ATLANTA — The Phillies performed Garrett Stubbs’ “Phils Win” playlist after Recreation 1 of the Nationwide League Division Collection at Truist Park, similar to they all the time do once they win.
The track “Chilly Coronary heart” stuffed the clubhouse as gamers shuffled about. A pair gamers sat in entrance of their lockers and quietly sang alongside. José Alvarado stood in entrance of his locker with an ice pack on his left shoulder. He smiled as he mentioned the bullpen choosing up 17 outs. Zach Eflin chuckled as he recalled the hug that he gave Nick Castellanos for making a spectacular momentum-turning catch in proper subject within the ninth.
The Phillies beat the Braves, 7-6, on Tuesday afternoon, placing them in a great spot on this best-of-five collection.
“We’re tremendous assured,” Bryce Harper mentioned. “However that is an incredible crew over there.”
The winner of Recreation 1 in a best-of-five collection has gone on to win the collection 102 of 144 instances (71%). The Phillies have no idea these numbers and they don’t care about these numbers. They solely care that Zack Wheeler will pitch Recreation 2 on Wednesday and Aaron Nola will pitch Recreation 3 on Friday.
They like their odds with these two on the mound.
“Regardless of the state of affairs, irrespective of the sport, we’re as assured because it will get when Wheeler takes the mound,” Rhys Hoskins mentioned. “We’ve an opportunity to win each single time he does. Yeah, to have the ability to punch first [in this series] is large, however in no way do we expect that this collection is over. We all know the caliber of crew over there and the way in which they’ll string collectively some wins. So we’ll take Wheeler’s stuff tomorrow. We be ok with that, however we all know we now have work to do.”
If any crew can beat the percentages, it’s the Braves. They gained 101 video games within the common season and they’re the defending World Collection champions. However it’s troublesome to not assume that the Phillies have one thing particular brewing.
What occurred Tuesday in Atlanta solely strengthened these emotions.
The Phils strung collectively 4 consecutive two-out singles within the first inning towards Braves left-hander Max Fried to take a 2-0 lead. Fried’s throwing error and Harper’s first sacrifice bunt in 381 days led to 2 extra runs within the third inning to make it a 4-1 recreation. Castellanos’ two-out single to left subject within the fourth — his third hit in 4 innings — scored two runs to increase the result in 6-1. Jean Segura’s double, Matt Vierling’s sacrifice bunt and Edmundo Sosa’s sacrifice fly within the fifth made it 7-1.
“This can be a very unselfish membership, and that’s the way in which they’re taking part in,” Phillies supervisor Rob Thomson mentioned. “We get forward they usually’re including on runs. Vierling, large bunt to maneuver a runner over. Our situational hitting was actually good in the present day. Our baserunning was actually good — taking additional bases and sac flies. And I simply thought we performed a extremely good recreation total defensively.”
The Phils completed 5-for-12 with runners in scoring place after tallying solely two hits with a runner in scoring place within the Wild Card Collection. 5 of their seven runs within the NLDS opener scored with two outs. That got here after a collection towards St. Louis through which Philadelphia didn’t register a two-out hit, going 0-for-16 in these conditions.
The Phillies wanted to play good protection, too, as a result of the pitching bought shaky at instances. Ranger Suárez loaded the bases within the first, however Sosa turned an inning-ending double play. Vierling ran down a fly ball with runners on first and second and just one out within the fifth behind Brad Hand.
Philadelphia carried a 7-3 lead into the ninth earlier than Eflin allowed a three-run residence run to Matt Olson to chop the result in one.
Atlanta had the momentum. William Contreras then stroked an 0-2 cutter down and away to proper subject.
Castellanos pursued. The road drive began to sink.
“Come on, come on, keep up!” Hoskins shouted from first base.
Castellanos slid to catch it.
“Truthfully, I assumed it hit the bottom,” Hoskins mentioned. “That’s how shut it was.”
However Castellanos caught it. He laid on his again for a second and stared into the sky.
“Simply wanting, like, ‘Thank God I caught that ball,’” Castellanos mentioned.
“Good catch, dude,” Eflin mentioned afterward as he hugged him.
Eflin bought Travis d’Arnaud to floor out to Sosa to finish the sport. The sport was nearer than it wanted to be, however when you’ve got watched the Phillies the previous few years, then these are the video games they used to lose.
They held on Tuesday. In addition they earned it.
“They have been up [five], they usually nonetheless bunted the man over and bought a sac fly for that [seventh] run,” d’Arnaud mentioned. “It is fairly cool to see. And each run counts, particularly now. It could have been a tie recreation in the event that they did not try this, in order that they’re placing good at-bats collectively. Tip the cap to them.”
