have handed the first ball of a winner-take-all night to a left-hander who was not on anyone’s October radar in spring. Ray Kerr will open Game 3 of the National League Wild Card Series against the at Truist Park, with Grant Holmes waiting to take the bulk of the innings behind him.
The series is tied 1-1. Atlanta Braves took Game 1. Philadelphia Phillies answered with a 4-3 win on Wednesday, Alec Bohm’s go-ahead homer in the 10th forcing a third game after home runs from Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. First pitch is set for 8:15 PM ET. The winner will advance to face the Dodgers on Saturday at Dodger Stadium. Philadelphia will start Aaron Nola.
Manager Walt Weiss did not dress the move up as a novelty. The job is a matchup, not a statement.
“When you use an opener, it’s always matchup-oriented,” Weiss said. “You don’t do it just to do it. It has to be the right matchups, the right personnel. But yeah, we used Ray Kerr [as an opener] the other day, and Ray is throwing the ball really well for us. So, it’s a nice weapon to have with Ray.”
Ray Kerr’s first assignment is the top of Philadelphia’s order, specifically the left-handed bats of Schwarber and Harper. Left-handed hitters are 4-for-23 (.174) against him this year, with one extra-base hit. He has faced the Phillies twice in September. In a three-inning outing on September 13, he got Schwarber to ground into a double play and struck out Trea Turner to end the fifth. Harper doubled to open the sixth and was left on base.
The already ran the script. Last Friday in Miami, Kerr opened on Holmes’ scheduled day, threw three scoreless innings, and handed the game over. Weiss had liked the look before the series even started.
Ray Kerr, 32, has never pitched in a postseason game. He has appeared in 48 major-league games, only nine of them this season. Tommy John surgery wiped out the rest of 2024 and all of 2025. He went 26 months between big-league appearances before an Aug. 17 return.
Since then, the line is hard to ignore: 18 1/3 innings, a 1.47 ERA, a 0.60 WHIP, 11 strikeouts and two walks. He has not gone past 3 1/3 innings or 35 pitches, so a long night is not the plan. Advanced numbers suggest some of the ERA is luck, his expected ERA sits nearer 3.30, but the chase rate and the refusal to walk hitters fit a Phillies lineup that lived on free passes late in the year.
The path here was not a prospect track. Kerr reached the majors at 27 in 2022 after working at a 7-Eleven. He grew up in foster care. Fishing became the outlet while the elbow healed.
Grant Holmes is the piece the actually need to lengthen the game. He is expected in within the first few innings and has been asked to cover at least four. He posted a 3.57 ERA in 29 starts, and a 2.94 mark over his last 14. The split that drove the opener is simple: opponents managed a .590 OPS the first time through his lineup and an .886 OPS the second time. Ray Kerr’s innings are meant to keep Holmes from seeing Philadelphia twice.
If both get through their lanes, the late innings still ask a lot. Didier Fuentes, Dylan Lee, and closer Raisel Iglesias would all be working a third straight day. Weiss has called Kerr one of the stories that was not on the board in April and still changed the club.
