Austin Riley overcomes struggles, delivers biggest moment of Braves season

WHAT A GAME!

Major League Baseball was nice enough to give the 94-win Braves the 2:00 PM time slot against the division-rival Phillies — a decision they’re probably regretting right about now. Because it’s highly unlikely any of the three remaining Wild Card Series deliver like Atlanta and Philadelphia did in Game 1.

The series began with one very significant question: who would the Phillies turn to in Game 1 after exhausting almost their entire rotation just trying to get to the playoffs?

Don Mattingly answered that with Jesus Luzardo — one of the best pitchers in baseball, but a guy who hadn’t made a start since September 7th due to a stint on the IL with shoulder inflammation.

It didn’t look like it bothered him too much. Chris Sale gave up the first run of the game in the very first inning, when Alec Bohm laced a high-90s heater over Michael Harris II’s head, bringing in Kyle Schwarber. The Braves would then answer in the second with a run of their own, thanks to a two-out single off the bat of Mike Yastrzemski. But after that, the teams traded zeros for a while.

Luzardo would exit ahead of the sixth inning, and that’s when things got real interesting. Ozzie Albies gave the Braves the lead with a one-out triple that just missed leaving the ballpark, scoring Michael Harris II. But it felt like Atlanta left one on the board that could come back to haunt them when they failed to bring Albies in — especially when the Phillies added two runs in the seventh on another triple, this time from JT Realmuto with two outs.

Both runs were charged to Chris Sale, who left the game with runners on first and third for Didier Fuentes. The rookie was able to get Justin Crawford to pop out, but the veteran Realmuto came through as he has so many times before against the Braves in October.

The building got even more tense when Mattingly then made a decision that could be talked about for a long time in Philadelphia if they go on to lose this series, bringing in closer Jhoan Duran in the seventh inning, hoping he could get the next nine outs.

For a while, it looked like a stroke of genius. Duran set down Dominic Smith, Drake Baldwin, and Ronald Acuña Jr. in order. He then made quick work of Matt Olson and Mauricio Dubon. Through the first five batters he faced, Duran had thrown only 15 pitches.

But a Michael Harris II infield single changed everything — one of his three hits on the afternoon. Ozzie Albies followed it up by coaxing a rare walk, bringing up Austin Riley with a chance to make everybody forget about the worst season of his career.

A moment he did not let go to waste.

AUSTIN RILEY
GO-AHEAD THREE-RUN HOMER
ATLANTA IS GOING WILD pic.twitter.com/XrPQnazvVO

— MLB (@MLB) September 29, 2026

There were a lot of Braves who underachieved in 2026, most of them on the offensive side of things, but nobody was criticized more than Austin Riley. Atlanta’s third baseman and the highest-paid player in franchise history hit just .219 with 19 home runs. He also struck out 201 times, becoming one of just three players to finish a season with more than 200 strikeouts and fewer than 20 long balls.

None of that matters tonight. Tonight, he’s a hero, delivering the type of hit that can change the entire course of the season.

Teams that fall behind in the Wild Card Series since it moved to three games have advanced just one time out of sixteen tries. And with Sale on the mound, this felt like a game the Braves had to have if they wanted to move on and face the Dodgers in the NLDS — especially with Cristopher Sanchez getting the ball in Game 2 for the Phillies, and Zack Wheeler likely available for a winner-take-all Game 3.

The advantage is with the good guys, but there’s still work to be done for this core group to get the postseason monkey off its back.

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Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire)