Rob Thomson’s aggressive bullpen usage, Jean Segura’s big hit lead Phillies to 4-2 victory, 2-1 lead in NLCS

Gather ‘round, Phillies fans, and listen to the story of an infielder who made a costly error one inning and delivered a decisive hit in his next at-bat in a National League Championship Series game.

Wait, what? You’ve heard that one before?

No, this isn’t about the late Kim Batiste, whose goat-to-hero turn in Game 1 of the 1993 NLCS against the Braves earned him a forever entry in Phillies lore. Rather it’s the tale of Jean Segura’s eventful Friday night in Game 3 of this year’s NLCS, a cuticle-chomping 4-2 victory over the San Diego Padres that gave the Phillies a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series with two more games at raucous Citizens Bank Park.

» READ MORE: Phillies-Padres: Follow all the postgame reaction from Game 3

When our ears stop ringing from the clangorous roar of 45,279 fans, we will talk about manager Rob Thomson’s aggressive bullpen usage and Seranthony Domínguez’s six-out save. Mostly, though, we will shake our heads over the maddening and marvelous Segura, who can bumble and stumble but still wind up flexing and shouting like Hulk Hogan.

Segura did both — and in the same inning, no less — in the first NLCS game in Philadelphia since Oct. 23, 2010.

“We’re all going to make mistakes. We’re human,” Segura said. “But don’t make it again. Or after you make it, the way you go about your business, maybe I get an opportunity later to win the game or maybe to do something special. I didn’t let that error affect my next two, three at-bats.”

Indeed, in the top of the fourth inning, with the Phillies leading 1-0, he took his eye off an underhand flip from shortstop Bryson Stott and let the ball clank off his mitt, enabling the tying run to score. It’s a play that he estimated he “probably made 3,000 times in my life.”

But in the bottom of the fourth, after Alec Bohm’s two-out single and Stott’s double on a seven-pitch at-bat against Padres starter Joe Musgrove, Segura reached out and hooked a low-and-away slider over second baseman Jake Cronenworth’s head and into right field for a two-run single that opened a 3-1 lead.

It also turned out to be the difference in the game.

“That’s who he is. He’s a gamer,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “We’re all going to make mistakes out there. That’s a ball that he catches 99 out of 100 times. It’s obviously tough on him and he was disappointed that he didn’t make that play. But he turned around and essentially won the game for us with his bat and his glove.”

The hit was reminiscent of Game 1 of the wild-card series, when the Phillies set their course on this magical October ride. Segura reached out for a similarly located pitch from St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley and punched it into right field to punctuate an improbable six-run ninth-inning comeback.

After that star turn, Bohm labeled Segura a “hit machine” for his ability to put the bat on a ball that Realmuto said is unhittable “usually for everybody but Segura.”

“We were all making a joke in the dugout like, ‘I can’t believe they threw him a chase breaking ball,’” Realmuto said. “Not many people can get a bat on the ball.”

Segura chalked it up to a childhood spent playing vitilla, a variation of stickball that is played primarily in the Dominican Republic. Only broomsticks are used in place of bats, and plastic bottle caps instead of a ball.

“I don’t know if you guys heard about that [game],” Segura said, laughing. “I play a lot of vitilla growing up. I don’t really know how I hit it. Put in play a ball that was almost three or four inches off the plate on the ground.”

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Segura restored the lead after letting it slip. But the bullpen made it hold up after Thomson removed starter Ranger Suárez after five innings and only 68 pitches.

All along, Thomson said he’d manage aggressively in Game 3, even though it was the first of potentially five games in as many days and the Phillies will lean heavily on the bullpen in Game 4 after starter Bailey Falter.

The idea: Ride circle-of-trust relievers Zach Eflin, José Alvarado, and Dominguez to win a game that wasn’t started by co-aces Zack Wheeler or Aaron Nola.

“As we get deeper into the five days, we’re going to have to be careful,” said Thomson, who also knows that, by winning Game 3, the Phillies guaranteed that both Wheeler and Nola will pitch again in Games 5 and a potential 6, respectively. Presumably, the bullpen won’t be needed as much in those games.

So, the Phillies went to Eflin in the sixth inning, Alvarado in the seventh, and Dominguez for the first two-inning save by a Phillies pitcher 42 years to the day since Tug McGraw in Game 6 of the 1980 World Series.

“That’s the difference between this season and seasons past, for me: We have guys we can rely on back there,” Realmuto said. “We’ll get a lead early in the game and we have a lot of confidence.”

Segura helped in that regard, too. He fielded a Josh Bell grounder and started a double play to bail Eflin out of a two-on, one-out jam in the sixth inning. In the seventh, he dived to his left and made a dazzling stop on Ha-Seong Kim’s hard grounder.

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And then he stood and flexed again, just as he did after his big hit.

“I mean, I’m fired up,” Segura said. “I don’t know how to explain that, but it’s like fire inside my body. I just want to get it out, like explosive, like ahhh. If you don’t get emotional with 46,000 people in the stands, you’re playing the wrong sport.”

Said Realmuto: “That was incredible. I almost started flexing.”

A delirious crowd knew the feeling. The Phillies are two wins from reaching the World Series. Go ahead and flex.