Cut in half: Braves 7, Phillies 2

This recap contains spoilers for Wednesday’s episode of Marvel’s What If …? series. If you are upset because you haven’t seen the episode yet and now you can’t read the recap for this game, then I’ll say it’s your own fault. You could have turned off the Phillies and watched What If …? instead of. You probably would have enjoyed the episode more than this game.

Don’t worry: I’ll put the spoiler at the end so you can read up on the game without worrying about learning the crucial plot details. If you’d rather skip to the end so you don’t have to think about the inconvenience of Wednesday’s game, I don’t blame you.

After Tuesday night’s loss to the Braves, the Phillies’ chances of winning the National League East were slim. If you expected them to come out hot on Wednesday night to prove they wouldn’t fall without a fight, then you’re a lot more optimistic than the majority of Phillies fans. You were also very wrong.

Aaron Nola put the team in a 2-0 hole early in the first inning thanks to some of his two-hit hits. But Nola was ultimately one of the lesser problems on Wednesday night. After that shaky start, he settled in to pitch six innings, allowing just one more point. It certainly wasn’t an “ace” performance, but he kept the team in the game.

That decent performance was better than what we got from the Phillies offense or the bullpen. For the second night in a row, the Phillies hitters did little at home. They scored three points in the first two games of the series, and two of them were undeserved. Hardly anyone hits well, and that includes Bryce Harper. The sad truth is that this offense can’t afford a night’s rest from Harper if he wants to score more than a point or two.

As for the bullpen, they let the game degenerate after the departure of Nola. Jose Alvarado, Hector Neris and Sam Coonrod all had their luck in the seventh set, and none of the three started very well. As has too often been the case in 2021, pitchers haven’t been helped much by the defense. By the end of the seventh inning, the Braves’ lead had grown to five and the game – and essentially the season – was over.

So this is it. Now I’m going to talk about What if …?

Towards the start of the episode, Thanos shows up with five of the Infinity Stones, seeking to retrieve the Soul Stone that was possessed by Ultron. We have to suspend disbelief here as it doesn’t sync with the timeline shown in the main MCU. Or maybe what caused the timeline divergence also prompted Thanos to start acting sooner. I don’t know how it all works.

It doesn’t really matter though. The important thing is that as soon as Thanos arrives, Ultron uses the Soul Stone to cut him in half.

That’s it. He just lasered it in half and Thanos died.

Why the hell didn’t Vision do that in Infinity War? I know they must have “hurt” Vision early on to negate his phasing abilities, but was there a reason he couldn’t shoot a laser? Guess that’s the same reason Dr. Strange didn’t open a portal, put Thanos’ hand through it, and cut it off? (You know, the same way Wong killed one of his henchmen earlier in the movie.) And that reason is: Convenience Plotting!

Speaking of plot convenience, the Braves can wrap up the National Eastern League with a win tomorrow. Maybe the Phillies will push back the inevitable by a day or two, but based on the effort I’ve seen tonight, I seriously doubt it.