PHILADELPHIA — Braves center fielder Michael Harris II pointed out after Friday’s Opening Day win that Philadelphia fans are always going to boo — that’s what they do, he said — so the key was to make sure to get them booing for the right reason from the Braves’ perspective. Booing their own pitchers, for example.
The Braves did that Saturday for the second day in a row with another comeback that became a lopsided win at Citizens Bank Park. Max Fried didn’t make it out of the first inning for Atlanta, but the Braves never trailed after that inning, scoring multiple runs in each of the first three frames against Aaron Nola and rolling to a 12-4 rout.
After leading the majors in almost every significant offensive category in 2023, the Braves have picked up where they left off, getting 19 hits and four home runs Saturday and batting .390 with an 1.103 OPS in the new season.
Granted, it’s just two games, but those were against starters Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola and a Phillies bullpen that returned almost everyone after ranking third in the NL in ERA last season and pitching even better in the second half and postseason. They didn’t do anything against Wheeler, but the Braves pummeled Philly relievers and Nola.
“Oh, man, hitting’s contagious, especially here,” said Braves newcomer Jarred Kelenic, who was traded from the Seattle Mariners in December and has gone 4-for-6 with a walk in his first two games with the Braves. “Like, 1 through 9, even guys on the bench who come in. It’s dangerous up and down the lineup, which is super fun to be around.”
Any remaining hopes of a late Phillies rally Saturday ended when Marcell Ozuna hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning off Seranthony Domínguez to extend the lead to 11-4. That brought another chorus of boos from Phillies fans, who don’t like Ozuna (or any Braves, for that matter), but at that moment seemed to equally dislike Domínguez.
A round of boos for everyone, then. And make it loud.
MVP adds on 🔥@ronaldacunajr24 | #BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/ZY8KkNDRoI
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) March 29, 2024
“Interesting to see the sequence — it’s like very aggressive, loud taunting,” veteran Braves pitcher Charlie Morton said a couple of hours before Saturday’s game, remarking about how fast the crowd turned on their team in Friday’s 9-2 Braves win, when Atlanta trailed 2-0 before scoring two runs in the seventh and seven runs in the eighth.
That derision redirection happened again Saturday. The Phillies faithful booed Nola, the pitcher they praised — rightfully so — for teaming with Wheeler to give the Phillies a powerful pair of postseason co-aces the past two years, especially against the Braves in NL Division Series wins each of those years.
Adding another interesting angle is the fact that Nola turned down Atlanta’s free-agent offer in November, opting to return to the Phillies on a seven-year, $172 million contract. There’s a saying in pro sports about how the best moves sometimes turn out to be ones that don’t come to fruition. It’s too early to make that judgment, but for one afternoon the Braves made Nola look pedestrian.
Travis d’Arnaud hit a go-ahead two-run double off Nola in the second inning, Kelenic had a pair of RBI singles off him in the second and third innings, and Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson each homered against the right-hander, with Olson hitting an 86-mph cutter that Nola couldn’t have put on a tee in a better position for Olson to crush it.
2023 home run king Matt Olson hits his first of 2024!💪 pic.twitter.com/tBv3Y6e6dx
— MLB (@MLB) March 30, 2024
“Making contact, just good at-bats,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of how they handled Nola, who gave up 12 hits and seven runs in 4 1/3 innings. “We’ve seen him a lot, he’s seen us a lot. Man, he’s some kind of competitor. We did a good job in our approach to him.”
Harris had his second three-hit game, and in three plate appearances against Nola had a second-inning walk, third-inning double and fifth-inning single. He added a ninth-inning homer.
“Just forcing him to throw it over the plate, not missing our opportunities when he does and just capitalizing off of that,” Harris said of the approach vs. Nola. “Getting on base, and letting the next guy behind us do a job.”
Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies and Orlando Arcia also had three-hit games, with Arcia joining Harris with six hits apiece through two games, including three doubles for Arcia. That’s particularly notable, after the shortstop’s incident during the NL Division Series when Arcia’s “Attaboy, Harper” comment in the clubhouse after the Braves’ Game 2 win — referring to Harper’s overly aggressive baserunning on a game-ending double play — was overheard and reported by two media members.
Harper had two homers in Game 3 and stared down Arcia rounding second base each time, and “Attaboy, Harper” quickly appeared on T-shirts and signs around Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies finished off the Braves with wins in Games 3 and 4.
After Saturday’s game, as reporters approached Arcia, who was seated between Albies and Acuña, chatting at their lockers, Acuña tapped Arcia and said “Attaboy, Arcia!” before Acuña walked away, laughing.
It was that kind of vibe, though Arcia insisted it was nothing special doing so well in the first two games of the season here, back in Philly, where he’s been booed mercilessly.
“Doesn’t matter to me, I play happy in every stadium,” Arcia said through a team interpreter.
Kelenic, described by Braves officials as a “toolsy” young player since they got him, displayed another of those tools when he made a spectacular diving catch to rob Harper of a hit in the left-center gap to start the third inning. That probably saved a run, since J.T. Realmuto followed with a homer off Jesse Chavez.
JARRED. KELENIC!#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/eFnuUiW58L
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) March 30, 2024
That was one of only two hits allowed by Chavez in three innings of one-run relief, one week after the Braves signed the 40-year-old following his release by the Chicago White Sox. Chavez got the win and praise from all corners of the clubhouse, including lefty Tyler Matzek, who pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings of two-hit ball in his first appearance since Tommy John surgery in October 2022.
“Unbelievable,” Matzek said of Chavez, who got the win. “I mean, Jesse Chavez in a Braves uniform is something special. That guy can go out there and do any job he’s asked to do. What he was able to go out there and do really helped us get deep in the game and win.”
Olson, after leading the majors last season in home runs (54) and RBIs (139) and setting franchise records in both, has four extra-base hits in the first two games of the new season to tie for the lead with Mookie Betts, who had played twice as many games and had 10 more plate appearances than Olson entering the Dodgers’ late game Saturday.
If the Spencer Strider vs. Zack Wheeler matchup on Opening Day lived up to all the hype, Fried vs. Nola certainly did not. Fried recorded two outs and gave up two hits, three runs and three walks with one strikeout, and Nola lasted 4 1/3 innings and allowed 12 hits, seven runs and one walk with three strikeouts.
Fried threw 43 pitches and got two outs before he was relieved by Chavez, who proceeded to get nine outs in 46 pitches, with no walks and one strikeout.
Fried gave the Braves a scare when he slipped while trying to field Alec Bohm’s squibbed ground ball with two out in the first inning, not realizing it had hit Bohm’s foot and was a foul ball. Fried’s left leg bent awkwardly and a team trainer hurried out to check on him, but he stayed in the game and said afterward he was fine.
“He was just having trouble locating,” Snitker said. “It was just one of them days.”
After getting Bohm to pop out with bases loaded, Fried walked Nick Castellanos to bring in a run — after a 2-2 pitch that was clearly in the strike zone was called a ball — and gave up a two-run single to Bryson Stott to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead. That was it for Fried, but not for the Braves. Not at all.
“This (Braves) lineup is deep, 1 through 9, they can beat you at any moment,” Fried said. “And they put together really good at-bats against a really good pitching staff today. You know that even when you’ve got some rough outings, they’re going to pick you up and have a really good chance to win. It was a really great team effort today, and the guys really picked me up.”
The Braves have won six consecutive NL East titles, but some of them have said all spring that anything short of the World Series will not be acceptable after consecutive 100-plus win regular seasons and offseason additions that included left fielders Kelenic and Adam Duvall, relievers to fortify perhaps the deepest-ever Braves bullpen and seven-time former All-Star Chris Sale added to the rotation.
Sale makes his Braves debut Sunday when he faces lefty Ranger Suárez, another pitcher who’s excelled against the Braves when it mattered most, in the postseason.
(Photo of Jarred Kelenic: Kyle Ross / USA Today)