Stars aligning for red-hot Phils after stealing Game 1

ATLANTA -- The Phillies played Garrett Stubbs’ “Phils Win” playlist after Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Truist Park, just like they always do when they win.

The song “Cold Heart” filled the clubhouse as players shuffled about. A couple players sat in front of their lockers and quietly sang along. José Alvarado stood in front of his locker with an ice pack on his left shoulder. He smiled as he discussed the bullpen picking up 17 outs. Zach Eflin chuckled as he recalled the hug that he gave Nick Castellanos for making a spectacular momentum-turning catch in right field in the ninth.

The Phillies beat the Braves, 7-6, on Tuesday afternoon, putting them in a good spot in this best-of-five series.

• Postseason ticket information

“We’re super confident,” Bryce Harper said. “But that's a great team over there.”

The winner of Game 1 in a best-of-five series has gone on to win the series 102 of 144 times (71%). The Phillies do not know those numbers and they do not care about those numbers. They only care that Zack Wheeler will pitch Game 2 on Wednesday and Aaron Nola will pitch Game 3 on Friday.

They like their odds with those two on the mound.

“No matter the situation, no matter the game, we’re as confident as it gets when Wheeler takes the mound,” Rhys Hoskins said. “We have a chance to win every single time he does. Yeah, to be able to punch first [in this series] is huge, but by no means do we think that this series is over. We know the caliber of team over there and the way they can string together some wins. So we’ll take Wheeler’s stuff tomorrow. We feel good about that, but we know we have work to do.”

• Phils ride momentum to win over rested Braves

If any team can beat the odds, it is the Braves. They won 101 games in the regular season and they are the defending World Series champions. But it is difficult not to think that the Phillies have something special brewing.

It started with a dominant performance from Wheeler and an epic ninth-inning comeback in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Friday night in St. Louis. It continued with a gem from Nola and a mammoth homer from Harper in Game 2 on Saturday afternoon. It was the feeling fans got when they watched the players sing Calum Scott’s “Dancing on My Own” (Tiësto Remix) in a champagne-soaked visitors’ clubhouse after ending St. Louis’ season.

• Castellanos does it all in Game 1

What happened Tuesday in Atlanta only strengthened those feelings.

The Phils strung together four consecutive two-out singles in the first inning against Braves left-hander Max Fried to take a 2-0 lead. Fried’s throwing error and Harper’s first sacrifice bunt in 381 days led to two more runs in the third inning to make it a 4-1 game. Castellanos’ two-out single to left field in the fourth -- his third hit in four innings -- scored two runs to extend the lead to 6-1. Jean Segura’s double, Matt Vierling’s sacrifice bunt and Edmundo Sosa’s sacrifice fly in the fifth made it 7-1.

“This is a very unselfish club, and that’s the way they’re playing,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “We get ahead and they’re adding on runs. Vierling, big bunt to move a runner over. Our situational hitting was really good today. Our baserunning was really good -- taking extra bases and sac flies. And I just thought we played a really good game overall defensively.”

The Phils finished 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position after tallying only two hits with a runner in scoring position in the Wild Card Series. Five of their seven runs in the NLDS opener scored with two outs. That came after a series against St. Louis in which Philadelphia didn’t register a two-out hit, going 0-for-16 in those situations.

The Phillies needed to play good defense, too, because the pitching got shaky at times. Ranger Suárez loaded the bases in the first, but Sosa turned an inning-ending double play. Vierling ran down a fly ball with runners on first and second and only one out in the fifth behind Brad Hand.

Then came the ninth.

Philadelphia carried a 7-3 lead into the ninth before Eflin allowed a three-run home run to Matt Olson to cut the lead to one.

Atlanta had the momentum. William Contreras then stroked an 0-2 cutter down and away to right field.

Castellanos pursued. The line drive started to sink.

“Come on, come on, stay up!” Hoskins shouted from first base.

Castellanos slid to catch it.

“Honestly, I thought it hit the ground,” Hoskins said. “That’s how close it was.”

But Castellanos caught it. He laid on his back for a moment and stared into the sky.

“Just looking, like, 'Thank God I caught that ball,'” Castellanos said.

“Nice catch, dude,” Eflin said afterward as he hugged him.

Eflin got Travis d’Arnaud to ground out to Sosa to end the game. The game was closer than it needed to be, but if you have watched the Phillies the past few years, then you know these are the games they used to lose.

They held on Tuesday. They also earned it.

“They were up [five], and they still bunted the guy over and got a sac fly for that [seventh] run,” d’Arnaud said. “It's pretty cool to see. And every run counts, especially now. It would have been a tie game if they didn't do that, so they're putting good at-bats together. Tip the cap to them.”