Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves MLB Wild Card Game 3 Live Updates, Highlights and Analysis

Save for the No. 6 Chicago White Sox (84-78) dispatching the No. 3 Houston Astros (81-81), all of the higher seeds advanced out of the first round.

Will that trend continue into the ALDS/NLDS?

Or could the Braves ride this momentum into an upset of the twice-reigning World Series champions?

Goodness only knows what Atlanta's starting rotation will look like for that one while the Dodgers are going to have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal and Co. well-rested.

But count this Braves team out at your own peril, in what will be their first time ever facing Freddie Freeman in the postseason.

Alec Bohm managed a leadoff single off Chris Sale, but he mowed down Bryson Stott, Bryan De La Cruz and Otto Kemp—the latter on a preposterous frisbee of a slider—to send Atlanta to the NLDS by a final score of 6-2.

When does Chris Sale now start against the Dodgers?

How many innings will overnight celebrity Ray Kerr pitch in the next round?

Those are questions for tomorrow.

Tonight, they party.

Pretty decent company there.

And here comes Sale for the 9th.

Pitching in relief for just the second time since the 2018 postseason, Chris Sale made Bryce Harper look helpless on a steady diet of sliders.

Could Harper have made it to first base if he had taken off right away?

Quite possibly.

Derek Hill led off the Phillies eighth inning with a triple to right field, followed by a Trea Turner sacrifice fly to make it a 6-2 ballgame.

But after leaving Dylan Dodd in to face Kyle Schwarber, Walt Weiss is going to his ace for at least one out, possibly four.

Chris Sale will face Bryce Harper next.

Save for an RBI single in the first inning of Game 2, Matt Olson had been held in check in this series. Just that one hit with four strikeouts in his first 10 ABs.

But he got all of that Jonathan Bowlan changeup, sending it 416 feet to center to give the Braves a 6-1 lead.

With Dylan Dodd entering and the top of the lineup due up, it's now or never for the Phillies to make this interesting.

The last time Chris Sale pitched on fewer than five days' rest was back in early April.

But Atlanta's Game 1 starter is warming for what could be just two batters: Schwarber and Harper.

Considering they both took Dylan Lee deep yesterday, hard to argue with the thought process here.

Figuring out when Sale can pitch in the NLDS is a problem they're trying to make sure they have after tonight.

It's been mentioned often in this series, but J.T. Realmuto has been so very good at these ABS challenges all season long.

Per Baseball Savant, he won 76 percent of his challenges behind the plate during the regular season. And after flipping that called ball to a strike three on Dominic Smith (again) to end the inning, he's 5-for-6 on his challenges in this series.

It wasn't back-to-back homers like they had yesterday, but Kyle Schwarber singled to right followed by a double to right from Bryce Harper.

An Alec Bohm RBI groundout finally put an end to the shutout, but the Phillies were only able to get one run across.

Atlanta has a 5-1 lead and just nine more outs to get.

Kenny Powers Grant Holmes gave the Braves a solid two innings of relief.

He did get charged with an earned run when Robert Suarez allowed Kyle Schwarber to come around to score, but hard to argue with one run in two innings when you're protecting five.

Can the actual Braves bullpen now hang on?

A clean inning?

In this economy?

Zack Wheeler got both Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson to pop out in the infield before fanning Michael Harris II.

Crucial to get through the heart of the order without any further damage. But can the Phillies finally wake up the bats?

Grant Holmes gets J.T. Realmuto to loft a flyout to right field before Justin Crawford grounds into a double play to end the inning and the rally.

Kind of surprised Don Mattingly didn't go to a pinch hitter for Crawford, especially after already pinch hitting OF Brandon Marsh for 3B Edmundo Sosa in the inning.

Getting that inning to Turner-Schwarber-Harper would have been massive. Alas.

After Bryan De La Cruz smacked a 102 MPH single, he got to second base on a wild pitch.

Brandon Marsh followed with a walk.

Grant Holmes better lock in and get J.T. Realmuto and Justin Crawford or this could get problematic in a hurry.

It was officially 419 feet in the direction of the Chop House, but that Ozzie Albies smash felt more like 500.

He knew it immediately, and admired it for a bit.

When you do that to Zack Wheeler in this moment, though, you're entitled to soak it in a bit.

Atlanta now leads 5-0 heading into the fifth inning.

It's getting late early for the Phillies.

When it's your night, it's your night.

And it's looking like Atlanta's night thus far.

Grant Holmes bobbled the comebacker from Alec Bohm before firing a 200 MPH (estimated) strike to Matt Olson for a dramatic first out.

He proceeded to fan Bryson Stott on three pitches to keep the shutout intact.

Ray Kerr exits to a huge standing ovation and responds with a chop to the Braves faithful.

That's a 47-pitch outing that people might be telling their grandkids about.

He's still responsible for Bryce Harper on first, but he exits with a line of 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K.

Combine that with his two relief appearances against the Phillies in the first half of September and he's up to 9.1 scoreless innings against these guys.

As expected, it was Zack Wheeler for the third inning.

After allowing a leadoff single to Ronald Acuña Jr., he consecutively retired Matt Olson, Michael Harris II and Mauricio Dubón to prevent any further damage.

If that's the first of five or six scoreless innings from Wheeler, the decision to start Aaron Nola is going to be a full-blown narrative for the next few days.

Listen, we're nowhere near "Will Klein holding Toronto scoreless for the 15th through 18th innings of Game 3 of the 2025 World Series" territory here.

But who could have possibly guessed that Ray Kerr would allow one measly baserunner through the first three innings?

And considering they used him as an opener to get the lefty-on-lefty matchups with Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, he's probably coming back out for the fourth inning with that duo due up first.

Aaron Nola lasts just five outs—four of which traveled at least 312 feet—before turning things over to Tim Mayza.

Nola's final line: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K

He did say he can't stand facing the Braves...

Most likely, Zack Wheeler will be entering on three days' rest in the near future.

Can the Phillies at least put a run on the board before he does?

If you're a glass half full Phillies fan—Do those exist?—the team that scores first in a winner-take-all game only wins 63.6 percent of the time.

And we've already had some wild comebacks in the first two games of this series.

Save for Kyle Schwarber's one-out single in the first inning, Ray Kerr is now perfect through two innings.

His cutter left both Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott helplessly flailing.

Does he possibly get a third inning? Or is it Grant Holmes time?

"Nobody has allowed more home runs in this stadium than Aaron Nola."

I believe that was C.J. Nitkowski rubbing salt in the fresh wounds of Phillies fans after Michael Harris II took Nola yard for a 3-0 lead in the first inning.

Ronald Acuña Jr. walks on five pitches.

Matt Olson walks on five pitches.

Braves in business early with Michael Harris II ready to pounce on an erratic Aaron Nola.

He's probably only going to pitch one inning.

But who knows?

Getting Bryce Harper to swing at a ball a foot out of the strike zone is a good argument for a second frame.

You can clearly hear on the broadcast that it has been way louder for this prime time game than it was for the first two.

Well, it was louder. Until Kyle Schwarber dumped a opposite-field single into left. Got pretty quiet there.

One big narrative coming into this winner take all showdown is that the Braves have lost the last six they played in.

And in the 2019 NLDS against the Cardinals, it was over before it started, trailing 10-0 in the first inning.

However, the last time they won one of these pressure cookers, it was a 15-0 victory over the Cardinals in the 1996 NLCS.

The good news for those of us who just want to watch a good game: They aren't playing the Cardinals tonight.

Having spent his entire 12-year career with the Phillies, Game 3 starter Aaron Nola is pretty intimately familiar with the Atlanta Braves.

He has faced them 41 times during the regular season, plus twice in the postseason—both of which the Phillies won by eight runs, by the way.

The bad news is there's a good reason he said he doesn't like facing them: Several Braves have kind of owned him.

Austin Riley has a 1.163 OPS in 68 plate appearances. Ronald Acuña Jr. is sitting at a 1.073 OPS in his 68 plate appearances against Nola. Matt Olson is right there, too, at a 1.075 OPS in 48 times facing Nola.

And if you're wondering why Mike Yastrzemski is batting sixth after not even starting Game 2? It's probably his career 1.167 OPS against Nola.

The ol' "Rust vs. Rest" debate will begin in earnest if and when one of the four teams with a first-round bye lays a great big egg in its postseason debut. But the Dodgers are getting some work in, knowing they'll be facing somebody from the NL East on Saturday.

Will they watch the game together in the clubhouse?

Do they even care who wins?

(Considering they went 1-5 against Atlanta this season, perhaps they should be pulling for the Phillies.)

Atlanta going with Ray Kerr as the starter here puts the "wild" in wild card series.

Per The Athletic's Braves beat writer Jesús Cano on X, "Not too long ago, Ray Kerr was working at 7-Eleven and a movie theater." But now the southpaw is tasked with shutting down Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper in the first inning, before presumably handing the reins to Grant Holmes.

Outside of that, though, no big surprises here.

Dominic Smith gets the nod at DH, having faced Aaron Nola more than any other pitcher in his career.

After Edmundo Sosa barely managed to walk off the field after re-injuring his left thigh late in Game 2, it's hard to believe he's starting at the hot corner. That's the definition of a Fightin' Phil, though.

There had been some social media debate throughout the day on whether the Phillies ought to go with J.T. Realmuto or Aaron Nola's personal catcher, Garrett Stubbs. They've opted for the veteran who called for the game-ending ABS challenge.