It must be something about the third inning of NLDS Game 3s in this stadium with these two teams.

For the second straight year, the Phillies got an epic home run in the third inning of a Game 3 that will be played for the rest of time.

For the second straight year, they also hung a six-spot on the unsuspecting Braves. In 2022, it was the Rhys Hoskins bat spike highlighting a six-run outburst. And in 2023, Bryce Harper’s 408-foot blast did the same thing:

Oh, and for the second straight year, Game 3 ended with a 100+ win Braves team one loss away from a completely forgettable season.

You Made It Personal

“It was just gonna be a good game. They done messed around and made it . . . .”

Personal.

Bet you didn’t have Deion Sanders and the University of Colorado football team playing a role in this Phillies’ run on the old playoff bingo card.

If you would have asked me Tuesday about Orlando Arcia’s reported postgame cackling over Bryce Harper’s Game 2 baserunning gaffe, I would have brushed it off. Whatever. This is the playoffs. If you need anymore motivation, you’re probably not wired correctly. All that stuff.

But then I opened Twitter/X/whatever earlier this afternoon, saw Nick Castellanos and Harper both summoning their inner Coach Prime, and I immediately knew it was on:

Nine innings, six Phillies homers, and three-plus hours of hell for the Braves later, the Phillies hold a 2-1 NLDS series lead following a 10-2 rout.

In hindsight, this tweet is about as close as it gets to holding the Sports Almanac from Back to the Future in your hands. Hope all of you spotted this tweet, headed to your preferred sportsbook, and smashed those same-game parlays.

Behold the look at this stare down:

But wait, there’s more!

If the first one down didn’t fully lift the soul from Arcia’s body, Harper, who now has 9 homers in 22 career postseason games with the Phillies, made sure of it following his second homer of the night:

What we have here is just unprecedented player-on-player domination. I don’t want to overexaggerate, but Arcia may have to retire before Game 4.

Forget About It

How do you make an entire city forget about a 4.46 ERA and a disappointing regular season?

Just ask Aaron Nola, who turned in his second outstanding postseason performance in eight days.

This time, he held a powerful Braves lineup in check over 5 and 2/3 innings. He scattered six hits, walked just one, and struck out nine Atlanta hitters.

Perhaps the most impressive part of his outing, however, was how he avoided the big inning that so often plagued him over his 32 regular season starts this year.

Things could have taken a turn in the first inning after a two-out bloop single by Austin Riley and a swinging bunt by Matt Olson, but Nola locked in to get Marcell Ozuna on strikes.

In the third inning with the Braves leading 1-0, he worked out of further damage by again getting Ozuna on strikes:

In two starts this postseason, Nola has a 1.42 ERA and 0.87 WHIP while striking out 12 and walking two.

Now isn’t the time to dissect Nola’s legacy to date, but I will say this –

After struggling late in the postseason a year ago, some may still want to see more before labeling him a big-game pitcher. I say say he’s already there after turning in four memorable postseason efforts over the past two Octobers.

Harper is rightfully the headline story, but Nola more than delivered in a game the Phillies absolutely had to have.

Nick Punches Back, Twice

As we’ve come to learn in his two seasons here, Nick Castellanos is many things. A baseball player, a devoted father, and a thoughtful (and unpredictable) interview subject all come to mind. He’s also prophetic.

As he noted following the Phils’ Game 2 collapse:

“We thrive after we get punched in the face, man.”

And thrive they did. And thrive he did:

His third-inning homer was the Phillies’ first hit of the night against Braves starting pitcher Bryce Elder.

Not only did it quickly erase an early 1-0 deficit, it also sparked a game-changing third inning explosion by the Phillies’ offense.

In the eighth inning, he piled on with his second blast of the night, a solo shot that made in 9-2.

Castellanos is absolutely dialed in right now. He had two hits Monday night and put together good swings in the two outs he made. No more needs to be said about his Game 3 impact. He’s been able to ride these waves at different points throughout the season, and he appears to be on one right now.

Just Give Them a Minute

The Phillies were looking to give the crowd something to feed off of in the early going, but Elder wouldn’t let the Phillies do it. Well, for two innings anyway.

Elder wasn’t overpowering by any stretch, but he was effective against the Phillies through two innings. He retired the first six Phillies hitters he faced, including four strikeouts.

Despite his sinker averaging 89.7 mph, he generated a total 9 of swings-and-misses on the Phillies’ first 15 swings, including five whiffs on seven swings against his slider. That’s a lot of swing-and-miss against a guy who generated just 6.6 K/9 this season.

An inning later, absolutely none of it mattered. I guess the Phillies were just setting him up:

Vibe Check

Destiny had this tweet right when she sent it. I had the crowd noise at about 70 percent of what it was prior to the Game 1 introductions in the Marlins series.

I think the 5:07 start time slowed some people getting into the building, but the place was pretty juiced up by the time Aaron Nola delivered the first pitch. The crowd fully met expectations by the time he struck out Ozuna to end the first.

Things went to another level during the third inning. It stayed there for the remainder of the night.

Quick Observations

  • The Braves led MLB with 146 first inning runs during the regular season (they also led in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage), but Atlanta has yet to make any immediate noise against the Phillies in this series.
  • It was just a matter of time before Ronald Acuna Jr. made his presence felt. After going hitless through two games, Acuna plated the first run of the night following a one-out double in the third inning. Later, he followed with a rocket back through the middle for his second hit. Probably should have saw it coming — he did not go three consecutive games all season without a hit.
  • Again, just a brutal night for Orlando Arcia. He was looking to make a big splash in his first at-bat. Instead, he looked lost after Nola had him out of his cleats with an 0-2 curveball.  Leave the home runs to Harper. He’s now 2-for-11 in the series.
  • I don’t want to sit here and nitpick a huge win, but the Phillies’ missed an opportunity to build on their lead in the fourth (when the game was still competitive) thanks to a Kyle Schwarber strikeout. A double and some aggressive baserunning by Brandon Marsh set up a scoring opportunity, but Braves reliever Brad Hand struck out Schwarber. The Phils’ designated hitter (4-for-20, 2 2B, RBI) has been pretty quiet this postseason, and at some point, perhaps Thursday night, the Phillies need him to make an impact.
  • While the Braves failed to make things close late in this one, there was one hold-your-breath moment in the fifth inning — at least for me. I pride myself on being a good judge of fly balls, but I leaned over to my guy Anthony SanFilippo on Austin Riley’s fifth inning flyout and said, “That’s gone.” Nope. Just a long 349-foot flyout that, for the record, would not have been out of any big league park. That’s on me. Gotta do a better job.
  • Matt Strahm took over for Nola with two outs in the 6th inning while holding a six-run lead. He promptly walked light-hitting Kevin Pillar before yielding an RBI single to Arcia. The hits happen, but walking hitters with a six-run lead isn’t recommended.