Wright shines as Braves even series

*Photo from Battery Power*

Series tied 1-1

   Needing to make a statement and tie the series, that was just done. Matt Olson drove in the game winning run, Travis D'Arnaud drove in a run, and the Atlanta Braves defeated the Philadelphia Phillies with a 3-0 shutout victory on Wednesday night in Atlanta.

   After dropping the series opener despite a late comeback attempt, the Braves were looking to stake their claim to game two and even up the series. That they did, riding just enough offense and some dominant pitching to tie the series before hitting the road.

   The Braves got it done about 4 hours later than they were supposed to. Thanks to a rain delay that pushed the 3:37 start time all the way back to about 7:30. That didn't matter to the Braves, who pushed through and tied the series anyway.

   The first 5 innings of play went scoreless, until Olson came up in the 6th. Olson hit a single into right field past Rhys Hoskins, scoring Ronald Acuna Jr to make it 1-0 Braves. Austin Riley then hit an infield single to shortstop, bringing home Dansby Swanson to double the lead to 2-0. D'Arnaud then singled to center field to make the score 3-0, which held for the rest of the night.

   Getting the start for the Braves was Kyle Wright, who put on a show in his first playoff start in two years. Wright allowed two hits and one walk, racking up 6 strikeouts in 6 shutout innings to get the win. AJ Minter came on in relief and delivered a scoreless 7th, with Raisel Iglesias doing the same in the 8th. Kenley Jansen got the save with a shutout 9th inning.

   For the Phillies, they had Zack Wheeler on the mound. Wheeler took the loss, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits and two walks, lasting 6 innings. Andrew Bellatti came on and pitched a scoreless 7th inning, and Noah Syndergaard pitched the 8th.

   Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos said of the loss that "It's just one of those days. The ball wasn’t carrying as well as it does in the day, but yeah, there were a couple balls that were hit well. Shoot, man. On another day or maybe if the game was at 4, it could be a different game."

   Up next, game 3 of the series is on Friday night, shifting to Philadelphia for games 3 and 4. Aaron Nola gets the start for the Phillies, while the Braves have not named a starter.