Braves Beat Phillies 5-3 to Take Wild Card Lead

The Atlanta Braves defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 in Game 1 of their best-of-three National League Wild Card Series, putting Philadelphia one loss from elimination. Game 2 was scheduled for September 30, with the Phillies needing a win to force a deciding game. The supplied reports do not establish the result of Game 2. Atlanta’s victory gave it a 1-0 lead in the series. Under the Wild Card format, Philadelphia had to win Game 2 to stay alive; another Braves win would end the Phillies’ season and send Atlanta to the National League Division Series. If Philadelphia won Game 2, the series would be tied and a third game would be required. That deciding game was scheduled for October 1, with the winner advancing to the Division Series and the loser eliminated. Those outcomes were conditional on the Game 2 result, which is not reported in the available material. Game 2 was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Eastern time on September 30. Philadelphia was listed to start Cristopher Sánchez against Atlanta’s Tyler Mahle. The game was scheduled for television on NBC and streaming on Peacock.