Nick Castellanos’ single lifts Phillies past Braves in 11 innings

The two teams have met 53 times in the last three seasons. If they meet for the 54th time, it will be in the playoffs. Again. For a third consecutive year.

Phillies-Braves, 3rd round?

Yes please.

What baseball fan wouldn’t want to see more? Close, heartbreaking matchups with late-inning drama that will turn your hair gray? Inject it directly into our veins. Sure, a few names on the rosters have changed, but the two best teams in the National League East never disappoint.

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The latest chapter, played Sunday night before a sold-out crowd at Citizens Bank Park and a national television audience, took more than nine innings to decide. It didn’t end until the 11th, when Nick Castellanos — who had tied the game — hit a two-out, two-strike single up the middle to score Kody Clemens from third base and send the Phillies out of the dugout to celebrate a 3-2 victory.

“It was a fun game,” said Castellanos, whose game-winning hits came courtesy of a four-man relay that pitched five scoreless innings, including two by closer Carlos Estévez. “Just a big series. The crowd was electric. And to be able to do that was awesome.”

A big series? It may have killed the Braves’ chances of winning a seventh straight division title. The Phillies extended their lead to seven games, one more than they had when they traveled to Atlanta 12 nights earlier, with 25 games remaining.

So it’s not premature to dig out the magic number calculator. For the record, it’s 19. Any combination of Phillies wins and Braves losses totaling 19 would give the Phillies their first NL East crown since 2011.

“I don’t like to talk about it too much, just because there’s still a lot of games to play,” Castellanos said. “There’s so much opportunity that we still have to solidify where we want to be in October. We had a successful series. There’s no doubt it was important. But there’s still a lot of baseball left before the playoffs.”

Very well. So let’s talk about Castellanos.

Remember when he was one of the least productive hitters in baseball? He didn’t get his first multi-base hit until the 21st game of the season. By Memorial Day, he was hitting .198 with a .573 OPS. Only thanks to the Phillies’ 45-19 start was he spared the fans’ burning wrath.

Since his two-hit game on June 17, Castellanos is batting .298 with 30 extra-base hits and an .851 OPS. He has four game-winning hits and 76 RBIs. And he’s been unusually consistent, too. Known for his roller-coaster ups and downs, he’s hit .276, .275 and .275 and has hit .486, .484 and .471 in June, July and August, respectively.

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“I’m really happy for him,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Because he’s worked really hard to get his swing back and get going again.”

Castellanos has assistant hitting coach Rafael Peña and outfield coach Paco Figueroa helping him. Since mid-May, he has been taking extra swings on the field before batting practice almost every day “so he doesn’t feel like he’s looking for a swing” when the game starts.

There was no better demonstration of his work than Castellanos’ sixth- and 11th-inning at-bats against the Braves. In both innings, he struck out twice. He wasn’t fazed. He stayed back on a slider from starter Spencer Schwellenbach for a game-tying two-run single, then jumped on a fastball from reliever Grant Holmes for the game-tying hit.

“It makes me want to take pitches to get two strikes more often,” Castellanos said, smiling despite a comically deadpan delivery. “I think those two at-bats got me used to it.”

Castellanos pointed out that he was at bat in the ninth inning against Braves closer Raisel Iglesias. He hit three straight sliders — all low and wide, none in the strike zone — and was thrown out. That’s the scouting report that has him out. He has a tendency to chase offspeed pitches.

“I’m excited, obviously. I want to hit,” Castellanos said. “And then he’s not giving me anything, so he’s taking advantage of my aggression. Then (at bat), I wasn’t going to make the same mistake.”

So, against Holmes, he threw a two-strike slider into the dirt. He made another one miss. And when Holmes hit him with a belt-high fastball, well, he jumped.

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Trailing 2-0 in the sixth inning, the Phillies tied it on a two-out shot off Schwellenbach. After Trea Turner singled and Bryce Harper doubled to the opposite field on a curveball, Castellanos split the gap in left-center for a two-run double on a two-strike slider.

From there, the bullpens took over. And they were brilliant.

The Phillies switched from Orion Kerkering to Jeff Hoffman, then Matt Strahm and finally Estévez. Strahm loaded the bases with one out and Houdini managed to get out. Estévez, the slugger, pitched two innings for just the second time this season and threw out the automatic runner twice.

Estévez is new to this Phillies-Braves rivalry, having been acquired from the Angels in a trade at the deadline. But he’s intoxicated by the intensity of these games. After throwing just seven pitches in the 10th inning, he told Thomson he was ready for more.

“We’re not shying away. That’s how we feel,” Estévez said. “It’s really a good thing to have a group of guys like this that can go toe-to-toe with anybody on the other side and compete like that. I really like that.”

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The Phillies (81-56) moved ahead of the Brewers for the second seed in the National League playoffs, earning them a first-round bye. They finished the season series 5-2 at home and finished 6-7 against the Braves.

If they meet again, it will be in the playoffs.

Sign us up.