Phillies win third straight postseason contest, beat Braves in Game 1 of NLDS

Heading into their NL Division Series against the Phillies, the Braves were confident and hoped to play with the swagger of a playoff-hardened team that became champions in 2021. 

But the Phillies had other plans in Game 1. 

The Phillies played small ball to defeat the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves 7-6 at Truist Park in Atlanta. 

Braves’ ace Max Fried was not sharp and gave up two runs in the first inning off singles by Nick Castellanos and Alec Bohm.

Castellanos entered the game hitting .148 in seven postseason appearances. On Tuesday, he had three hits in five plate appearances.

The Braves answered in the bottom of the second inning courtesy of a solo home run from Travis d’Arnaud.

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After getting through the second inning, Fried gave up two more runs in the top of the third inning via a sacrifice fly and another single. Fried was chased after only 3⅓ innings, was charged with four earned runs and committed an error.

The Braves bats did get going late, and first baseman Matt Olson hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to pull his team within one run. But the rally and the game ended on a d’Arnaud groundout to the shortstop. 

The Braves had their chances throughout the game but stranded nine runners on base.

Phillies starter Ranger Suarez gave up only three hits and one earned run over 3½ innings.

The win over the Braves Tuesday made it three straight postseason victories for Philadelphia. The streak is surprising for a team making its first appearance in the playoffs since 2011. 

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The first half of the season was far from ideal for the Phillies, who sat at 22-29 in June when they fired manager Joe Girardi. On Monday, the Phillies announced Rob Thomson, who took over for Girardi on an interim basis, agreed to a two-year contract to become the ballclub’s full-time manager.

After Thomson took over, Philadelphia went 65-49 the rest of the way during the regular season.

The Braves finished 14 games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East this season. Game 2 of the NLDS is set for Wednesday at 4:35 p.m. from Atlanta.