The ghosts left Truist Park early Thursday night. Michael Harris II made sure of that, turning on a 2-0 sinker from Aaron Nola in the first inning and sending a three-run shot over the right-field fence. Three runs before most fans had settled into their seats — and the Atlanta Braves, losers of six straight elimination games and long haunted by Philadelphia in October, were on their way to a 6-2 win in the winner-take-all Game 3.
The long ball kept coming. Ozzie Albies crushed a 419-foot two-run homer off Zack Wheeler in the fourth to make it 5-0, and Matt Olson added a solo shot in the seventh for good measure. All six Atlanta runs came by home run — a fitting close to a series where every game turned on one swing. On the mound, six Braves arms shared the load: opener Ray Kerr, in his postseason debut and only his fourth career start, spun 3 1/3 scoreless innings, and Chris Sale came out of the bullpen — something he hadn't done since closing out the 2018 World Series — to strike out Bryce Harper and record the final four outs.
Now the droughts are over: first winner-take-all win since Game 7 of the 1996 NLCS, first series win since the 2021 World Series, and Philadelphia's four-year run of reaching the NLDS is dead. "When the stakes have been the highest, when the challenges have been the toughest, we've been at our absolute best," manager Walt Weiss said. Next up: the two-time defending champion Dodgers, Game 1 in Los Angeles on Saturday. The arms are thin — Weiss still has to find a Game 1 starter. Nobody in Atlanta is worrying about that tonight.
