DOMINATED! 9/12/26 POSTGAME RECAP

The bats froze on a night of inconsistent pitching, and the Phillies got destroyed 12-2 and lost the series. Jesus Luzardo was set to start before he was scratched this morning with an injury, giving veteran reliever Tim Mayza the start.

Mayza was solid, allowing only two hits and no runs in his 3 innings of work on Saturday night, and he left the mound with the lead, with Bryce Harper hitting a 2-out, 426 ft homer in the top of the 1st for his 26th of the year. The Phillies then turned to Brooks Raley, who struggled again, giving up 3 runs in 0.2 innings pitched, with one of those runs coming off an Acuna Jr. solo shot to tie the game up at 1 in the bottom of the 4th. Drake Baldwin laced a 2 RBI single to give the Braves a 3-1 lead, forcing Donnie Baseball to head back to his bullpen before the inning ended. Mattingly brought out Grant Holman for his Phillies debut, hoping he would get a quick out and end the inning. That was not the case, as Bryson Stott would commit a fielding error at 3rd, allowing Dubon to score and Riley to advance to third, and Sean Murphy to reach 1st safely. He-Seong Kim earned a single, and Austin Riley would score on a Holman wild pitch in the next

at-bat, advancing Kim and Murphy to 2nd and 3rd and giving the Braves a 5-1 lead. Baldwin earned himself his second 2-RBI double of the night, scoring Murphy and Kim, and Acuna Jr. would hit for the second time in the inning and get an RBI single to score Baldwin, making the score a blowout at 8-1 Braves by the end of the 4th.

The Braves would add a run off of a sacrifice fly in the 6th from Ozzie Albies off of Chase

Shugart, extending their lead.

The Phillies were only able to muster one run and six hits off of veteran starter Tyler Mahle, but they did get a solo homer from Justin Crawford to put a pause to the bleeding in the top of the eighth off of Brent Suter.

In the bottom of the 8th, Philly sent out catcher Garrett Stubbs to pitch the remainder of the

game, and he gave up a 3-run dinger to Michael Harris, making the final 12-2

Overall, no offense and a bad pitching night after Jesus was unable to go. The MRI does say no shoulder injury for Luzardo, so a serious positive note to end what was a dreadful night of baseball.

The Phillies will look to try to bounce back in the final game of the series tomorrow afternoon, with Andrew Painter (3-9, 5.71) looking to get off the struggle bus as he faces Grant Holman (9-5, 3.46)

PHOTO CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Winchester