ATLANTA — Austin Riley's three-run homer off Philadelphia closer Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning lifted the Atlanta Braves to a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 yesterday in Atlanta. The blast turned a 3-2 Phillies lead into a two-run deficit and delivered another late-inning collapse for Philadelphia.
Riley, who hit .219 with a .654 OPS this season, connected on a nearly 100 mph fastball right down the heart of the plate. Duran, Philadelphia's lone reliable reliever with unhittable stuff most of the time, had breezed through his first five outs after taking over for five gutsy innings from Jesus Luzardo and one inning from rookie Alex McFarlane before his command wavered. The Phillies had moved ahead 3-2 a half-inning earlier on J.T. Realmuto's clutch two-run triple, leaving manager Don Mattingly with nine outs to get and little trust beyond Duran. Asking Duran to cover multiple innings was rare territory — he had worked more than one inning just once this season and twice last year with Minnesota.
The bind was not surprising given how the bullpen was constructed. Dave Dombrowski's group entered the postseason short on trusted arms. Orion Kerkering was optioned to Triple-A two weeks before the end of the season following last year's meltdown in Los Angeles, and Jose Alvarado's struggles in 2026 mirrored those of 2025 as his stuff diminished. Injuries and poor performance compounded the problem. Offseason signing Brad Keller posted a 4.02 ERA in 31.1 innings on a two-year, $22 million deal before being shut down with an ailing elbow, Tanner Banks posted a 6.19 ERA in 36.1 innings and missed much of the second half after a stellar 2025, and Kyle Backhus posted a 4.95 ERA in 20 innings. Rookie right-hander Alex McFarlane was the only pleasant surprise and the only other arm Mattingly trusts, though he also gave up a key run Tuesday on Ozzie Albies' RBI triple that briefly gave Atlanta a 2-1 lead.
Attempts to patch the relief corps at the deadline failed. Brooks Raley, acquired from the Mets to be an important left-handed late-inning option, had posted ERAs of 2.68, 2.80, 2.45 and 1.96 in 52.2 innings with New York this year and had been consistently excellent since 2022 despite never having great stuff, but he posted a 7.94 ERA in 16 appearances after the trade and was left off the wild-card roster. Caleb Kilian, acquired in the Luis Arraez trade, got hurt almost as soon as he arrived. No other top-tier closer types were traded, but the inability to reach into the minors for help underscored farm-system issues and left Philadelphia without better options than Kilian or Raley in August.
The result fit a longer pattern. Had Philadelphia not dithered in the final two weeks, Zack Wheeler would have started Game 1 and potentially pitched deeper than Luzardo, and more offense against Chris Sale could have covered for the thin relief corps. Instead, the loss marked the eighth blown save dating back to Game 3 of the 2023 NLCS. That stretch includes Kerkering blowing a 1-0 lead in the seventh and Craig Kimbrel allowing the walk-off in a 2-1 loss in Game 3 in 2023, Kimbrel surrendering a game-tying two-run homer to Alek Thomas and an RBI single to Gabriel Moreno in a 6-5 loss in Game 4, Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm and Kerkering allowing five runs in the eighth in a 5-2 loss in Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS, and Strahm giving up a game-tying two-run blast to Mark Vientos in a 6-6 eighth inning in Game 2 of the 2024 NLDS — a game Philadelphia eventually won.