The Philadelphia Phillies will take on the Atlanta Braves in the National League Divisional round in the 2023 MLB playoffs.
Philly had no trouble dispatching the Marlins in a Wild Card sweep, with Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola throwing a combined 13.2 innings of one-run ball and the offense grinding down Miami’s pitching staff until it finally broke. The Phils had some ups and downs this year, but Citizens Bank Park remains a raucous place to play and they’re starting to look like the reigning NL champs.
The Braves, meanwhile, had quite literally one of the best offenses the sport has ever seen, with two bonafide MVP candidates in Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson pacing them to the best record in baseball and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. As if this historic division rivalry needed any more juice, you know Atlanta will be motivated to get the bad taste of last season’s NLDS loss to Philly out of their mouths.
Let’s take a look at the starting pitchers for this best-of-5 series.
Phillies vs. Braves starting pitchers
Phillies
Game 1: TBD (possibly Ranger Suarez — 4-6, 4.18 ERA)
Game 2: Zack Wheeler (13-6, 3.61)
Game 3: Aaron Nola (12-9, 4.46)
Game 4: TBD (possibly Suarez or Cristopher Sanchez)
Game 5: Zack Wheeler
The big question here for Rob Thomson: Who starts Game 1? Wheeler and Nola pitched brilliantly in the Wild Card series, and they’ll be able to handle three of the final four games. The opener, though, is up in the air. Will Thomson go with Suarez, the sinkerballing lefty who was brilliant in his one start against Atlanta this year (six innings, one run, seven Ks) but struggled in his last couple of outings? Will he opt for the rookie Cristopher Sanchez, yet another sinkerballing lefty who was a revelation this season? Will he opt to piggyback the two? Either way, he’s sure to have all bullpen hands on deck with his twin aces waiting in the wings. (Nola has gone six innings in all three starts against Atlanta, surrendering five, zero and two runs, while Wheeler has a six-run blowup sandwiched around eight innings of shutout ball and six innings of one-run ball back on Sept. 18.)
Braves
Game 1: Spencer Strider (20-5, 3.86)
Game 2: Max Fried (8-1, 2.55)
Game 3: TBD (possibly Bryce Elder — 12-4, 3.81)
Game 4: Spencer Strider
Game 5: Max Fried
Strider seems all but certain to get the ball in Game 1 for Atlanta as he hopes to erase the memory of last year’s Game 3 debacle against Philly. After that, it seems likely that Fried will be good to go for Game 2; the team just wanted to be cautious as he began to develop a blister, and it’s not considered to be anything serious enough to keep him out of this series. Charlie Morton’s finger sprain, however, will keep him out, and that leaves a big question mark for Brian Snitker in Game 3. The rookie Elder was sensational in the first half but crashed back to Earth a bit as the summer wore on, including four runs in 3.2 innings in a start against the Phillies in September. The problem is that Atlanta really doesn’t have a ton of pitching depth behind him, with other options like Jared Shuster or Kyle Wright not inspiring a ton of confidence.
