Phillies close out Braves and will play Padres in their first NLCS since 2010

The Phillies’ Brandon Marsh stepped up to the plate in the second inning with runners on first and third and one out Saturday in Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Braves. He was hitless in the series but found other ways to contribute.

A day earlier, in Game 3, he took a four-pitch walk from Braves starter Spencer Strider to start a game-winning six-run rally. On Saturday, he took six pitches from Charlie Morton and launched an 83.4 mph curveball into the right-center-field seats. That gave the Phillies a 3-0 lead and got them started on their way to an 8-3 victory over the Braves to advance to their first National League Championship Series since 2010.

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Game 1 is Tuesday against the San Diego Padres, who ousted the 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night with a 5-3 victory in Game 4.

The ballpark erupted the second Marsh made contact. His teammates, lined up along the top step of the dugout, began slapping the railing with their hands in celebration. He jogged down the dugout steps to join his teammates, but Bryson Stott pushed him back up. Marsh took off his helmet and raised it over his head to give the fans a salute.

Marsh’s contribution was welcome but not expected. He hadn’t gotten any at-bats in Game 1, got one at-bat in Game 2 (and struck out), and went hitless in Game 3. But if we’ve learned anything from the 2022 Phillies, it’s that meaningful contributions can come from the unlikeliest of places.

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“You can go on and on about each guy,” Bryce Harper said of Marsh, “but we’re all a team. We’re all a group. We all know that if one guy doesn’t get it done, the next guy will. Just like this guy today. Who would have thought it, right, at the All-Star break that we get Brandon Marsh and he comes over here and hits a three-run shot. It’s incredible. It’s incredible.”

Saturday’s win put that premise to the test and proved it correct. Getting 27 outs was not going to be easy without the ability to start Aaron Nola or Zack Wheeler, the Phillies’ most reliable starting pitchers, but Noah Syndergaard stepped up. In his first postseason appearance since 2016, he gave the Phillies three innings, allowing one hit — a solo home run to Orlando Arcia — and no walks with three strikeouts.

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Marsh went 2-for-4 with three RBIs. J.T. Realmuto hit what would be a double or a triple for a slower runner and turned it into an inside-the-park home run in the third inning. Reliever Andrew Bellatti came in after Syndergaard in the fourth inning, gave up another solo home run, and struck out Travis d’Arnaud and Austin Riley to stop the damage. Brad Hand and Zach Eflin collectively gave the Phillies 2⅓ scoreless innings, and Jose Alvarado, like Syndergaard, allowed just one hit — a home run — in his 1 2/3 innings. Seranthony Dominguez struck out the side in the ninth to end the game.

The Phillies got contributions from their heavy hitters — Rhys Hoskins, Harper, and Realmuto, who all had RBI singles, and a solo home run from Harper in the eighth inning — but the underbelly of this win was their unsung heroes.

“I think we’re as dangerous as we all thought we’d be at the start of this,” Hoskins said. “You can see the lineup ... it’s a new guy. It’s J.T. and Marsh today. Schwarber gets us in. Bryson is doing his thing. That’s what we envisioned. The pitching — we knew it was going to be a lot of guys today. That was just the reality of where we were. But for everybody to answer the bell when their name was called ... it’s outstanding.”

At the end of every series, the Phillies ask who their MVP is. It’s become a difficult question to answer, because there are so many players who contribute. Guys like Bellatti, Alvarado, and Marsh have carried this team all season. They carried them when Harper was hit by a Blake Snell fastball resulting in a fractured left thumb on June 25 and when Jean Segura was placed on the injured list on June 1 with a right index finger fracture. They carried them through extended stints on the injured list for Wheeler and Eflin. And in Game 4, they carried them yet again.

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A few minutes before the players took the field, an a cappella group from Penn prepared to sing the national anthem. Their microphones weren’t working, so the crowd — 45,660 fans, a full house — sang along with them until the very end. Much like this Phillies season, making it through that song wasn’t easy. But thanks to the 45,660 unsung heroes who sang along, they made it through. And with support like that, who knows where this journey will end.