PHILADELPHIA — Chris Sale outdueled Cristopher Sánchez in a matchup of two of Major League Baseball’s pitchers, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-2 on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park to open a four-game series between the top two teams in the National League East Division.

Atlanta, which improved to 84-57 overall this season, has a five-game lead over Philadelphia (79-62), which won the NL East the past two seasons after the Braves had a six-year run as division champions.

Ronald Acuña Jr. had three hits and drove in a run and Mauricio Dubón homered for the Braves, who won for the ninth time in their past 11 games. Atlanta also improved to 6-1 against the Phillies this year with six games remaining in the season series between the rivals.

Alec Bohm homered and doubled and drove in both runs for the Phillies, who lost for just the fourth time in their past 19 games.

Sale (14-9) allowed two runs in six innings with seven strikeouts and a walk. The 37-year-old left-hander, an MLB All-Star this season for the 10th time in his career, entered the day second in the NL in ERA, although his rose slightly to 2.10.

Sánchez (16-5) remained stuck on 16 victories after surrendering three runs in six innings. The 29-year-old left-hander, an MLB All-Star this season for the second time, allowed five hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

Atlanta scored three of its runs off Sánchez in the second inning — on Austin Riley’s RBI single, Ha-Seong Kim’s groundout, and Acuña’s RBI double.

The Phillies got a run back in the bottom of the inning on Bohm’s RBI double and pulled within 3-2 in the fourth on his one-out solo drive to left.

Philadelphia had runners in scoring position with less than two outs in the fifth and sixth innings, but the hosts could not score off Sale, the 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner.

After Dubón hit a two-run homer in the eighth off Orion Kerkering, Braves closer Raisel Iglesias pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 30th save of the season.

The teams were meeting for the first time since April 26, when struggling Philadelphia dropped to 9-19 and then fired manager Rob Thomson. Since then, the Phillies have gone 70-43 under interim manager Don Mattingly.

Friday’s matchup was the first of seven games in the next 10 between the clubs.

Philadelphia right fielder Bryce Harper went 0-for-4, ending the two-time NL MVP’s career-best 35-game on-base streak.

Philadelphia second baseman Bryson Stott was a late scratch from the lineup due to personal reasons.

The scheduled starting pitchers for Saturday’s matchup are Braves left-hander Martín Pérez (8-8, 3.05 ERA) and Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler (11-5, 3.31).