ABS Challenge Decides MLB Playoff Game For First Time, And Phillies Stay Alive

The Phillies’ 4-3 win over the Braves in Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series ended with a first in MLB postseason history: a game-ending ABS challenge. With the Phillies up a run in the bottom of the 10th, Andrew Painter faced Dominic Smith with two outs and two runners on. Painter got to an 0-2 count, and plate umpire Adam Beck ruled his fastball a ball. Painter and catcher J.T. Realmuto didn’t wait as they immediately asked for a review. The ABS system confirmed the pitch clipped the strike zone, turning the ball into strike three. Smith was out, the game was over, and the Phillies had forced a decisive Game 3. It was the first time a postseason game had ended with a strike-zone appeal. Painter, a starter during the regular season, bailed out a taxed Phillies bullpen with three scoreless innings. He stranded the two runners in the 10th after Mauricio Dubon singled and Michael Harris II added a bloop single. Philadelphia erased a 3-1 deficit with back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning, and Alec Bohm’s two-out homer in the 10th gave the Phillies a 4-3 win over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. The win forces a decisive Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series on Thursday. Atlanta had seemed to be in control. In the seventh, Drake Baldwin’s double glanced off Bryce Harper’s glove in right field, scoring Sean Murphy to put the Braves up 2-1, and Matt Olson added a sacrifice fly. Kyle Schwarber stepped up and drove a 447-foot homer off Dylan Lee, and Harper followed with a 418-foot shot to tie the game 3-3. Bohm finished the comeback in the 10th, launching a 357-foot drive to right off Didier Fuentes for his third career postseason homer. The Phillies and Braves meet in Game 3 on Thursday.