ATLANTA -- It's a moment Michael Harris II likely envisioned countless times as a kid: stepping to the plate in a big spot in a winner-take-all postseason game for his hometown club.
Well, Harris -- born and raised in the Atlanta area before being selected by the Braves in the third round of the 2019 Draft -- made the most of the opportunity early in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series against the Phillies on Thursday night.
Harris got Truist Park rocking from the onset of the Braves’ series-clinching 6-2 victory by smashing a three-run homer in the first inning. Even with veteran righty Aaron Nola struggling to throw strikes, Harris had no problem going down and golfing a 2-0 sinker that was well below the zone.
"Obviously, had to come through in that situation: runners on early in the game, he got behind in the count, couldn't really find the zone,” Harris said. “I just found one pitch to put my best swing on, and hopefully, we get some runs out of it -- and we did."
That one swing actually provided all the runs the Braves would need on their way to winning their first postseason series since the 2021 World Series.
"We set the tone early with Mikey popping that one in the first inning," said ace-turned-closer Chris Sale, who recorded the final four outs to seal the victory.
Harris had strolled to the plate after Nola walked Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson on five pitches apiece. Harris then took back-to-back pitches out of the zone, prompting a mound visit from catcher J.T. Realmuto. At that point, Nola had thrown only three of his first 13 pitches for strikes.
But even with the next offering missing badly, that didn't deter Harris from pouncing. He turned on the sinker and roped a 100.5 mph line drive that right fielder Bryce Harper tracked to the wall before looking up and watching it narrowly clear the brick wall in right-center field.
"Ball was a little low, but I was just trying to hit it out,” Harris said on the NBC broadcast. “I did it."
A little low? Try just 1.11 feet off the ground.
It was the lowest pitch Harris has hit for any of his 101 career homers (including the postseason). It was the lowest pitch Nola has thrown that resulted in a home run. It was also the third-lowest pitch hit for a postseason homer by any player since tracking began in 2008.
Harris, of course, played a pivotal role in Atlanta's Game 1 victory, going 3-for-3 with a pair of runs and a sacrifice bunt. His two-out infield single in the eighth inning kicked off the decisive rally capped by Austin Riley's game-winning three-run homer.
It was a bit of a different story in Game 2, when Harris went 1-for-5 with a strikeout and grounded into two double plays.
“In baseball, you can't do anything but try to stay loose,” Harris said. “If you put more pressure on yourself, it's just going to eat you up. I felt like in the clubhouse today, we talked more about fantasy football than baseball. It kept us ready. Once we had our meeting, we kind of locked in and knew what we wanted to do when we came out.”
What they wanted to do was jump on Nola early. Unsure of how long he would be in the game before the Phillies turned things over to co-ace Zack Wheeler, Braves manager Walt Weiss stacked his lefties near the top of the order.
That meant moving Harris up to the No. 4 spot after hitting seventh against left-hander Cristopher Sánchez a day earlier.
“Nola is great, man. We've seen him a ton for many years now. He's a great pitcher,” Weiss said. “But we wanted to load up the lefties and try to go after him and try to get out to a lead.”
Mission accomplished.
“We knew that Wheeler was lurking, so it was great. It worked out great,” Weiss said. “Michael gives us a three-run shot early, then some add-on homers.”
Ozzie Albies hit a two-run shot off Wheeler in the fourth to push Atlanta’s lead to 5-0. Olson, another Georgia native, added a solo shot in the seventh to make it 6-1.
That was more than enough on a night when opener Ray Kerr delivered the outing of a lifetime, Grant Holmes did his job in the middle innings and the bullpen -- including Sale -- slammed the door.
“I told our guys all year long, when the stakes have been the highest, when the challenges have been the toughest, we've been at our absolute best,” Weiss said. “So, it doesn't surprise me that we played the way we did tonight.”