Why Braves Series Win Over Phillies All but Locks Up the NL East

The Atlanta Braves dropped the final game of their weekend series against the Philadelphia Phillies 9-4 on Sunday afternoon, but the result barely moved the needle on a division race that the first two games of the set had already tilted heavily in Atlanta's favor.

The Braves took two of three at Truist Park and now hold a five-game lead in the NL East with 12 games remaining, leaving Philadelphia with almost no realistic path to catching them.

Friday night's opener set the tone for the entire weekend.

The Braves trailed 3-1 through six innings against Aaron Nola before mounting a comeback that pushed the game to extra innings, and the 11th inning delivered one of the best moments of Atlanta's season.

Infielder Ha-Seong Kim singled with two outs to drive in the tying run, and catcher Drake Baldwin followed with a walk-off double into the gap that sent a sellout crowd into a frenzy.

First baseman Matt Olson, who homered earlier in the game, summed up the night afterward. "People got their money's worth tonight," Olson said.

If Friday's walk-off was a thriller, Saturday was something closer to a clinic.

The Braves scored eight runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and rolled to a 12-2 win that became one of the most lopsided Atlanta victory of the season.

Center fielder Michael Harris II went 4-for-5 with a three-run home run, and right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. went 3-for-3 with a solo shot and a walk.

Right-hander Tyler Mahle went seven innings in Saturday's win, allowing just one run on six hits with three strikeouts to save the bullpen for Sunday.

Manager Walt Weiss called Friday "one for the ages" and said Saturday's performance showed what the lineup can do when everyone is hitting.

Sunday's finale took some of the shine off the weekend when the Phillies scored seven runs in the eighth inning to pull away behind J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber, but the loss did not change the math.

Atlanta's magic number to clinch the NL East sits in single digits, and the Braves still have the Cubs, Astros, Reds and Marlins ahead of them, which should be enough to close things out.

The Braves entered the weekend needing to answer a division rival that had closed the gap to four games during a difficult stretch in early September.

Winning two of three, with a walk-off and a 10-run blowout mixed in, took care of that. Baldwin, whose gap-shot double ended Friday's marathon, put the moment in perspective.

"In front of a sellout crowd, it's hard to put into words because your entire life, you dream of the moment," he said.

Atlanta sits as the third seed in the National League, but a second seed would give them a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the Division Series.

The Phillies still have 12 games left, but with Atlanta holding the head-to-head tiebreaker, Philadelphia's fight is now about wild card positioning rather than the division title.

For the Braves, the conversation has shifted from holding their lead to figuring out the rotation order and lineup construction they want to carry into October.