PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies spent Friday night watching the Braves push the National League East lead back to five games.
Twenty-four hours later, Zack Wheeler pulled them a game closer.
Wheeler delivered six innings of one-run baseball, Kyle Schwarber homered for the 41st time this season and the Phillies beat Atlanta, 4-2, Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park to even a pivotal series and move back within four games of the Braves in the division race.
For a team trying to turn September into something more than preparation for a Wild Card Series, this was the kind of game it had to win.
And Wheeler looked every bit like the pitcher the Phillies will need if they intend to make this interesting.
The Braves opened the game with consecutive singles from Drake Baldwin and Ronald Acuña Jr., followed by a Matt Olson walk. Bases loaded. Nobody out. The middle of Atlanta's order coming.
Wheeler escaped without allowing a run.
Michael Harris II popped out. Mauricio Dubón was called out on strikes after a successful J.T. Realmuto challenge. Ozzie Albies flew to center.
Three runners reached. None scored.
That was essentially Atlanta's best chance against Wheeler all night.
After the messy opening inning, Wheeler allowed only one more hit over his final five frames — Acuña's solo homer in the third — while striking out nine and walking two over 95 pitches.
More important than the pitching line was how Wheeler got there.
His four-seam fastball averaged 95.6 mph, slightly above his season average, and he continued carrying that velocity deep into the outing. But the splitter gave Atlanta another problem entirely. Wheeler generated seven whiffs on nine swings against the pitch, allowing him to attack hitters with velocity and finish them with something diving beneath barrels.
By the fifth inning, Atlanta had little answer. Wheeler struck out Ha-Seong Kim, Baldwin and Acuña in succession.
The Phillies gave him something to work with immediately.
Schwarber and Trea Turner walked to open the bottom of the first before Luis Arraez singled home Schwarber. Realmuto later drew a bases-loaded walk, giving Philadelphia a 2-0 advantage before Wheeler returned to the mound.
Derek Hill tripled to begin the second and scored on a Schwarber groundout. Then Schwarber supplied the game's biggest swing in the fourth, driving a MartÃn Pérez pitch into the right-field seats for his 41st homer and a 4-1 lead.
Schwarber reached four times, finishing 2-for-3 with two walks, two runs and two RBIs.
There was still plenty the Phillies left unfinished offensively.
They finished just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10. Bryce Harper and Arraez each had two hits, and Philadelphia collected nine hits and five walks overall, but there were opportunities to put the game away considerably earlier.
On Saturday, Wheeler made the missed opportunities irrelevant.
Jonathan Bowlan surrendered a solo homer to Austin Riley in the seventh, trimming the lead to two. José Alvarado then handled the eighth in precisely the fashion the Phillies needed. Baldwin opened the inning with a single, but Alvarado got Acuña to bounce into a Turner-Arraez-Bohm double play before striking out Olson.
Eleven pitches. Three outs.
Then came Jhoan Duran.
There was no drama.
Duran worked a perfect ninth on 11 pitches, nine of them strikes, and recorded his 30th save of the season.
That sequence — Wheeler for six, a bridge through the seventh and eighth, Duran at the end — is considerably closer to the formula Philadelphia wants to carry into October.
But October isn't quite the entire conversation anymore.
Atlanta remains in control of the division. Four games in September is not a small deficit, particularly against a club that has spent much of the season looking like the better team.
But five became four Saturday.
More importantly, the Phillies prevented the Braves from turning this series into an opportunity to put real distance between them.
There is still work to do. There are still offensive chances being wasted. And there is still a significant gap in the standings.
But the Phillies wanted September games that mattered.
They have them.
And with Wheeler pitching like this, the NL East race isn't over yet.
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