The Atlanta Braves opened their Wild Card Series against the Philadelphia Phillies with a 5-3 win at Truist Park, a result that came down to one late swing.
Trailing 3-2 with four outs left, Austin Riley launched a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth that flipped the game and gave Atlanta a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three.
The victory put the Braves in position to close out the series on Wednesday, when Tyler Mahle takes the mound against Philadelphia left-hander Cristopher Sanchez.
Manager Walt Weiss responded to the Game 1 box score by shuffling his lineup for the second contest. He kept the top-of-the-order experiment of Drake Baldwin and Ronald Acuña Jr. intact but dropped Matt Olson out of the three-hole he occupied Tuesday, via Underdog MLB.
Ozzie Albies moves up to that third spot, Olson slots into the cleanup position he occupied in Game 1, and Riley slides down to sixth.
The adjustment is a direct reaction to how the top of the order performed. Baldwin, Acuña, and Olson combined to go 0-for-11 while occupying the first three spots, and Olson himself finished 0-for-4. Weiss is looking for more consistent contact and better sequencing against Sanchez, whose repertoire has given right-handed hitters trouble all year.
The rest of the order stays largely familiar. Mauricio Dubón bats fifth in left field, Michael Harris II remains in center, Sean Murphy catches, and Ha-Seong Kim plays shortstop.
Mahle gets the start, a choice that reflects both his recent form and the club’s desire to keep its bullpen as fresh as possible if the series extends.
Atlanta has owned the season series against Philadelphia, going 10-4 in the regular-season matchups. That history offers some comfort, yet postseason baseball has a way of compressing those numbers into a single afternoon.
A win Wednesday would send the Braves into the National League Division Series beginning Saturday. A loss would force a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday, with Grant Holmes expected to handle the bulk of the innings in that scenario.
Either way, the lineup change is an early signal that Weiss is willing to tinker rather than wait for slumping bats to correct themselves.
Olson’s power remains a central piece of the offense, but the club is betting that moving him down a spot and elevating Albies will create more traffic and more opportunities in the middle innings.
The series now sits at a familiar postseason crossroads: one team trying to finish the job at home, the other trying to force a third game and reset the narrative.
Wednesday’s pitching matchup and the new batting order will determine whether Atlanta’s late-inning heroics in Game 1 become the start of a deeper run or simply a one-night spark.
