Marsh Madness in Philly
PHILADELPHIA — Brandon Marsh hit a three-run homer and J.T. Realmuto lined an insidethe-park home run that sent the Philadelphia Phillies bolting headfirst into the NL Championship Series for the first time since 2010 with an 8-3 win over the Atlanta Braves in Game 4 Saturday.
Realmuto became the first catcher to hit an inside-the-parker in postseason history and Bryce Harper punctuated the romp with a clinching home run that helped the Phillies take the NL Division Series 3-1 against the World Series champion Braves.
“We had ups and downs during the season, just like any other club does. But they knew that they were going to come out of it at some point and start winning again,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “And we did.”
The Phillies will face either San Diego or the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. The Padres held a 2-1 lead over the Dodgers going into Game 4 of the NLDS matchup Saturday night.
Atlanta's loss meant Major League Baseball hasn't had a repeat champ since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000.
“Like I told them, the goal when we leave spring training is to win the division. Until you win the division, you don't have a chance to do anything special because you never know what's going to happen, you don't know what team's going to get hot, what things have to go right for you to go deep into the postseason,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
“And we got in. It didn't happen for us this year,” he said.
Philadelphia finished third in the NL East, 14 games behind the 101-win Braves this season, but now is hitting on all cylinders under Thomson. He took over for the fired Joe Girardi and transformed a team that was 22-29.
“We just got off to a little bit of a slow start and kind of spiraled. And May was a really tough month. It was a really tough schedule,” Thomson said.
“Then once we hit June, the schedule kind of lightened up a little bit and we started winning, and guys started getting confidence and believing that they could win and believing that, OK, now this is the team that we thought we were. And just kept going,” he said.
And the Phillies used a dose of Marsh Madness to keep the party rolling in October.
Heck, call it Mash Madness, as the Phillies turned Citizens Bank Park into a cozy home bandbox for the second straight game and with another fired-up, towel-waving crowd along for every long ball.
After Rhys Hoskins spiked his bat on a threerun shot in a Game 3 win, it was Marsh's turn in the second inning to hammer his own three-run homer in Game 4.
Braves starter Charlie Morton was hit on his pitching elbow by Alec Bohm's single traveling 71.9 mph to lead off the inning. After being checked, Morton allowed a single to Jean Segura and hung a 2-2 curveball that the No. 9 hitter Marsh launched deep into the right field seats for a 3-0 lead.
The 24-year-old Marsh is known as much for his stringy hair and ZZ Topesque beard as he is for being one of the top young players on the Phillies. Marsh, who also doubled in the fourth, was acquired from the Los Angeles Angels in August just ahead of this season's trade deadline. Phillies President Dave Dombrowski swung another deadline deal with the Angels that got them Game 4 starter Noah Syndergaard, also known for his long locks.
Hey, it will be easy for the Phillies to let their hair down and party.