ATLANTA — This is Philadelphia slugger Bryce Harper’s favorite time of year.
Ranger Suárez and a parade of hard-throwing Phillies relief pitchers are enjoying themselves, too.
Harper hit the 12th postseason homer of his MLB career, Suárez and a half-dozen teammates combined on a five-hitter, and the fourth-seeded Phillies stifled baseball’s most prolific offense for a 3-0 victory over the top-seeded Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of a National League Division Series on Saturday night.
In a playoff rematch between East Division rivals, the 104-win Braves find themselves in exactly the same position as a year ago: trailing the Phillies after a best-of-five NLDS opener at Truist Park.
“This team, to a man, has this innate toughness to them,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said. “They’re really resilient, and they just keep fighting. So it’s a great combination of talent and makeup that we have on this club.”
In 2022, the Phillies knocked off the Braves 3-1 in the NLDS on the way to an improbable World Series appearance. Now they’re up again heading to Game 2 on Monday night in Atlanta.
As usual, Harper was right in the middle of things. He reached base in all four at-bats and gave the Phillies some breathing room with a liner into the right-field seats off 20-game winner Spencer Strider in the sixth inning.
“This is his time of year,” Thomson said. “This is where he kind of shines.”
Atlanta’s offense had been shining all season, tying the MLB record with 307 home runs while averaging more than 5.8 runs per game.
The Braves’ batters came up empty to start the postseason, enduring their first shutout since May 12 — and their first all season at Truist Park. They became the first team to lead the majors in runs and get shut out in their postseason opener since the 2001 Seattle Mariners.
“I think it was more their pitching than our hitting,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
Bryson Stott, the star of Philadelphia’s two-game wild-card sweep of the Miami Marlins earlier in the week, broke a scoreless tie with a run-scoring single in the fourth, driving in Harper with an unearned run after a wild pickoff throw by Strider.
Harper padded the lead all by himself by going deep off Strider, who is 8-0 with a 1.90 ERA against the Phillies in the regular season but dropped to 0-2 against them in the postseason.
“Strider, man, he’s one of the best in the game,” Harper said. “You know he’s going to come at you and throw his best at you. So just trying to get a pitch over, and was able to get the slider up and do some damage.”
Strider went seven innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with eight strikeouts.
The mood turned ugly in the eighth when the Phillies tacked on their final run courtesy of catcher interference against Sean Murphy. J.T. Realmuto fouled off a pitch with the bases loaded, but his bat barely nicked Murphy’s mitt to force in a run.
After the call was reviewed and upheld, there was a brief delay when a handful of fans threw trash on the field. Snitker and Murphy had no complaints about the call, and the Braves manager ripped the fans who littered the outfield.
“There’s no excuse for that,” Snitker said. “It’s scary because those water bottles, when they come, they’re like grenades. It could really seriously injure one of our players.”
Many in the crowd of 43,689 — the largest turnout in the ballpark’s seven-year history — headed for the exits after Trea Turner’s diving stop on Ozzie Albies’ sharp grounder turned into an inning-ending double play in the bottom half of the eighth.
Suárez allowed just one hit in 3 2/3 innings. Still, with an off day between the first and second games, the Phillies quickly turned to their bullpen at the first sign of trouble.
Suárez walked slowly off the mound, clearly upset at being lifted so quickly, but Thomson said the lefty calmed down when he explained Philadelphia’s strategy.
“He’s a competitor, and he wants to stay in, and he knew how well he was pitching,” Thomson said. “I get it. I’m OK with him being disappointed.”
Philadelphia’s Jeff Hoffman escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth by striking out Michael Harris II to earn the win. Seranthony Dominguez worked around two hits in the fifth by fanning the side, including a called third strike on NL MVP favorite Ronald Acuña Jr. with runners at first and third.
Jose Alvarado, rookie Orion Kerkering, Matt Strahm and Craig Kimbrel shut down the Braves the rest of the way, with Kimbrel earning a save against the first team he pitched for in the majors.
Other than chants of “MVP! MVP!” from the home crowd, it was a quiet night for the first player in MLB history to post 40 homers and 70 stolen bases in a season as Acuña went hitless in his first three at-bats, including the crucial strikeout against Dominguez on a perfect fastball on the inside corner. The Atlanta star finally reached with a walk leading off the eighth, but it failed to spark the offense.
Video reviews led to a pair of overturned calls, and each team benefited once.
Atlanta’s Albies was initially called safe on an attempted steal in the second inning. He was ruled out when the replay showed a tag on his mitted hand just before it got to the bag.
In the fourth, Atlanta’s Matt Olson was initially called out on a force play at second. The Braves challenged, and the replay clearly showed the runner got to the bag ahead of the ball.
Left-hander Max Fried (8-1, 2.55 ERA in the regular season) will get the start for the Braves in Game 2 after dealing with a recurring blister late in the season.
“Just something you’ve got to monitor and just kind of pitch through,” Fried said.
The Phillies will counter with right-hander Zack Wheeler (13-6, 3.61 ERA), who got the win in Game 1 of the wild-card matchup with Miami by allowing just one run in 6 1/3 innings. Wheeler is a native of Smyrna, not far from the Braves’ stadium.
“It’s definitely going to be fun to pitch here in front of friends and family,” he said, “and hopefully we get a win.”