Phillies Embarrassed By Braves 12-2, Essentially Ending NL East Race

The National League East division may be out of reach for the Phillies

With just about two weeks left in the 2026 MLB regular season, the Philadelphia Phillies found themselves four games behind the Atlanta Braves for first place in the National League East, but still with three games to play against Atlanta.

Those three games in Atlanta were essentially the Phillies’ last chance to make a run and steal the division from the Braves in the final month of the season. The opener of the series was a game of missed opportunities, as Philadelphia was unable to add any additional run support all evening, eventually allowing the Braves to tie the game late and walk it off in the 11th.

Saturday evening’s Game 2 was somehow much worse as the Phillies allowed the Braves to score eight runs in the fourth inning, seven of which came with two outs. The game was over by that point, and it essentially felt like the Phillies punted the game before it was even halfway over.

The Phillies were in a tough spot Saturday evening as projected starter Jesus Luzardo was scratched due to left shoulder soreness, but his injury isn’t expected to be serious. With a bullpen game in place for the middle game of the series, a blowout was far from shocking, but the mentality from the offense was not great.

Despite the blowout, the game kicked off with a bang as Bryce Harper smoked a solo home run in the top of the first, putting the Phillies up 1-0. During that home run, Harper made sure to take his time rounding the bases, taking 34.27 seconds to finish his home run trot.

Well, that slow trot seemed to light a fire under the Braves, as after Tim Mayza wrapped up his first three innings of work, returning Atlanta in order in all three innings, the Braves’ bats came alive in the fourth.

Brooks Raley came on in relief for Mayza, just one day after blowing the lead in the 11th inning in Friday night’s opener. Raley was able to grab two strikeouts in the first three at-bats, one to Drake Baldwin and one to Matt Olsen. However, sandwiched in the middle of those strikeouts was a solo bomb off the bat of Ronald Acuna Jr., tying the game at one apiece.

Following the second strikeout, Raley walked Ozzie Albies and allowed a single to Michael Harris II, putting two runners on base. Don Mattingly elected to pull Raley after five batters, bringing in Grant Hollman to make his season debut for the Phillies.

Hollman, who was added to the roster at the start of September due to the expanded rosters, made his first appearance of the season for Philadelphia a memorable one, just unfortunately not in a good way.

Mauricio Dubón singled, scoring the two runners on base, giving Atlanta the lead, and the baserunners didn’t stop there. Austin Riley singled, Sean Murphy reached on a fielding error, and a walk from Ha-Seong Kim allowed a double from Drake Baldwin to score multiple runs, extending the Braves’ lead to six.

Acuna, who was up for the second time in the inning, smoked a single to center field for his second RBI of the inning, making it 8-1 Braves, officially blowing the game open.

Down seven runs, the Phillies offense decided to do nothing about it, going down in order in the fifth and sixth, while Atlanta added another run on a sac fly in the sixth. The Phillies got a single from Alec Bohm in the seventh, but did nothing with it.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Phillies decided to officially wave the white flag by bringing Garrett Stubbs in to pitch. Stubbs was able to get through the seventh clean, but in the eighth, a three-run bomb from Harris poured salt on the already bleeding wound.

Justin Crawford added a solo home run to right in the Phillies’ half of the eighth, but the game was already over as the Braves defeated the Phillies 12-2, extending their record over the Phillies this season to 9-3.

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