Braves’ Sean Murphy steps off IL, homers off Zack Wheeler in first at-bat

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ATLANTA — On a night when Chris Sale looked like just another pitcher instead of the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, the Atlanta Braves needed someone to step up and spark a moribund offense.

Sean Murphy was that guy, hitting a three-run homer in his first plate appearance of the season — off Zack Wheeler, no less — and driving in four runs to help the Braves come from behind in a series-opening 7-5 win against the Philadelphia Phillies.

“We needed that,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That’s an understatement.”

It was just the second win in 10 games for the Braves and the third loss for the NL East-leading Phillies, and it came in Murphy’s first game back from the injured list. The veteran catcher missed the first nine games recovering from a fractured rib after being hit by a pitch in a Feb. 28 spring-training game.

With two on and two out in the third inning, Murphy jumped on the second pitch he saw, a 1-0 sweeper on the inner half of the plate, and drove it 401 feet over the left-field wall for a 3-1 lead.

“Unbelievable,” said Sale, who didn’t make it out of the fifth inning and left with Atlanta trailing 5-3. “I mean, big three-run home run, and another big hit later in the game. It just kind of seemed like the game gravitated towards him today. Having a guy like that come back around is key for us.”

Chris Sale’s velocity was down a touch. “I just gotta find the groove,” he said. “It’s not clicked yet.” (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

Sale had seven strikeouts with no walks but gave up nine hits and five runs in 4 2/3 innings. His teammates got him off the hook and prevented the Braves from falling seven games behind the Phillies just 10 games into the season.

Wheeler, runner-up to Sale in the 2024 Cy Young balloting, also gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings, ending a streak of 13 starts in which he pitched at least six innings and gave up two or fewer earned runs, the longest such run by a Phillies pitcher in more than a century.

The Braves got two runs in the sixth on Murphy’s RBI single and a sacrifice fly from Michael Harris II, then took the lead for good on Austin Riley’s run-scoring double in the seventh. They added a run on a wild pitch in the eighth, after Orlando Arcia doubled to start the inning and moved up on a Harris sacrifice bunt.

“It was a great win, a team effort,” said Murphy, who deflected credit, as usual. “Everybody kind of did their job and had great at-bats. (Jarred) Kelenic had awesome at-bats tonight, Mike (Harris II) driving in the run with a runner on third. A lot of things went right. It was good to be out there.”

Kelenic had three walks and a single and made a spectacular diving catch in the ninth inning.

Murphy wore glasses for the first time in a major-league game. He was diagnosed with astigmatism and tried wearing contacts at spring training, but they didn’t feel right, so he switched to sports glasses during his three-game rehab assignment at Triple-A Gwinnett, where he was 2-for-10 with a homer.

He doesn’t know if the heat and humidity this summer will cause issues — he also wears the glasses under his catcher’s mask — but so far, he’s liked how they’ve felt.

When he came to the plate in the second inning, Murphy said he wasn’t thinking about easing into things, even against an elite pitcher like Wheeler.

“There were guys on base,” he said. “It wasn’t the time to ease into it. It was sort of just, if I get a good pitch to hit, swing.”

Murphy’s homer was the Braves’ first with a runner in scoring position and came in their 85th plate appearance in those situations.

“It could have been anybody,” Murphy said. “But we’ll see. Got another game tomorrow, so we’re going to have to do it again.”

But it hasn’t been anybody. It’s been nobody, pretty much. The Braves entered Tuesday batting .173 with runners in scoring position, with a .244 OBP that was 29th in the majors, ahead of the Chicago White Sox (.239).

Nineteen teams had OBPs of .310 or higher with runners in scoring position before Tuesday night, when the Braves went 3-for-13 with RISP, including Murphy’s homer and Riley’s double, after he’d struggled in RISP situations.

“You kind of hope that something like that relaxes him a little bit,” Snitker said of Riley’s go-ahead hit. “He hit it right where he lives. That’s kind of his power alley right there. When he’s going good, that’s where he hits the ball. Hopefully, that’s a sign of good things to come for him, because that’s obviously one of the bigger at-bats we’ve had all year. And I’m glad he’s the one that got it.”

After watching Sale pick them up so frequently last season, Braves hitters — and the bullpen on its best night of the young season — returned the favor and picked up the veteran left-hander.

Sale has allowed three or more earned runs in each of his first three starts. He gave up more than two earned runs in just three of 29 starts last season, when he got 26 of 30 first-place Cy Young votes to runner-up Wheeler’s four.

“Wheeler’s about as good as it’s gonna get out there,” Sale said. “So, especially after I put them in a hole early, they come back, and then I put them right back into a hole, and again, we just never quit fighting. Never gave up, never cashed it in. I can’t say enough about a bullpen, coming in and doing what they did, leaving runners on, throwing up zeroes. That’s the reason we won this game.”

Sale averaged 93.6 mph with his fastball, down 1 mph from previous starts this season and 1.3 mph from his 2024 average. He topped out at 96.1 mph and 97.3 mph in the first inning but threw no fastballs above 93.7 after the first inning and went more to his slider.

“I just gotta find the groove,” Sale said. “It’s not clicked yet. It’s not all put together, which is frustrating, because I felt like I was kind of there in spring training. I felt I had a really good spring training, other than one kind of wonky start. But everything else just kind of felt in sync. And then once the season started, just kind got off the rails a little bit.”

Sale, who turned 36 on March 30, was 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA last year in his first season with the Braves, leading the majors in wins and ERA and leading the NL in strikeouts (225 in 177 2/3 innings) for the NL pitching Triple Crown.

In his first three starts this season, he has allowed six hits and three earned runs in five innings at San Diego on Opening Day, four hits including a homer and three earned runs in five innings at Dodger Stadium on April 1, and now this one against the Phillies.

The Braves lost the first two of Sale’s starts after losing in only seven of his 29 starts last season and in consecutive starts just once, in early June.

On Tuesday, Sale struck out the first two batters of the game, then surrendered three consecutive singles before striking out J.T. Realmuto. An inning later, the Braves gave him a 3-1 lead on Murphy’s homer, after a one-out double from Riley and a two-out walk by Kelenic.

But Sale coughed up that lead quickly when he gave up three runs in the third inning. Kyle Schwarber hit a two-run triple off the wall and Nick Castellanos drove him in with a double. Sale gave up four hits to the first five batters in the inning.

“It’s frustrating, obviously,” Sale said. “We won this game, but I still know I’m gonna be staring at a ceiling till about 3 in the morning tonight. I got some days to figure it out. We got time.”

(Top photo of Sean Murphy: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

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