PHILADELPHIA — — Bryce Harper’s funny bone — the one he held on his right elbow before the Philadelphia Phillies clinched another berth in the National League Championship Series — gave the team, frankness, and even to a city, a passing fear.
Harper, the most valuable of all the Phillies, insisted he was fine. Honest.
The slugger quickly took off his jersey and soaked in another bubbly postseason party inside the clubhouse, where his teammates waited for a T-shirt he could wear for the ride home.
On the front, “Atta Boy Harper”.
On the back, “He wasn’t supposed to hear it.” »
First, the Phillies delivered a second straight knockout to the Atlanta Braves in the Division Series. Then they hit them with a punchline on their way out of town.
Nick Castellanos became the first player to hit multiple home runs in consecutive playoff games, leading Philadelphia to a 3-1 victory in Game 4 on Thursday night that propelled Atlanta out of the playoffs for the second year in a row.
“I just think there are so many guys who have been in these situations, not just now, but their whole lives,” Harper said. “We have very good players. I think we just vibe together. We vibe well here. This is very fun.”
Matt Strahm retired pinch hitter Vaughn Grissom with runners on the corners to win the series and send the Phillies rushing onto the field in a wild celebration. Fireworks erupted in a frenzied Citizens Bank Park and the reigning National League champions were expected to sing “Dancing On My Own” and uncork the Broad Street Bubbly.
Harper grabbed his surgically repaired right elbow after a collision with Matt Olson in the eighth. Olson’s left knee clipped Harper’s elbow on a play at first base that ended the inning. Harper, a two-time National League MVP, bent his elbow after a quick examination and finished the game.
Trea Turner singled, doubled and hit a solo homer in the fifth for a 2-1 lead as the Phillies made another run at the franchise’s first World Series title since 2008.
They travel to an all-wildcard NLCS next week and face the Arizona Diamondbacks, making their first trip since 2007. The first game is Monday in Philadelphia.
The Phillies were excited to return home after Atlanta’s Game 2 collapse, with Harper doubling to end a 5-4 loss. In the jubilant Braves clubhouse after the victory, shortstop Orlando Arcia called out “attaboy, Harper,” a joke he later admitted he never intended for the Phillies hear.
Harper hit two homers in Game 3 and stared down Arica each time as he trotted around second base.
After Game 4, the Phillies had some fun, dousing Harper with beer and happily shouting, “Attaboy, Harper!” Attaboy!
“Watching when they celebrated their double against Harper, and seeing everyone jumping and dancing on the field,” Castellanos said, “it was a good feeling to come back and play baseball here.”
The Phillies withstood a few scares by once again eliminating the NL East champion Braves, who had the best record in baseball this season at 104-58. Philadelphia went 90-72, finishing 14 games behind Atlanta for the second straight year.
Before the collision involving Harper, rookie center fielder Johan Rojas made a huge defensive play with the bases loaded to end the seventh, making a deep drive to left center and denying Ronald Acuña Jr. an extra base hit that could have put Atlanta in front.
“It takes time to get over something like this after the year we’ve had, the expectations we have here,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We were beaten by a very good club who have a penchant for this time of year.”
Wearing powder blue jerseys and maroon hats as they do every Thursday at home, the Phillies took the same path as a year ago to reach another NLCS: first a Wild Card Series sweep ; then they won game one in Atlanta and lost game two. Like last season, the Phillies came home and scored six runs in the third inning of a Game 3.
Then a repeat of a barrage of homers that scored a knockout victory over their NL East rival, a year after the Braves won 101 regular-season games to earn themselves an early postseason exit playoffs by Philadelphia.
“The only thing I can say is that I’m learning that the season and the playoffs are completely different,” Castellanos said.
Atlanta will surely find little consolation in not being the only regular-season heavyweight already out of these playoffs. The teams with the five best regular-season records – the Braves, Orioles (101 wins), Dodgers (100), Rays (99) and Brewers (92) – all failed to reach the LCS.
This night belonged to Castellanos, the All-Star right fielder whose production waned in the second half to rally with his son in the No. 1 spot for the postseason.
One night after hitting two home runs in Game 3, Castellanos became the first Phillies slugger, heck, any slugger in baseball history, to hit multiple home runs in consecutive playoff games.
His second finally ended the night for Braves starter and 20-game winner Spencer Strider. Castellanos chased Strider in the sixth with a 415-foot moonshot to left that sent 45,831 fans at Citizens Bank Park into a towel-waving frenzy. Castellanos was bathed in cheers during the pitcher change; he stuck his head out of the dugout and raised his arms as Phillies fans grew louder and louder.
Castellanos continued to wave his arms toward the crowd as he headed to right field in the seventh with the Phillies leading 3-1.
“Anytime you see that many people thanking you for a positive favor, I mean, there’s not really a lot of words that will capture that feeling. But it’s special,” he said.
Manager Rob Thomson again turned to starter Ranger Suárez to keep the Phillies in the game until he was ceded to a parade of hard pitchers in the bullpen. The plan has already worked once this series. Suárez allowed just one hit in 3 2/3 innings in his start in Game 1 before Thomson handed the ball to six relievers in a 3-0 victory. The plan in this one was to move Suárez through the lineup at least twice — and the pitcher often overshadowed by Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola succeeded.
The hard-throwing southpaw buzzed through three hitless innings – hitting 95.3 mph when he caught Sean Murphy looking to end the second – before Austin Riley scored in the fourth for a 1-0 lead for the brave.
The first homer, the early deficit, rarely bothers these Phillies. They wait for their long ball lineup to be effective and – for the second game in a row – it was Castellanos who tied it at 1 on a solo shot. Castellanos placed one inside the left-field foul pole, flipped his bat and pointed at his young son, Liam, as he crossed home plate.
“I think when you hit two home runs every day, you can do whatever you want,” Turner said.
Liam was a stadium fixture for most of the summer and accompanied Castellanos from the clubhouse to the All-Star Game. Liam had been absent from the stadium when school started again, but his father was happy with his presence in the playoffs.
Father, son – and all of Philadelphia – organize at least one more tour.
FOLLOWING
The Phillies have three days off before the NLCS opener.
The Braves have lost 10 of their last 11 playoff games and will reflect on what went wrong after another empty postseason.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
