Phillies down Braves in extra innings thanks to Trea Turner's heroics

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Aug 30, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHILADELPHIA — Trea Turner watched the ball scoot through the right side of the infield, and pumped his fist as he rounded first base.

The fifth time was the charm.

With his third hit of the game — in his fifth at-bat — Turner delivered the Phillies a 3-2, 10-inning walk-off against the Atlanta Braves, their third consecutive victory after getting swept in three games in New York earlier in the week.

And just like that, the Phillies’ lead in the National League East is back to six games after the Mets lost at home to the Marlins.

The Phillies’ offense revolves around a top-heavy top of the lineup. The key, then, to winning in October might just be getting Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper to the plate as often as possible.

In this case, Turner’s fifth at-bat decided the game.

A pitcher’s duel between Cristopher Sánchez and Braves ace Chris Sale was tied 1-1 after nine innings, and the Phillies trailed 2-1 entering the bottom of the 10th. Nick Castellanos got hit by a pitch, and with one out, Bryson Stott blooped a single to right field to load the bases.

After Brandon Marsh struck out, Turner came to the plate and quickly fouled off two pitches. Down to his last strike, he rifled a 94-mph fastball from lefty Dylan Dodd into right field to score Alec Bohm and Castellanos.

The hits by Stott and Turner were the Phillies’ first two hits with runners in scoring position. They finished 2 for 13.

If you didn’t know that Sale was making his first start in 73 days, well, you never would’ve guessed.

For six innings, he matched Sánchez nearly pitch for pitch.

It didn’t surprise Phillies manager Rob Thomson, who assumed Sale would pitch like “normal” in his return from a rib fracture. But the Braves ace and reigning National League Cy Young winner was as good as ever, with a fastball that touched 97 mph and a typically wicked slider.

The Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Weston Wilson belted a fastball into the left-field seats. Otherwise, Sale dazzled. He set the tone with first-inning punchouts of Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto in the first inning and finished with nine strikeouts overall.

Sánchez was equally stingy. He gave up seven hits but used his hard, heavy sinker to snuff out potential rallies, notably getting Sean Murphy to ground into double plays in the second and fourth innings.

The Braves tied the game in the sixth inning on consecutive doubles by Jurickson Profar and Matt Olson. But Sánchez kept it tied by striking out Ronald Acuña Jr. and getting Ozzie Albies and Drake Baldwin to ground out.

For the second start in a row, Sánchez lacked his sharpest changeup, typically one of the most effective offspeed pitches in baseball. But he overpowered the Braves with his sinker, even dialing it up to 97 mph in the seventh inning.

Sánchez’s dominant seventh inning was notable because of how the sixth inning ended. Trea Turner led off with a double and went to third on Schwarber’s groundout. Harper stepped to the plate and hit a one-hop missile. But Olson picked the hop, stepped on first, and fired to the plate to complete a double play.

But if the Braves had any momentum, Sánchez halted it in only 12 pitches.

Sánchez won a seven-pitch duel to strike out Murphy on a sinker, then fanned Michael Harris II on a 97-mph sinker before getting Nacho Alvarez Jr. to line out on a changeup.