Rob Thomson didn’t pack a bag for Atlanta before heading to work Thursday morning.
And now he won’t need it anymore.
Nearly a month after the Braves celebrated their last division title at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies sent a shell-shocked Atlanta team home early for the second straight season.
The Phils finished the Braves’ year in the NLDS, just like they did in 2022. Two years in a row, the Braves finished 14 games better than the Phillies. Two years in a row it proved meaningless.
The NL East was never winnable this season. The Braves took the division lead on April 1 and held it for six months. But the Phillies believe they are built for the sprint of postseason baseball and continue to prove it. They defeated the Braves 3-1 on Thursday night and head straight back to the NLCS, where they will have home field advantage against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Phillies knew they had the talent to get to this point again, but a lot can go wrong over the course of eight months of baseball work from spring training to the end of the postseason. And a lot went wrong. Rhys Hoskins tore his cruciate ligament during camp. Top pitching prospect Andrew Painter, who was expected to fill out the Phillies’ rotation, injured his elbow and ultimately required Tommy John surgery. Bryce Harper missed the first month recovering from his own Tommy John surgery. Ranger Suarez didn’t make his debut until mid-May due to elbow problems. Jose Alvarado missed two months due to various bouts of elbow inflammation. Aaron Nola has not reached his level.
But this team has so many parts. Veterans in their prime like Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, JT Realmuto, Zack Wheeler and Nola. Hungry, young, aspiring kids like Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh, Johan Rojas, Alec Bohm, Cristopher Sanchez and Orion Kerkering. Reclamation projects like Jeff Hoffman and Cristian Pache.
It was no coincidence that we reached this stage again.
“When we started spring training, I talked about the expectations that the world has for this club,” Thomson said Thursday afternoon. “And to me that’s just noise. I said you just need to understand what my expectations are. And that means respecting the game, preparing, competing, being selfless and being yourself. If we fulfill these five things, we will win because we simply have the talent.
“And that’s why I think these guys are really themselves. The guys we brought, the Marshes, the (Edmundo) Sosas, all those guys have this great energy around them. They are very selfless, there is no complaining, there is no such thing.” They complain. They only care about the team.”
The Phillies crashed the postseason party a year ago, reaching Game 6 of the World Series on a surge of confidence, timely hitting and often underwhelming pitching. More was expected of them in 2023, but beating the Braves this way was still a surprise.
The Braves had one of the best offenses in baseball history, setting the major league record with a .501 slugging percentage and tying the record with 307 home runs.
The Phillies held them to three home runs in four games.
The Braves scored 146 runs in the first inning, 60 more than the league average, and posted a 78-25 first score.
They didn’t score at all in the first inning of the NLDS.
The Phillies didn’t play a complete inning from behind in the entire series. They didn’t completely dominate the Braves, but they controlled the NLDS from start to finish.
“I wouldn’t say it’s cocky, I think they’re very confident,” Thomson said. “They are very confident individually and they are confident that they will play as a team. There’s a certain closeness there, and it shows.”
Castellanos scored twice in Game 4, just as he did in Game 3. He doesn’t appear to be living on planet Earth right now.
The difficulty level was significantly higher Thursday night against Spencer Strider, the world’s MLB strikeout leader. The Phillies homered three times against Strider – two against Castellanos, one against Turner – and beat him twice in the Series.
Suarez, Mr. No Hearbeat, had another strong playoff performance, allowing one run over five innings. He pitched 8⅔ innings in the series, giving up one run and putting five men on base. He has allowed four earned runs in his last seven starts and 33 innings against the Braves.
Suarez has started five playoff games as a Phillie. They won all five. He also closed out the 2022 NLCS at home against the Padres.
The Braves had two late chances at a comeback. In the seventh inning, Alvarado walked two with two outs and Craig Kimbrel loaded the bases with a free pass to the first batter he faced. With likely 2023 MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. and the go-ahead man at first base, Kimbrel gave up a loud line drive to left-center field. Rojas, a Gold Glover-to-be, instinctively followed it and jumped on the warning track to make a game-saving, series-saving and potentially season-saving catch.
After using Seranthony Dominguez, Alvarado and Kimbrel in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, Thomson tried to get right-handed Gregory Soto through the ninth inning, but he put runners on the corners with no one out and was caught by Matt Strahm replaced.
Three harmless outs later, the Phils were dancing on their own again.
Partying in the home clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park never gets old for this group, but the Phillies know there is still a lot of work ahead of them. Simply returning to the NLCS or the World Series will not be enough.
And should they return to the World Series, it could very well be a rematch with the Houston Astros, one of the last two teams left in the American League. Only this time the Phillies had home field advantage, as both teams finished with identical 90-72 records and the Phillies won the head-to-head series 2-1.
“It’s funny how it works,” Thomson said. “It’s almost eerie how similar the entire year to last year is to this year. It’s just scary. I hope it will be a little better than last year.”
The NLCS begins Monday at 8:07 p.m. at Citizens Bank Park. If you beat the Braves in four games instead of five, the Phillies’ star Wheeler will be on the mound in Game 1.