Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker says his side simply ran into a hot team after bowing out of the MLB postseason following a 8-3 loss in Game 4 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.
The Phillies completed a 3-1 NLDS win with another dominant display over the 2021 world champions at Citizens Bank Park, backing up Friday's emphatic 9-1 win.
Brandon Marsh delivered a three-run blast in the second inning, before J.T. Realmuto stirred up the home fans with a remarkable inside-the-park homer in the third. Bryce Harper's eighth-inning opposite-field home run put the gloss on the win.
For the Braves, it ended their title defence, having finished top of the NL East with a 101-61 after sensationally overhauling the New York Mets late in the regular season.
The Phillies won Games 3 and 4 scoring 17-4, while they piled on 24 runs across the four-game series despite being kept scoreless in Game 2 after a fine Kyle Wright shift.
Excluding Wright, the Braves starting pitchers struggled throughout the NLDS, with Charlie Morton pulled after two innings on Saturday, following on from Max Fried and Spencer Strider in Games 1 and 3 respectively.
"We ran into a really hot team, pretty much," Snitker told reporters. “They were hitting on all cylinders. They were playing great baseball. They got big hits.
"They shut us down offensively, and I think all the credit goes to the Phillies. They came in here, they got hot at the right time and played a heck of a series."
Snitker was not too downbeat about the Braves campaign, where rookies Michael Harris II and Strider emerged while Wright broke out, offering a solid foundation moving forward.
"They should be very proud of what they did this year," Snitker said. “Like I said earlier, you just never know where the postseason is going to take you and what’s going to happen.
"But we had a really strong year. The goal was to get into the postseason. We did and it didn't happen."
The Phillies, who finished 14 games behind the Braves in the NL East, progressed to the NLCS for the first time since 2010, after a midseason change of manager with Joe Girardi replaced by Rob Thomson.
Philadelphia will face either the Los Angeles Dodgers or San Diego Padres in the NLCS and will have plenty of belief after dominating the final two games against the Braves.
"The last 24 hours shows what we're made of," Marsh said. "There's a lot of good going with this ball club.
"We've just got to keep it going, keep our heads down and grind and just stay focused on the task at hand. The last 24 hours have been pretty fun."
MLB: Vientos hits 2nd home run of game in 10th to give Mets eighth straight win
Mark Vientos’ second home run of the game was a walk-off two-run shot in the 10th inning that gave the New York Mets their season-high eighth straight win, 6-4 over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night.
New York is riding its longest winning streak since an eight-game run in August 2019. Vientos also connected in the first inning for the Mets, who remained tied with Atlanta for the last National League wild card.
Mets closer Edwin Díaz and younger brother Alexis, the Reds' ace reliever, pitched in the same game for the first time in their major league careers.
Edwin Díaz struck out all three batters in the top of the ninth, fanning Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer with 100 mph fastballs.
Alexis Díaz worked a hitless bottom of the ninth to keep the score tied.
With automatic runner Brandon Nimmo on second base, Vientos drove a 2-2 fastball from Justin Wilson to left field for his 24th home run.
Cincinnati was coming off a three-game sweep of AL West-leading Houston and had won four in a row overall.
Machado ties Padres’ home run record
Manny Machado hit a pair of home runs to tie Nate Colbert for the franchise’s all-time record with 163 as the San Diego Padres defeated the San Francisco Giants, 5-1.
Machado had a solo shot in the first and then matched Colbert with a drive into the second deck in left field leading off the eighth.
He tied Colbert with 20 games to go in his sixth season in San Diego. Colbert hit 163 in six seasons with the Padres, from their expansion season of 1969 through 1974. He played for four other teams in his career and had 173 total homers.
Machado's 25th of the season gave him 42 multi-homer games since his rookie year of 2012.
Machado has 338 homers in his 13-year career. He had 162 with Baltimore and then 13 after being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 18, 2018. He signed as a free agent with the Padres on Feb. 21, 2019.
Astros’ Alvarez hits pair of 3-run homers
Yordan Alvarez hit two three-run homers and Framber Valdez pitched seven innings in the Houston Astros' 8-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
AL West-leading Houston got back on track after being swept in a three-game series at Cincinnati to remain 4 ½ games ahead of Seattle.
Houston led by a run when Alvarez, whose six RBIs are a season high, connected off Brandon Pfaadt in the fifth inning to make it 4-0. Jose Altuve hit an RBI single in the sixth, and Alvarez homered again in his next at-bat, this time to the bullpen in right-center off Jordan Montgomery, to extend it to 8-0.
Alvarez had his seventh multi-homer game to tie Chris Carter (2014) for the most in a season in franchise history. It’s his second this week after also slugging two in a win over Kansas City at home Sunday after he hadn’t homered at Minute Maid Park since June 22.
Valdez allowed just two singles and struck out seven after pitching seven innings of no-hit ball in his last start.
Meadows' slam in ninth lifts Tigers past Padres
The San Diego Padres were one strike away from padding their lead atop the NL wild-card standings.
The Detroit Tigers' Parker Meadows changed that with one swing of the bat.
Down 3-0 with two outs and two strikes in the top of the ninth inning, Meadows hit a grand slam to stun the Padres and send the Tigers to a thrilling 4-3 win on Thursday.
Parker hit a 101 mph four-seam fastball off Robert Suarez that travelled 361 feet and landed just over the short left-field fence in San Diego.
San Diego (80-62) lost for the first time in four games and its lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks shrunk to just one-half game for the NL's top wild-card spot.
Jurickson Profar and Xander Bogaerts each homered for the Padres, who end the regular season with a three-game series at Arizona.
Meadows' homer was just his sixth of the season and lifted the Tigers (71-70) back over .500 and within five games of the Royals for the AL's final wild-card spot.
Braves lose, now tied for final NL wild card spot
The Atlanta Braves suffered a 3-1 loss to the last-place Colorado Rockies to drop into a tie for the league's final wild-card berth with the idle New York Mets.
Atlanta and New York have identical 76-64 records with 22 games remaining.
The Braves, who got their lone run on Ramón Laureano's RBI single in the first inning, managed just five hits with Orlando Arcia's second inning-double the only one going for extra bases in the finale with the Rockies (52-89).
Colorado's Michael Toglia and Ezequiel Tovar each hit solo homers off Atlanta starting pitcher Reynaldo Lopez, who gave up three other hits while striking out 11 without a walk in his six innings of work.
Rockies starter Austin Gomber went eight innings, yielding a run and five hits without issuing a walk while striking out six.
Phillies push winning streak to five
The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Miami Marlins 5-2 to extend their winning streak to five games and increase their lead atop the NL East to eight games.
Bryson Stott hit an RBI single in the first inning and a long solo homer during Philadelphia's four-run sixth inning.
Kody Clemens knocked in a pair of runs with a double in the sixth and later came around to score on a wild pitch.
Ranger Suarez gave up three hits over five scoreless innings for the Phillies (84-56), who have won 10 of 12.
The Marlins (52-88) scored their first run in the seventh on an RBI single by Jesús Sánchez and plated their final run an inning later on a throwing error by Clemens.
Giants, 3B Chapman agree to 6-year, $151 million contract
Third baseman Matt Chapman and the San Francisco Giants agreed to a six-year, $151 million contract on Wednesday night.
Chapman, 31, will earn $25 million each season from 2025 to 2030 and additionally will receive a $1 million signing bonus in 2025.
He joined the Giants as a free agent in March, agreeing to a contract guaranteeing $54 million over three seasons. That deal gave him the right to opt out after 2024 and 2025. It included a $2 million signing bonus and a $16 million salary for 2024.
Chapman is hitting .247 and leads the Giants with 22 homers, 69 RBIs, 90 runs and 33 doubles. He is a four-time Gold Glove winner and has a .241 career average with 177 homers and 495 RBIs for Oakland (2017-21), Toronto (2022-23) and the Giants.
An All-Star in 2019, Chapman hit a career-high 36 home runs for Oakland and finished sixth in the American League MVP voting. He was traded to Toronto in March 2022.
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