Defense? Situational hitting? The Phillies’ best self has arrived at the right time

ATLANTA — They haven’t gotten hot yet.

That’s the most tantalizing aspect of where the Phillies suddenly find themselves. They are two wins away from the National League Championship Series. They have their two aces on the mound in the next two games. One of those games will be played in front of a home crowd that has spent the last 11 years yearning for a chance to relive October. If they need a second game at home, they’ll have that, too. And they haven’t gotten hot.

That’s different from saying that the Phillies haven’t played good baseball. They have. Very good baseball. It is why they earned themselves a spot in this best-of-five National League Division Series. It’s why they hold a 1-0 lead after a 7-6 victory over the Braves on Tuesday afternoon.

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Thing is, they weren’t supposed to play good baseball. At least, that’s what everybody figured. The defense, the bullpen, the situational hitting — those were the reasons to doubt that this team could win five games in 10 days in a postseason environment like the one that Major League Baseball had created for its wild-card teams. They were the reasons to wonder whether the Phillies’ first trip to the playoffs in more than a decade would look a lot like the last time they broke such a drought. Would you even get a chance to mention the words World Series? Would they even get a chance to play in front of the home crowd? Can a team really live on dingers and aces alone?

Turns out, that last one wasn’t a yes or no question. Three wins in, the Phillies have found a new daily bread. The little things have been much greater than inconsequential. They have been the very foundation that this team is standing upon.

“Our situational hitting was really good today,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Our baserunning was really good, taking extra bases and sac flies. And I just thought we played a really good game overall defensively, running the bases, and our offense was really, really good.”

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Of course, they are not little things at all. It was a very big thing when Nick Castellanos robbed Wilson Contreras of a base hit in the ninth inning and turned the potential tying run into the pivotal second out. It was a very big thing when Matt Vierling chased down a Michael Harris line drive in the gap on a dead sprint in the fifth inning with runners on first and second. Those back-to-back-to-back-to-back singles they used to score two runs with two out in the first inning? Each of the four was a very big thing.

“It just seems like it’s a whatever-it-takes kind of thing,” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said.

The two biggest things will be on the mound against the Braves in Games 2 and 3, same as they were against the Cardinals in Games 1 and 2. Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler were always the biggest reasons to believe that the Phillies could stick around these National League playoffs for awhile. The duo combined to pitch 13 of the 18 innings in the wild-card round, all of them scoreless. Their presence was the reason that the edge in the series was no better than a coin flip for a division champion Cardinals team that was playing at home. This time around, the formula was different. Before the two aces, the Phillies needed to steal a game.

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That’s what they did in Game 1 at Truist Park on Tuesday afternoon. They stole it the same way they stole the ninth inning of Game 1 in St. Louis. They stared down a pitcher who has been nothing short of dominant this season and they took what he gave them.

Once upon a team, the Phillies envisioned themselves slugging their way to contention. But of the 15 runs they’ve scored this postseason, only one has been driven in by way of an extra-base hit. Against the Braves on Tuesday, they hit four RBI singles plus two sacrifice flies. The total so far this postseason: eight runs on six singles and the rest on three sacrifice flies, two fielder’s choices, a walk, and a hit by pitch. Naturally.

“Sometimes power-hitting teams can get in trouble when they’re looking to hit the long ball if the game is not giving them the opportunity to hit the long ball,” Castellanos said. “And I think that first inning, like in the ninth inning in St. Louis, it’s just a really good job of taking what the game gives you. Sometimes the game gives you a walk. Sometimes the game gives you a pitch where you can just get it through the infield.”

The tantalizing part is when you think back to the one exception among those 15 runs: a 435-footer that Bryce Harper clubbed in the second inning of Game 2 against the Cardinals. In the regular season, the Phillies averaged a home run every 30 plate appearances. In 109 postseason plate appearances, they have hit one.

Kyle Schwarber is 0-for-14. Hoskins is 1-for-14. J.T. Realmuto is 2-for-11.

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The tide can turn fast. Maybe you are seeing it with Harper, who went 3-for-3 with a walk and a double on Tuesday. After a brutal September, he is suddenly 5-for-his-last-7 with a couple of walks. Same goes for Castellanos: 0-for-7 in two games against the Cardinals, 3-for-5 with three RBIs in Game 1 against the Braves.

Championships aren’t necessarily won by hot teams. Often, they are won by hot players who stagger their hotness over the course of a month. The Phillies assembled a team that is more than capable of putting together that kind of stretch. Turns out, they might also be a team that rises to the occasion. It’s why they won Game 1. And it’s why we’d all be wise to suspend further doubt.