Baldwin Walks It Off as ATL Survives PHI's 11th-Inning Surge

Drake Baldwin doubled to center in the bottom of the 11th to score Kim and give Atlanta a 6-5 win over Philadelphia on September 11. The Braves needed every bit of it — Philadelphia had just taken a 5-4 lead in the same inning before Atlanta answered with two runs of their own.

This one started clean and got messy fast. Matt Olson put Atlanta on the board in the first with a 352-foot homer to left. Philadelphia answered immediately in the second when Derek Hill doubled to center, clearing the bases — Realmuto, Sosa, and De La Cruz all scored — to flip the game to a 3-1 Phillies lead. Chris Sale settled in after that, going 7.0 innings and allowing just 3 hits and 3 earned runs while striking out 6. Aaron Nola was solid but not sharp, giving up 6 hits and 2 earned runs across 6.1 innings. Austin Riley pulled Atlanta back within one in the seventh with a 434-foot shot to left center, and the game stayed at 3-2 heading into the ninth.

The ninth inning is where the story of this game really turned. With Atlanta's win probability sitting at just 21%, Murphy singled to center and Keirsey Jr. scored — not on a hit, but on a fielding error by Philadelphia center fielder Hill, the same player who had driven in three runs earlier. That single play swung Atlanta's win probability from 21% to 66%, a 44-point shift. Hill's error erased his own offensive contribution in the cruelest way possible. The game was tied at 3. Philadelphia responded in the tenth — Crawford singled to score Stott, and Dubón added a sacrifice fly to score Hicklen — and suddenly it was 4-4 heading to extras.

The 11th inning was pure chaos. Luis Arraez singled to left to score Stubbs and put Philadelphia ahead 5-4, with Harper moving to second. It looked like the Phillies had finally seized control. Then Atlanta answered immediately: Kim singled to left to score Albies and tie it at 5, and Baldwin — who finished 2-for-5 on the night — doubled to center to score Kim and end it. Mike Yastrzemski went 3-for-3 and appears to have been a quiet engine throughout the lineup without showing up in the final scoring line. Raisel Iglesias and Didier Fuentes each threw a scoreless inning in relief to preserve the win. Atlanta walked out of a game they had no business winning at the start of the ninth, and Philadelphia's center fielder handed them the door.