A Walk in the Park: Ray Kerr's Surprise Start Lifts Braves Past Phillies 6-2 Into the NLDS
By Jess Henderson ·
Ray Kerr found out on Wednesday that he was starting game 3 on Thursday. He had made three starts in the big leagues, none of them in October. After Tommy John surgery in 2024, Kerr did not pitch in 2025. The lefty returned in 2026 and threw 18.1 innings with a 1.47 ERA out of the Braves bullpen. He wasn't dominant as he only struck out 11 of the 66 batters he faced.
At Truist Park on Thursday night he threw 3.1 scoreless innings against Philadelphia. When he left the game in the 4th, Atlanta had an 81% chance at winning and the Braves held on to beat the Phillies 6-2 in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series to move on to the next round.
The reasoning was simple. Walt Weiss wanted a left-hander to face Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper at least once. Both had homered in the eighth inning of Game 2, when Philadelphia erased a two-run Atlanta lead on the way to a 4-3 win in 10. Kerr saw each of them twice. Schwarber singled in the first and walked on four pitches to open the fourth. Harper struck out swinging on a cutter in the first and lined into a force play in the fourth. Kerr's line: one hit, one walk, two strikeouts, 47 pitches. Grant Holmes took over with Harper on first, retired Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott, and left with the win after two innings.
Aaron Nola walked Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson with one out in the first, fell behind Michael Harris II 2-0, and threw a sinker well below the zone. Harris went down and lifted it 387 feet to right-center for a three-run homer. He had grounded into two double plays the day before. Nola was gone after 1 2/3 innings and 38 pitches, half of them strikes.
Philadelphia went to Zack Wheeler next, out of the bullpen in the third inning, four days after he won the game that clinched the Phillies' wild-card spot. He gave four innings and two runs, both on one pitch. Austin Riley walked in the fourth, and Ozzie Albies hit a 96.5 mph fastball 419 feet to right-center. That made it 5-0. Olson added a solo homer off Jonathan Bowlan in the seventh, 416 feet to center. Atlanta had six hits all night. Three of them left the park and accounted for every run.
The Phillies scored once in the sixth, when Harper doubled Schwarber to third and Bohm grounded him home, and once in the eighth on a Derek Hill triple and a Trea Turner sacrifice fly. Then, with two outs in the eighth and Harper at the plate again, Chris Sale came in from the bullpen. He had thrown 95 pitches over 6 1/3 innings in Tuesday's opener. He threw Harper four sliders. Harper swung through three of them, the last in the dirt, and Drake Baldwin threw to first for the out. Bohm singled to start the ninth. Sale got Stott on a foul pop to third, then struck out Bryan De La Cruz and pinch-hitter Otto Kemp. It took 21 pitches, in his first relief appearance of the season.
The first two games here started at 1:16 in the afternoon Central on a Tuesday and a Wednesday, and drew 30,127 and 37,150. This one started at 7:15 at night, 84 degrees and partly cloudy, and sold out at 41,731. I am on record as a day-game person. Atlanta made a fair case for a weeknight.
It is the first postseason series Atlanta has won since the 2021 World Series, and its first ever over Philadelphia. The Phillies won the 1993 NLCS and the NLDS in 2022 and 2023. Albies was on the 2021 team.
The Dodgers are next, Saturday at Dodger Stadium.