Braves widen gap in NL East, Lane Thomas injury update

Fans were met with a rather lengthy rain delay when they arrived at Truist Park on Friday ahead of the Braves’ highly anticipated series opener with the Phillies, but it proved to be worth the wait.

Atlanta fell behind early with Chris Sale on the bump — a rare occurrence this season, as the former Cy Young award winner surrendered three runs in the second inning, thanks to a Derek Hill bases-clearing double. And for most of the evening, it felt like the Braves’ offensive woes were going to carry into the weekend.

But an Austin Riley laser over the left-field wall gave the club some life in the seventh, and the tying run came across in the ninth when Sean Murphy singled to center. A late night got even later with extra innings. Both teams brought across a run in the tenth, and the Phillies did the same in the eleventh to take back a one-run lead.

The bottom half of the inning began with two quick outs, setting the table for probably the most unexpected hero in Major League Baseball this season. Ha-Seong Kim came up with a walk-off hit a few weeks ago against the Dodgers; he then had another massive hit in the Braves’ win on Thursday against the Rays, and he did it again against the Phillies — roping a ball into left field to tie the game.

That gave way to Drake Baldwin, and the All-Star catcher did not disappoint.

The win gives the Braves a 5.0-game lead in the NL East, which is really a 6.0-game lead because the Braves own the tiebreaker after taking the season series between the two clubs. With about two weeks left to play, as the infamous Sal Licata would say, “The NL East is OVER.”

The Phillies seem to see the writing on the wall. After the game, they announced Jesus Luzardo, who threw a complete-game shutout against the Braves last week, will not make his scheduled start on Saturday for extra rest. That’s probably not something that would have happened had the Phillies found a way to win last night.

Additionally, we got another update on the injury to Lane Thomas from Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Thomas suffered an intercostal strain and was placed on the IL. Typically, that requires at least a month of downtime, but the veteran outfielder is going to try to push the envelope to return for the Braves’ postseason run.

“There’s a range for obliques and intercostals — four to six weeks, I feel like — but some injections can speed that up potentially,” Thomas said. “So that’s the information I’m going to get from the doctor on Sunday.”

Walt Weiss said before the game that Thomas’ injury will lead to more playing time for Ha-Seong Kim, with Mauricio Dubon spending more time in the outfield. Given the number of clutch hits Kim has provided since returning from the Injured List, it may end up working out just fine, but more depth is never a bad thing. Hopefully Thomas can make it back at some point in October.

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Photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire