ATLANTA -- It's too early to say the Phillies are sitting pretty in their best-of-five National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, but, man, was this ever a good way to start things off.
With Nick Castellanos providing big hits early in the game, the Phillies built a six-run lead and held on for a 7-6 win over the Braves in Game 1 Tuesday afternoon at Truist Park.
The Phils took a 7-3 lead into the ninth inning but Zach Eflin was tagged for three hits, including a three-run homer by Matt Olson with one out, to make it a one-run game.
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Eflin retired the final two batters to secure the win. He received a huge assist from Castellanos, who made a sliding catch in right field on a sinking liner by William Contreras for the second out.
The Phillies are up a game on the defending World Series champions with their two best starters, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, set to start Games 2 and 3.
The Phillies are so far unbeaten in their first trip to the postseason since 2011. They swept away the St. Louis Cardinals on the road in the wild-card series to earn a meeting with a team they know well, the NL East champion Braves, winners of 101 games during the regular season.
MLB
The Braves won 11 of 19 meetings against the Phillies during the regular season, including five of seven in September.
The Phils were victims of a three-game sweep in their last visit to Atlanta, September 16-18, but this one got off to an excellent start as their offense came alive for four straight two-out singles and a 2-0 lead against Atlanta lefty Max Fried in the first inning.
The offense kept humming with two more runs in the third inning, two more in the fourth and one in the fifth as the Phillies built a 7-1 lead to quiet the sellout crowd of 42,641.
Reliever Connor Brogdon was tagged for a couple of runs in the bottom of the fifth but Brad Hand, Seranthony Dominguez and Jose Alvarado combined to get 11 of the final 14 outs without giving up a run.
Dominguez was lights-out, going through the top six hitters in the Braves' lineup on 18 pitches in the sixth and seventh innings. Alvarado needed just 11 pitches to get through the eighth. Eflin was very shaky in the ninth. Castellanos' catch was huge. So was his bat.
The Phillies had just nine hits in St. Louis. They reached that total by the fourth inning Tuesday.
Castellanos returned to the scene of one of his best games of the season and had three hits and three RBIs in the first four innings. Back on August 3, he belted a two-run homer in the eighth to lift the Phils to one of their best wins of the season, a 3-1 triumph over the Braves the day after the trade deadline.
Neither starter lasted long as both teams went deep into their bullpen.
Phillies lefty Ranger Suarez allowed five walks and three hits over 3⅓ innings but managed to hold the Braves to just a run over that span.
Suarez limited the damage by making clutch pitches in pressure situations. He loaded the bases on a double and two walks in the first inning but got out of it by getting Contreras to bounce into a double play on a full-count curveball. Contreras had previously been 6 for 14 with two homers in his career against Suarez.
Suarez gave up a solo homer to Travis d'Arnaud in the second inning as the Braves cut the Phillies' lead to 2-1. The Phillies put two more runs on the board in the top of the third, but the Braves had a big chance to turn the game around in the bottom of the inning as they loaded the bases on Suarez with a single and two walks with d'Arnaud due up. Facing the guy who'd taken him deep an inning earlier, Suarez struck out d'Arnaud on a high, 2-2 fastball to end the inning. The Phillies' pitcher pumped his fist in triumph as he walked off the mound.
Atlanta's Fried allowed just three runs in 11 innings in two starts against the Phillies in September. He struggled in this one. He gave up eight hits and six runs in 3⅓ innings. Two of the runs were unearned after Fried committed a throwing error in the third inning.
Game 2 will be played Wednesday afternoon at 4:37 p.m. in Atlanta. Wheeler will take the mound for the Phillies in his hometown. Right-hander Kyle Wright, a 21-game winner for the Braves during the regular season, will pitch for the Braves.
Wheeler was 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA in three starts against the Braves during the regular season.
Wright was 2-1 with a 2.83 ERA in three starts against the Phillies.
Nola will start Game 3 in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon. First pitch will be 4:37 p.m.
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