underachieving as they may be. The most memorable and special moment I've had as a sports fan, in person in Philly was Harpers "Bedlam at the Ballpark" home run. They have yet to finish it — few teams do.
Whether they win or lose in Game 3, or in a future NLDS against the Dodgers (let's not get ahead of ourselves), be thankful to have this gift of postseason baseball every fall.
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