The Phillies’ Zack Wheeler owned the Braves for five innings of Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Monday at Truist Park.
Wheeler, a native of Smyrna, became the first pitcher in Major League Baseball postseason history to strike out six consecutive batters with no hits allowed to start the game.
Wheeler kept going, holding the Braves without a hit for 5-2/3 innings.
In the Braves dugout, manager Brian Snitker said he didn’t say anything to his batters as they watched Wheeler hit every corner of the strike zone, rarely throwing anything down the middle.
“They know what they’re up against,” Snitker said. “They’ve faced him before. They know how good he is. I just have faith in those guys that, you know what, they give you a hard 27 (outs). Even if the first few aren’t, they’re never going to stop fighting in the batter’s box. And they know what a tough match up that is with that guy because, like I say, he’s one of the game’s best.”
It didn’t seem like much at the time in the sixth inning, but the Braves started to time Wheeler’s pitches.
Orlando Arcia grounded out to third. Michael Harris grounded out to short. Still, it was contact. Ronald Acuña Jr. worked a walk to become just the Braves’ second baserunner.
“I mean, what can you say he was pitching really well, so what can you do?” Acuña said. “You got to wait for him to make a mistake. And then you know, just wait for that time to get an opportunity.”
Ozzie Albies followed with a single to right field, sending Acuña to third base. Phillies shortstop Trea Turner mishandled the throw into the infield, allowing Acuña to score and cut Philadelphia’s lead to 4-1.
“First thing we’d done to really give ourselves lives life,” Snitker said. “It was kind of nice to score a run. It’d been a while. But that was good heads-up play by Ronald.”
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he didn’t consider taking out Wheeler to start the seventh. Wheeler was just at 85 pitches.
“He was fantastic and everything was working,” Thomson said.
The Braves, who came in batting just .217 against Wheeler, finally strung together hits in the seventh. Matt Olson singled to lead off the inning. It was the just the second time that a Braves’ leadoff hitter reached base. After Marcell Ozuna struck out swinging to increase Wheeler’s total to 10, up stepped Travis d’Arnaud.
Before facing d’Arnaud, Wheeler had thrown just four pitches down the middle of the plate. D’Arnaud turned on the fifth, hitting the first pitch over the left-field wall to cut Philadelphia’s lead to to 4-3.
“He’s such a good pitcher,” d’Arnaud said. “Truthfully, I think I just got lucky. And that at-bat, I was just trying to hit the ball on the barrel. My first at-bat I chased, that was over my head, and my second at-bat, I flew one out. So I was just trying to get good contact and I got rewarded with an extra base hit. So that’s how I’m looking at it.”
The next inning, facing a tough Phillies bullpen, the Braves broke through with Austin Riley’s two-run homer off Jeff Hoffman to give the Braves a 5-4 lead.
The series is tied at 1-1 with Game 3 in Philadelphia on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park.
“We were trying to stay as positive as possible in that dugout,” Riley said of Wheeler. “Everybody was saying we just got to keep going, got to keep going. He had an unbelievable night. He was very dominant. And like I said, I think guys just -- that next-guy mentality, and I think just feeding off each other and trying to get the ball rolling. And like Travis said, once we got that crowd back in it, good things happen.”
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