The Braves came back to Citizens Bank Park this weekend with the kind of record that changes how a series feels before the first pitch is thrown. Atlanta entered the phillies game in first place in the National League East at 12-7, despite a long injury list and a roster missing Sean Murphy, Ha-Seong Kim, Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver, Spencer Strider and Hurston Waldrep.
That is the part of the story Atlanta keeps writing in the early part of the 2025 season: the Braves keep producing anyway. Their rotation was carrying all five starters with ERAs under 4.00, Bryce Elder had a 0.77 ERA through four starts even though he was not scheduled to pitch in the series, and the lineup still ranked second in the National League in runs scored. Drake Baldwin was building on last year’s Rookie of the Year campaign, Matt Olson was hitting to his usual standard, Mauricio Dubon was batting.333, and Dominic Smith was handling the primary designated hitter job while batting.381 with three home runs.
The series also carried a memory the Braves could not erase. At the end of August 2025, they lost three of four games at Citizens Bank Park in a four-game set, and the opener turned into a rout when the Phillies won 19-4 behind four home runs from Kyle Schwarber. DraftKings summed up that night with a post saying, “FOUR HOME RUNS IN ONE NIGHT FOR KYLE SCHWARBER 🤯💣/N75d9OgR9C.”
For Philadelphia, the weekend offered a chance to steady a season that had already begun to fray in familiar ways. The Phillies had been inconsistent on offense, their starting pitching had been disappointing, the bullpen had become leaky, and the team had already piled up poor plays in the field and baserunning mistakes. That made Saturday’s matchup especially sharp, because Chris Sale was scheduled to face Cristopher Sanchez, with Martin Perez and Grant Holmes also set to start games in the series.
The tension is what makes this series worth watching now. Atlanta arrived with the best early answer in the division and a rotation still holding together despite the absences and Jurickson Profar’s PED suspension. Philadelphia, meanwhile, needed more than one good night to change the feeling around the club. The Braves had already been pushed around in this ballpark once last summer; this weekend was a chance to show that the standings and the scars from August 2025 can both be true at the same time.