Phillies defeat Braves, advance to NLCS behind Castellanos, Turner homers, strong pitching

PHILADELPHIA — Home-run balls off the bats of Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner road the roar into the left-field seats and continued the Phillies on their path through baseball paradise Thursday night.

Turner's fifth-inning solo shot sandwiched Castellenos' fourth- and sixth-inning blasts, igniting the noisy sellout throng of 45,831 and pushing the Phillies past the Atlanta Braves 3-1 at Citizens Bank Park.

Starter Ranger Suarez pitched a strong five innings before six relievers came on to finish the job though the go-ahead run came to bat in the ninth. Matt Strahm came on to get the final three outs and ignite the celebration.

The Phillies thus won their best-of-5 National League Division Series three games to one for the second year in a row over their NL East Division-winning rivals.

"I just think we have a really good team," Turner said. "We got a lot of good players, a lot of good people. And we take pride in everything we do."

They'll host the Arizona Diamondbacks in the best-of-7 National League Championship Series on Monday back here in what will certainly be another deafening din.

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Whether or not they'll have Bryce Harper brought late-game concern as he hurt his arm making a putout at first base to end the eighth inning. He did return to the infield in the top of the ninth, took part in all the postgame revelry and said it was only a brief twinge to his funny bone.

"He went downstairs with our training staff and they came up and said he's fine," Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after the game. "We'll see how he feels tomorrow, but I don't think there's any concern about structural damage or anything like that."

The Phillies and the massive crowd were homer-happy again Thursday.

Turner launched a one-out solo home run in the fifth inning to inch the Phillies ahead and Castellanos' second clout of the night in the sixth has made it 3-1. Braves starter Spencer Strider's night ended after Castellanos' second smack, which made him the first player in MLB postseason history to have back-to-back multi-homer games.

"Anytime that you feel it may be swinging in the other direction, we do a very good job of locking it in to get the momentum back in our favor," Castellanos said. "That's important to our team."

The homer by Turner was his third hit of the night and he later singled for a fourth.

The Phillies tied an NLDS record with six home runs in Wednesday's 10-2 win.

Atlanta's first hit of the game in the fourth gave the Braves the lead. Castellanos made sure it didn't last. Castellanos crushed Strider's first pitch into the left-field seats with one out in the fourth inning, eliciting a deafening din as the Phillies evened the score 1-1.

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Austin Riley, whose homer was decisive in Monday's Game 2, had lined an 0-2 pitch from Suarez into the left-field seats with one out in the fourth inning. Matt Olson followed with a single but Marcell Ozuna grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Ranger Suarez is sharp in start

Suarez retired the first eight Braves hitters before Turner's throwing error allowed Michael Harris II to reach second on an infield grounder. Suarez then threw out lead-off man Ronald Acuna Jr. on a ball hit back to him to end the top of the third.

He ended up pitching five innings, allowing three hits, the one run on Riley's blast, and struck out two.

Seranthony Dominguez came on to get two outs in the sixth before allowing Riley's single. Lefty Jose Alvarado was summoned to face slugger Olson and he flied out to center to end the inning.

"There was really no plan for Ranger," Thomson said. "We were just going to go watch what was happening and see where we were at in the lineup. And once we got to the third time through at the top of the lineup — and he pitched great, and he had tons of pitches left — but we just decided to go to Seranthony and go from there."

Alvarado pitched until issuing two walks in the seventh and giving way to Craig Kimbrel. He walked pinch-hitter Travis D'Darnaud to load the bases before Johan Rojas ran deep to center-field to snare Acuna's drive and preserve the Phillies lead.

Kimbrel then retired the two batters he faced in the eighth before Gregory Soto came on to face Olson, who grounded out to second. Harper got nicked as Olson crossed the back and as the crowd shuddered with fear. He did return to the infield in the top of the ninth, however.

Strahm came on after a walk and single off Soto put runners on first and third with no outs but retired all three batters he faced, the last on a called third strike.

Missed chances for Phils

Opportunity kept coming and going for the Phillies in the first three innings. They put six runners on base and stranded them all.

Turner's one-out double and a subsequent intentional walk to Harper after the count was 3-0 had the crowd squirming with anticipation in the first. They chanted "Strider! Strider!" trying to fluster Braves starter Spencer Strider.

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But Alec Bohm was called out on a called third strike after he checked his swing and Bryson Stott flied out to center.

The Phillies put runners on first and second again with one out in the second when Castellanos walked and went to second on Brandon Marsh's single.

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But Braves center-fielder Harris, whose leaping catch against the fence led to a double play that ended Atlanta's win Monday, did it again. This time he made a difficult sliding catch of Rojas's sinking liner and threw to second to double off Castellanos, who was already at third.

Turner singled with one out in the third inning and sped to third on Harper's single. But they went no farther as Bohm popped out to shallow right and Stott struck out on a 3-2 pitch.

"He's got great stuff," Turner said of Strider. "We all know it. I feel like in the past, my bats off him, I missed them, fouled them off, whatever it is. And I think that's a tip of the cap to him because he's got good stuff.

"But tonight it was just more don't miss those pitches, and I got those pitches to hit, and I didn't miss them."

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Philadelphia Phillies aim to win NLDS vs. Atlanta Braves, reach NLCS