Braves Pitching Shuts Down Phillies to Open Series With Dominant Win

The Atlanta Braves dominated the Philadelphia Phillies, winning the series opener 3-1 from a packed Truist Park on Tuesday night

Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.

Reynaldo López outdueled Zack Wheeler

There are several pitchers across MLB who would be intimidated to be making a start against Zack Wheeler, one of baseball's best pitchers this season and a Cy Young candidate.

Reynaldo López is not one of those pitchers.

López outdueled Wheeler in his first start back from the IL, striking out a season-high ten batters on just 90 pitches. Going through a full five innings, López walked one and allowed just five hits, picking up 18 whiffs on a 34% CSW.

(Wheeler went six full innings, but gave up two runs on six hits, striking out seven.)

The ten strikeouts were the most for López in a single start since September 2019, when he struck out 11 Cleveland hitters in a 7-1 Chicago White Sox win.

Even more fun, Reynaldo López is the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out both Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper three times each in the same game.

Marcell Ozuna is trying to chase down Shohei Ohtani

The favorite for MVP in the National League is designated hitter Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who leads the NL in homers (39 entering tonight) and has an additional 37 stolen bases, to boot.

But Ozuna's right behind him, sitting at second place in the betting odds, and Marcell's not slowing down.

Ozuna hit his 37th homer of the season off Wheeler in the 6th inning, stretching his NL-leading RBI total to 94. The Big Bear got a 1-1 center-cut fastball at 94.7 mph and obliterated it, launching it to dead center at 109.5 off the bat. The homer flew 432 feet and was an absolute no-doubter - Statcast declared that it was a home run in all 30 MLB ballparks.

While Ozuna doesn't have the wheels of Shohei Ohtani and won't catch Shohei in the MVP race, he's put up an MVP-worthy season for Atlanta.

Braves used their bullpen perfectly

If Reynaldo López had not been ready to come off the injured list for tonight's game, Grant Holmes would have made another start in his place.

Atlanta used the curly-haired righty anyway.

Holmes pitched two full innings in relief of López, striking out two while not allowing a hit or issuing a walk. Going to Joe Jiménez in the 8th before calling on closer Raisel Iglesias for the ninth kept Philly from ever getting a chance to climb back into this one. Atlanta retired the final seventeen batters in order to close out the contest.

The Phils were held to just five hits in this one, two of which came from Alec Bohm in the cleanup spot. More significantly, the big bats in the lineup weren't able to beat the Braves: The top-of-the-order trio of Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, and Bryce Harper went 0-12 with seven strikeouts in this one, while Philly was just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?

Atlanta's looking to go ahead and get an early series win on Wednesday night. Max Fried (7-7, 3.62) matches up with Aaron Nola (11-6, 3.45) in a rematch of the second game of the season. The game broadcast is set for 7:20 PM ET on Bally Sports South