Nick Castellanos drove in three runs and made a game-saving catch in the ninth inning, to lift the Philadelphia Phillies ahead of the reigning World Series champion Atlanta Braves 7-6 in the opener of their NL Division Series on Tuesday.
It wasn’t easy as you can see that the scoreline is narrow. Matt Olson hit a three-run homer in the ninth off Zach Eflin to bring the Braves within a run.
The Philadelphia Phillies have won three consecutive games to begin these playoffs, hardly looking like a team making its first postseason appearance since 2011.
They followed up their wild-card sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals with a victory over the team that finished 14 games ahead of them in the NL East.
Alec Bohm added two RBIs for the Phillies, who built a 7-1 lead by the top of the fifth and made it stand up against a Braves lineup that squandered numerous chances to get back in the game.
Travis d’Arnaud homered and drove in the other three Atlanta runs, but the team that won 101 games during the regular season and edged the New York Mets in a thrilling NL East race suddenly finds itself in a best-of-five predicament.
Castellanos had a run-scoring single in the first — the Phillies jumping ahead 2-0 before many fans had settled in their seats — and added a two-run single in the fourth.
Castellanos came in hitting .148 (4 for 27) in seven postseason games. He had nearly as many hits in this one, going 3 for 5. And that sliding catch on William Contreras’ liner might have saved the day for the Phillies.
Max Fried, whose last postseason start produced six shutouts innings in a World Series-clinching victory over the Astros, failed to get through the fourth against the Phillies.
The Braves ace was roughed up for eight hits and six runs — two of them unearned, but that was because of a throwing error by Fried.
