AP photo by Brett Davis / Atlanta Braves starter Kyle Wright pitches against the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night in Game 2 of an NL Division Series.ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves needed a win to avoid falling into a deep hole.
They had the right guy on the mound.
Kyle Wright, who led Major League Baseball in wins this season, pitched six brilliant innings Wednesday to outduel Zack Wheeler as the Braves evened their National League Division Series at one game apiece, blanking the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0.
After persistent rain delayed the first pitch by nearly three hours, changing the start time at Truist Park from afternoon to evening, Wright surrendered just two hits and secured the win after the Braves got to Wheeler for three runs in the bottom of the sixth.
This was a game the reigning World Series champions desperately needing after losing the opener of the best-of-five series a day earlier, 7-6. They had the right guy on the mound, a 27-year-old right-hander with a big arm and a looping curveball who has finally cashed in on his enormous potential.
“I’ve worked on a lot of things this year,” Wright said. “Really, it just goes back to confidence. “
The fifth overall pick in the 2017 amateur draft, Wright struggled to get past Triple-A and came into this season with a record of 2-8 in the majors. He totally turned that around, going 21-5 in the regular season to win three more games than any other pitcher this year.
The former Vanderbilt Commodore from Huntsville, Alabama, kept it going in the playoffs. His only major threat came in the second inning, when Bryce Harper led off with a double, then tagged and moved to third on a flyout to deep center by Nick Castellanos, who starred for the Phillies on Tuesday.
Harper had to scramble back to third on Alec Bohm’s groundout to first, and Brandon Marsh struck out swinging on a four-seamer that clocked in at 96 mph.
“As he’s out there and figures things out, he’s going to continue to develop and grow and gain confidence,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Wright. “With that arsenal he’s got, he can be a force for a long time.”
Atlanta relievers A.J. Minter, Raisel Iglesias and Kenley Jansen finished the three-hitter with one inning apiece. Jansen earned the save a little more than week after getting his 41st of the regular season by closing out a 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins to clinch Atlanta’s fifth straight NL East Division title.
Wednesday marked the 20th postseason save of Jansen’s MLB career but his first with the Braves after spending the past dozen seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Dansby Swanson made a dazzling play to end the Phillies’ sixth. Sprinting with his back to the infield, the shortstop reached out to snare a pop fly from J.T. Realmuto while tumbling to the outfield grass. Wright threw both arms in the air when he realized Swanson had pulled off the catch.
It turned out to be Wright’s final throw of an 83-pitch gem in which he struck out six batters and walked one. He watched from the top step of the dugout as the Braves finally broke the scoreless tie in the bottom half, doing all the damage after Wheeler retired the first two hitters.
It started when Wheeler plunked Ronald Acuña Jr. near the right elbow on a 96 mph fastball that rode up and in on the slugger.
There was a delay of several minutes while Acuña, writhing in pain, was checked out by the training staff. In the Atlanta dugout, Gil Heredia prepared to go in. Wheeler, meanwhile, tossed a few pitches trying to stay loose.
The right-hander who grew up in metro Atlanta wasn’t the same after Acuña finally trotted down to first base. Swanson walked and Matt Olson drove in the first run of the game, ripping a single past first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who meekly waved at a ball he should have at least knocked down.
“I think if you asked Rhys, he would say he should make that play,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
Olson was generously credited with an RBI single, but the Braves weren’t done. Austin Riley’s mighty swing produced a little dribbler down the third-base line for an infield hit that made it 2-0.
Then it was Travis d’Arnaud grounding one up the middle for another run-scoring hit before Wheeler finally got the third out — far too late to keep the Braves from tying the series.
Now the wild-card Phillies, third in the NL East behind Braves and the New York Mets, are finally heading home. Game 3 is Friday at Citizens Bank Park, where Philadelphia will play for the first time since a regular-season loss to the Braves on Sept. 25.
The Phillies have played 14 straight road games since then, including four playoff games in their first postseason appearance since 2011. They swept a best-of-three series with the St. Louis Cardinals in the wild-card round over the weekend.
“To leave here with a split and go back home in front of a packed house of passionate people … I think will give our guys a little shot in the arm,” Thomson said.
Swanson’s catch wasn’t even the best defensive play of the night for the home team.
Riley made a similar back-to-the-field grab in foul territory in the eighth, only it was even tougher because the third baseman had to navigate the railing and the tarp stored in front of it. He made the catch, slid along the tarp and managed to hang on while crashing to the dirt.
Right-hander Aaron Nola (11-13, 3.25 ERA in regular season) will start for the Phillies on Friday. The Braves had not yet announced their starter, but it will also be a right-hander, either veteran Charlie Morton (9-6, 4.34) or rookie Spencer Strider (11-5, 2.67), who hasn’t pitched since Sept. 18 because of an oblique injury.
Acuña is sure to be sore after getting hit by Wheeler’s pitch, but Snitker said there was no structural damage.
“Probably good we have a day off,” the manager said. “They can treat him up.”
Matzek has Tommy John surgery
Tyler Matzek, a key member of the Atlanta bullpen during the 2021 title run, is done for this season.
And 2023, in all likelihood.
The Braves announced Wednesday that Matzek underwent Tommy John surgery. The 31-year-old left-hander was left off the team’s postseason roster because of pain in his left elbow, and doctors in Texas determined he had a torn ligament.
The normal recovery period is 12 to 18 months, which means Matzek isn’t likely to return to an MLB mound until 2024.
“I hate it for him,” Snitker said. “He struggled with things all year. Maybe this is the reason, and I think him going ahead and starting the process, I think he feels pretty good about that. Now he can go through his rehab and on the back end of that he’s still a young man and can have a really good career.”
Matzek, who spent time in May and June on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, went 4-2 with a 3.50 ERA this season, striking out 36 batters in 43 2/3 innings.
Before 2020, Matzek had not pitched in the majors since 2015 with the Colorado Rockies, who drafted him 11th overall in 2009. He went 8-12 with a 4.09 ERA in two seasons with them before getting a case of the yips and struggling to find the strike zone.
He was out of baseball in 2017 and pitched in the independent American Association in 2018 before spending the next year pitching across three levels of the minor leagues.
Matzek is 8-9 with a 2.92 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 135 2/3 innings in three seasons with Atlanta.