Reynaldo López shines in his return to the interstate as the injury-plagued and resilient Braves beat the Phillies

ATLANTA — Somewhere in North America, Braves third baseman Austin Riley noticed Sunday night that the pain in his right hand lingered longer than it had on previous throws. But he was still hoping that when the team's charter flight from California landed and he went to Atlanta for an MRI and an examination by a Braves specialist, the results would reveal something other than the worst-case scenario — a broken bone.

It was not what the Braves expected of their season.

“It's really upsetting,” Riley said of the broken hand, which is expected to keep him out of action for six to eight weeks. That means he'll likely miss the rest of the regular season and at least the first round of the playoffs, assuming the Braves make the playoffs. “I hate that I won't be out there competing with the guys.”

He added: “This is nothing new for this team. So they just have to go out and play. We're still in the race.”

The Braves have prided themselves on their fortitude in finding the next man up in what has been the most injury-plagued season in their history. But there comes a point, as manager Brian Snitker said Tuesday afternoon, “where it becomes difficult for us to find the next man up.”

That's why it felt so good for the Braves when they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1 in the opening game of a highly anticipated series at Truist Park. Marcell Ozunas 37^th Homer that broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning.

Reynaldo López returned from the injured list with 10 strikeouts and a walk in five innings, while Whit Merrifield went 2-for-3 with a triple, a double and a walk against the same Phillies team that released him in July.

“It was good because we were a little depressed going into the game with Austin's situation and the cast,” Snitker said. “But like we said, these guys – good, bad or ugly – don't let anything bother them. I mean, they go out and play. It all starts with the guy on the mound. Lópey was really, really good.”

The Braves signed Merrifield to replace second baseman Ozzie Albies after he broke his left wrist.

“You want to treat it like just another game,” said Merrifield, who had two hits against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. “But to play against a team that told you you weren't good enough to contribute and play well for them feels good.”

To replace Riley, the Braves signed veteran Gio Urshela, who was released by the Detroit Tigers on Sunday, the same day Riley was hit in the hand by a 97-mph fastball in the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels.

Urshela arrived in Atlanta on Monday night and was in the eighth batting lineup on Tuesday. He made some nice defensive plays, going 0-for-3 with a bases-loaded walk for an RBI with two outs in the eighth inning.

“We're very happy to have a guy like him available to us,” Snitker said before the game and afterwards about the emergency signings Merrifield, Ramón Laureano and Urshela, who we brought in mid-season: “I have a lot of respect for guys like him who come here, get involved and help us.”

Urshela, 32, had his worst season since 2018, batting .243 with five home runs and a .619 OPS in 325 batting appearances for the Tigers. But he had a .342 OBP in 12 games this month, and his career-low .271 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) suggests he's in for a positive reversal in his overall stats.

“I'm glad to be here and help this team,” Urshela said Tuesday afternoon in the locker room, where he chatted with teammates, including Orlando Arcia and Ozuna, whom Urshela has known since he and Ozuna played against each other in the rookie short season in 2009.

“I know a lot of players and a lot of coaches here,” said Urshela, who hit 21 home runs for the New York Yankees in 2019 and totaled 27 home runs in the 2021-2022 season before a broken pelvis limited him to 62 games last season.

Urshela is a solid defender, but not as good a defensive player as Riley. And he's not nearly as good a hitter as Riley, although Riley is having a subpar season by his standards (like most of the Braves except Ozuna).

“I hate it for Austin, I hate it for us,” Snitker said. “He's one of the most important players on your team that you can count on. I know it's going to kill him to have him out that long.”

Riley looked ahead Tuesday to what his role will be for at least six weeks. “I'm going to be the biggest cheerleader I can be,” he said. “I'm going to root for the guys out there and be there for whatever I can do.”

The Braves are in third place in the wild-card standings and have not given up on their quest for a seventh consecutive NL East title, trailing the Phillies by six games with 37 games remaining for both teams, including six more head-to-head matches in the next 12 days.

Aside from the season opener against the Phillies, they didn't have their Opening Day lineup together for a single game. That's how relentless the injuries were. In fact, the Braves didn't even make it through that opening game with their lineup intact. Catcher Sean Murphy pulled an oblique abdominal muscle that day and missed the next two months.

Albies is expected to remain on the injured list until mid-September. Reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. suffered a season-ending ACL tear in late May. Michael Harris II returned last week after spending two months on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Newly signed slugger Jorge Soler has missed six games with a hamstring strain, though he did throw a pinch-hit walk on Tuesday in his first appearance since the injury.

“I honestly feel like we're going through a really weird time right now,” López said. “It just feels like someone comes off the injured list and someone else comes on, and then someone else comes off the injured list and someone else comes on. It's just really weird, but there's nothing we can do, so I think as a team we're just moving on.

“We go into this with the belief that we want to win every game, just keep moving forward and hopefully play as long as we can and go as far as we can.”

Riley said: “We're tough. I mean, we've had a lot of injuries this year. You have to deal with the cards you're dealt and you try to figure out how to win games. And that's what we're doing.”

Acuña, Murphy, Riley and Albies were four of the Braves' six All-Star outfielders in 2023. They also had two All-Star pitchers last season: Max Fried, who was an All-Star this season but came off the IL with forearm neuritis; and Bryce Elder, who spent most of the season in Triple A.

Fried is back but has struggled to regain form in three starts since being released from the injured list.

AJ Minter, the only remaining reliever from the Night Shift bullpen that helped the Braves win the 2021 World Series, will undergo season-ending hip surgery on Wednesday.

The Braves earned three All-Star starters this season in Fried, Chris Sale and López, and López put on the performance the team had hoped for on Tuesday, limiting the Phillies to five hits and one run in five innings and 90 pitches. He said he felt refreshed after his stint on the injured list.

The converted reliever recorded his first game with double-digit strikeouts since 2019, when López was last a full-time starter in a normal season. His fastball hit 98.4 mph on Tuesday and averaged 96.4, which is 1 mph above his season average.

Snitker said he has never experienced a season as plagued by injuries as this one.

“Not with the key players we lose,” he said. “When you lose your lineup, it's tough. And some of the rotation, things like that. AJ is a tough one. Because the players we lose, you can't just replace them. That's the problem. So you just have to hope that you keep fighting and keep your head above water until you get back on your feet. And unfortunately, in a lot of those cases, we don't get them back.”

Given all the pain and injury time, you probably wouldn't have believed it if someone told you that this team would still be eight games over .500 and in a position to secure a wild-card playoff spot in late August. But that's exactly where the Braves are.

They are 3 1/2 games behind wild-card leader San Diego, three games behind Arizona and 2 1/2 games ahead of the fourth-place New York Mets in the wild-card race.

“I think they handled it really well,” Snitker said. “As well as they can. I think these guys are really good at looking forward and not doing the 'woe is me' thing, because that doesn't work, and nobody cares, and nobody feels sorry for us. You just have to keep going no matter who you have. We have to go out there and do our best to win a game today.”

They won a game on Tuesday. They'll try to win again on Wednesday. The beat continues.

(Photo by Reynaldo López: Brett Davis / Getty Images)