PHILADELPHIA — Chris Sale became the fastest pitcher in Major League Baseball history to reach 2,500 strikeouts, throwing six scoreless innings as the Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-3 on Thursday night to split a doubleheader and avoid being swept in a three-game series between National League East Division rivals at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies won 5-4 in the afternoon game — a makeup of Wednesday’s rained-out matchup — after topping Atlanta 2-0 in the series opener Tuesday night.
Philadelphia (36-20), the reigning champ in the NL East after Atlanta won the previous six division titles, remains in first place with a two-game lead over the New York Mets, who were idle Thursday.
Atlanta (26-2), third in the division and 9 1/2 games behind the Phillies, had lost six of seven before taking the nightcap.
Sale (3-3) struck out Edmundo Sosa in the sixth inning for his eighth strikeout of the game to reach the career milestone of 2,500. He did it in 2,026 innings, surpassing the record of 2,107 2/3 set by Randy Johnson.
Sale became the 40th pitcher in MLB history to reach the mark and joined Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander as the only active pitchers to have reached that number.
Sosa was the last hitter the 36-year-old left-hander faced, and Sale allowed just two hits in six scoreless innings. Sale loaded the bases in the fifth inning on two walks and a hit batter, but he got out of it by getting Alec Bohm to ground out to shortstop Luke Williams to end the threat.
Sale won the NL Cy Young Award last season, his first with the Braves, and was also the league’s comeback player of the year after being limited by injuries for multiple seasons toward the end of his time with the Boston Red Sox.
Austin Riley had a double, a homer and four RBIs, Ozzie Albies homered and drove in three runs, and Williams had a pair of RBIs for the Braves, who snapped a three-game skid. Albies’ homer, his sixth of the season, extended his hitting streak to 14 games.
Zack Wheeler (6-2) allowed six runs in 5 1/3 innings for the Phillies, who lost for just the second time in their past 13 games.
After the game, the Phillies acquired left-hander Josh Walker from the Toronto Blue Jays for cash considerations. Walker goes on the Phillies’ 40-man roster, but he will be assigned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Phillies star Bryce Harper did not play in either game, sitting out two days after he was hit on the right elbow by a 95.3 mph pitch from Atlanta starter Spencer Strider. Harper had started the first 54 games of the season.
In the first game, backup catcher Rafael Marchán hit a two-run homer, drove in the go-ahead run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, and caught two runners stealing to help Philadelphia to the one-run victory.
Philadelphia’s Jordan Romano walked three batters and allowed a single in the ninth before Eli White took a slider on the low, outside corner for a game-ending called third strike, giving the closer his eighth save in 10 chances.
Marchán’s homer put the Phillies ahead 2-0 in the third. He scored with a head-first slide on Trea Turner’s fifth-inning infield single. And in the ninth, Marchán was nicked on a shin protector by a bounced slider from Daysbel Hernández (3-1) with the bases loaded for his final RBI of the game.
Kyle Schwarber homered off Pierce Johnson for a 4-2 lead in the seventh, his 19th home run this season, one batter after the right-hander relieved lefty Aaron Bummer.
Marchán threw out Stuart Fairchild for the final out of the fourth and Albies for the first out of the ninth, both on attempts to steal second.
José Ruiz (1-0) retired Nick Allen on a groundout to strand a runner on second in the eighth.
Sean Murphy homered and had an RBI single, and Ronald Acuña Jr. had a pair of hits and an RBI for the Braves. Acuña entered in the fourth after Fairchild appeared to hurt a finger on his right hand during a slide.
Braves starter A.J. Smith-Shawver left with a strained right elbow in the third inning, one batter after taking a 96.6 mph line drive off his right ankle, a ball hit by Bryson Stott. The 22-year-old right-hander appeared to say “pop” toward Brian Snitker, and the manager said after the game: “It doesn’t look good.”
Smith-Shawver is 3-2 with a 3.86 ERA in nine starts and 44 1/3 innings pitched. He has struck out 42 batters and walked 21.
He was placed on the 15-day injured list between games — right-hander Michael Petersen was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett in a corresponding move — and Snitker said Smith-Shawver was returning to Atlanta for further tests.
The Braves were headed home after the second contest for a three-game series against the Red Sox at Truist Park. The scheduled starters for Friday night’s opener are Atlanta right-hander Grant Holmes (3-3, 3.68 ERA) and Boston right-hander Lucas Giolito (1-1, 5.27).