Prior to Thursday night, the Atlanta Braves had never defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in a postseason series.
Philadelphia was 3-0 all-time in postseason matchups, including 2022 and 2023 when it knocked Atlanta out of the postseason after the Braves had won 100-plus games in each of those seasons.
Those memories are a thing of the past after Thursday, though, as the Braves defeated the Phillies 6-2 in a winner-take-all game to advance to the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Atlanta hadn’t won a winner-take-all game since the 1996 postseason
For the Braves, coming away victorious in a winner-take-all game is not something that many fans have seen. Thursday’s win in Game 3 of the wild-card series was Atlanta’s first win in a winner-take-all game since Game 7 of the 1996 NLCS.
Coincidentally enough, Atlanta had three home runs carry it to victory in both the 1996 (Andruw Jones, Fred McGriff, Javy Lopez) and 2026 (Michael Harris, Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies) games.
For the Phillies, their drought of a victory in a winner-take-all game continues, as they’ve not had a win in that situation since the 1980 postseason.
