The Phillies had scored 19 runs the night before. They had battered Atlanta pitching into rubble. They had reminded the Braves — and maybe the rest of baseball — what happens when this offense decides to turn on the lights.
And then, less than 24 hours later, they looked like a different team entirely. One run through seven innings. A lineup that couldn’t solve Bryce Elder, a pitcher they’d demolished back in June. A night begging to become a Braves win.
Instead, it became one of those wins that makes you wonder how this Phillies team keeps doing it.
Kyle Schwarber, the same guy who had hit four home runs just the night before, found himself in the middle of it again. A walk against lefty Dylan Lee. Bryce Harper followed with a single up the middle. Suddenly, first and third with one out.
That set up the moment: Alec Bohm, facing righty Pierce Johnson, lofted a ball to the warning track in right. Deep enough. Schwarber trotted home. The Phillies led, 2-1.
Max Kepler had a chance to blow the game open with the bases loaded later in the inning. Instead, he popped out. But the one run was enough.
Ranger Suárez was hardly crisp. Ten hits scattered over five innings, a constant battle with traffic on the bases. But this was the Ranger blueprint — three double-play balls, one bases-loaded escape, and a defense that bailed him out at the right times.
Nick Castellanos even turned the highlight of the night: a throw from right field to cut down Matt Olson at the plate in the fifth, ending Atlanta’s last real threat.
From there, the bullpen turned the lights out. David Robertson, Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering, and Jhoan Duran combined for four innings of shutout, three-baserunner baseball. Duran slammed the door in the ninth for his eighth save with the Phillies.
But when the ninth rolled around, Castellanos wasn’t out there to finish what he’d started. Rob Thomson made the move, shifting Max Kepler to right, Brandon Marsh to left, and inserting Harrison Bader in center.
And here’s why that mattered: it was the first time since June 16 that Castellanos had been lifted late for defense. That night, he didn’t take the move well, making a pointed remark about his manager’s decision, then finding himself benched the very next day. Since then, Thomson had left him in every ninth inning. Until this one.
In the end, it was just a defensive switch. But in late August, with the division on the line, nothing feels quite that small.
Elder was the story on the other side. After getting tagged for nine earned runs by these same Phillies in June, he flipped the script. Seven innings, three hits, one run. His only blemish? A Brandon Marsh RBI single in the fourth.
It should’ve been enough. But it wasn’t.
So, the Phillies didn’t slug seven homers. They didn’t pile on 19 runs. But they won a game that looked like Atlanta’s all night long.
That’s the kind of win good teams stack in late August. The kind of win that keeps their division lead intact.
And that’s the kind of win you remember when the season gets late, and the standings get tight.
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