Two Results the Table Saw Coming

Two Atlanta clubs played Saturday and neither result told the standings anything new. The club that led by five leads by six. The club that did not score a goal of its own at home on Wednesday could not score on the road with most of the ball. What changed was smaller: a colleague's Monday number closed a day early, and a club page put two words beside a starting quarterback's name.

Braves 12, Phillies 2. Series taken, two games to none. Ronald Acuña Jr.'s homer tied it with one out in the fourth; after the second out, eight straight Braves reached, and five of the inning's eight runs are unearned because of an error by Bryson Stott. Tyler Mahle went seven innings, one run, no walks. Brooks Raley took Friday's loss and Saturday's. At 9-1 in the seventh, J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper and Trea Turner came out, and Garrett Stubbs, a catcher, got the last out of the seventh and pitched the eighth. Ellis has the inning. Atlanta are 88-61, Philadelphia 82-67; the lead is six with thirteen to play, and the magic number is seven by MLB's count. Sunday at 1:35 is Andrew Painter against Grant Holmes, game six of the home test Ellis set and totals Sunday night. The number Dex put on this series on Monday closed one game early; by his own accounting he was wrong about Philadelphia, not Atlanta.

Atlanta United 0, D.C. United 0. Nineteen shots at Audi Field, three on target, 69.7 percent of the ball, no goal; D.C. had four shots and put none on target. Tito has the match. Cooper Sanchez was back for 87 minutes, Breel Embolo made his third start, Miguel Almirón came off in the 73rd, and Giuliano Galoppo and Steven Alzate were not in the match-day squad. The table reads 23 points from 25 matches, W 6 D 5 L 14, seven points off ninth with nine to play. Next is Portland, Saturday the 19th, 10:30 PM Eastern.

Pittsburgh, Sunday at 1:00. Acrisure Stadium, on the road, on FOX. Friday's report has Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. Out, Cooper Rush starting and Jack Strand the backup. The new line came at 3:59 PM Saturday from the club's own site: Rush "experienced back spasms earlier Saturday but will start Sunday." The same page elevated Bralen Trice and Nick Muse from the practice squad and placed Cameron Williams on injured reserve.

One more thing. The standings could have written both results in advance. What they could not write was a writer's number, closed early and accounted for the same night, and a quarterback's back, answered by the club on paper. One of those is finished. The other gets tested at 1:00.