Thanks to Orlando Arcia, nobody is paying attention to the most important aspects of the Phillies 3-2 win in Atlanta on Wednesday.

As soon as Arcia reached first base during his home run trot and decided to stare down Bryce Harper in some sort of faux retribution for Harper shooting lasers through him not once but twice in Game 3 of last year’s NLDS following his “Atta Boy, Harper” comment after Game 2, it was immediately apparent that this was going to be all Philadelphia sports fans talked about for the next 24 hours.

It prompted questions during postgame interviews. It was a hot button issue on talk radio. Heck, even Kinker got out from behind his drum set to write a post about it minutes after it happened.

It was a no brainer.

Lost in the hysteria of adding another chapter to this baseball rivalry, though, was something manager Rob Thomson told reporters after the game.


“That’s how you win a playoff game,” he said.

O.K., so it wasn’t a playoff game. But Thomson managed it like it was one. The Phillies played like it was one. And as a result, they got a much-needed victory to keep the Braves a little more than an arm’s length away in the N.L. East race with 36 games to play.

And you can see that when the Phillies are in that mode of doing whatever it takes to win, even if they are not at their best, they do know how to find a way.

Consider:

  • The offense, often panned for being terrible situationally and relying too heavily on the long ball to succeed, drove in all three runs with situational approaches at the plate – a ground out and two sacrifice fly balls.
  • The key hits to set up those runs were doubles from the bottom of the lineup – first Johan Rojas and then, the biggest hit of the game by Weston Wilson (more on him later).
  • Aaron Nola wasn’t sharp, but he was able to pitch his way through it. The aforementioned homer by Arcia was his lone mistake that he paid for. The others, he wriggled through. And although he didn’t go as long as he would like in a game because of his control being a little bit off, He gave the Phillies 5 1/3 good innings.
  • The bullpen, much-maligned for leaking oil since the All-Star break, did the rest, and pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings. Four guys were needed for those eight outs and it got a little dicey in the ninth inning, but they ultimately did what they were paid to do.

This is how the Phillies may have to win a game or few in the playoffs. Wednesday night was evidence that they have it in them.

In the playoffs, each half inning is magnified, each managerial decision is thrust under the microscope. And in each instance of consequence on Wednesday, the Phillies passed that test with flying colors.

Here were the most highlightable half innings:

Top of the 6th

The Phillies offense had been completely moribund for quite some time to this point.

With the bottom two hitters in the lineup due up to lead things off, it seemed like a sure bet to continue with the Phillies trailing 2-0. However, it took all of eight pitches to start to turn things around.

Edmundo Sosa started it with a full count single to left. Rojas followed with a double off the wall in left, putting two runners in scoring position with nobody out.

Kyle Schwarber, knowing he had to put the ball in play past the pitcher, hit a hard ground ball back through the box. Arcia was shading him up the middle and threw him out at first, but it was a productive out and trimmed the lead to 2-1.

Trea Turner followed, knowing a fly ball to the outfield would surely score the speedy Rojas from third. And he did just that, allowing the Phillies to tie the game on another productive out.

How many times have you seen the Phillies in the past 30 games or so be in similar situations and strike out or pop up or not be able to advance runners with an out? It’s kind of a baseball epidemic and not just a Phillies one, but when you watch one team primarily, it’s easier to get caught up in their mistakes and think they are germane to that team.

Still, these little things make a difference in games like this, and more importantly, in games that matter in October.

Bottom of the 6th

After a dominant fifth inning in which he struck out the side and his curveball was nasty, Aaron Nola got into some trouble in the sixth. Two of the first three batters got on with singles. Thomson decided that was enough and turned the game over to Hoffman. It’s a bit earlier than usual for Hoffman this season, but it’s a role he excelled in during the playoffs a year ago.

Hoffman threw four pitches and got Gio Urshela to roll over one into a 4-6-3 double play to get the Phillies out of a jam.

Thomson bucked his regular season trend here by going to one of his biggest arms in the back of the bullpen, and it worked.

Funny, how no one wants to give the manager credit when he pushes the right button, eh?

Bottom of the 7th

Matt Strahm was great in this inning. He got Michael Harris to hit a lazy fly out to center field, Whit Merrifield to hit a a one-hooper to third and then won a nine-pitch war with Marcel Ozuna, punching him out with a fastball on the inner half of the strike zone.

This was an inning more reminiscent of Strahm’s brilliant start to the season ad has to have the Phillies feeling good about their All-Star lefty.

Top of the 8th

Weston Wilson is becoming a cult hero. In the span of a year, the rookie hit a home run in his first major league at bat, became the ninth Phillies player to hit for the cycle, and now start a rally in the eighth inning of a tie game against their biggest rival in the heat of a pennant race.

But the thing that was most impressive here was that the double came off Joe Jimenez, a right-handed reliever.

Wilson has been a guy who has earned his ABs against left-handed pitching since his callup, and rightfully so, since he does hit them well. Usually, Thomson pinch hits for Wilson with a lefty off the bench in a close spot against a righty reliever.

In this case, he didn’t. He let Wilson hit and Wilson delivered, crushing a double off the right field wall. It was just another opposite field hit for Wilson, who has been providing a bunch of those when he’s in the lineup.

The confidence Thomson had to stick with Wilson in this spot rather than pinch hit for him was a gut feel by the manager who belied the analytics that tell him to pinch hit in that spot and believed in what he was seeing with his own eyes.

“The at bats are so good that it’s hard to deny,” Thomson told reporters about his decision to stick with Wilson. “I’ve just liked his at bats. He looks balanced, he looks comfortable, he looks poised, and he uses the field.”

It’s gotten to the point where Thomson is considering starting Wilson against righthanders as well to see how he handles it. This is an interesting dynamic with Austin Hays due to come off the I.L. on Friday. How the Phillies divide and conquer both left field and center field between four guys – Wilson, Hays, Marsh and Rojas – ought to be the most compelling thing to watch over the final 36 games.

Back to Wednesday night…

Wilson got the double, yes, but the Phillies needed to get him home. Bryson Stott pinch hit for Sosa and hit the ball to deep centerfield to advance Wilson to third. Then Marsh pinch hit for Rojas and got the sacrifice fly.

It was a key spot for both guys, who have been struggling at the plate. Stott had a really good at bat and drove the ball well. Marsh had been a guy striking out about 40% of the time since coming back from his hamstring injury, and he too had a solid at bat to get the job done.

Maybe narrowing the focus to situational ideologies is the easiest way to get them going. Regardless, both were productive outs (notice a pattern) and drove it what would be the winning run. But, there were two more key situations to get through to ensure that was the winning run.

Bottom of the 8th

Orion Kerkering has not been in a high leverage spot all that often since the All-Star Break. In fact, he doesn’t regularly pitch on back-to-back days anymore.

Both things changed Wednesday.

Kerkering was called on to protect a one-run lead in the eighth inning against the meat of the Braves order, which included two lefties, a day after throwing 21 pitches against them on Tuesday.

He was impressive. It was his best inning in a while.

He blew away Matt Olson, got Sean Murphy to bounce into a ground out and Jarred Kelenic to fly out to center.

If this is the Kerkering the Phillies are going to get for the next two months, then that’s a big boost for the bullpen.

Bottom of the 9th

This is when things got hairy. Carlos Estevez keeps getting the ninth inning and there have been a few highwire acts. He led off the inning by walking Arcia. He was fortunate to get Jorge Soler swinging at a first pitch and popped him up.

The next pitch though was ripped for a single by Gio Urshela and then Estevez was trying to get cute and ended up going 3-0 on Michael Harris II. He worked his way back with a couple of fastballs for strikes and then got away with a changeup center cut that Harris tapped weakly to third for the second out.

But both runners moved into scoring position, meaning a single through the infield would have resulted in a different ending.

Of course, it was Whit Merrifield who came to the pate, and Estevez threw him two sliders, the second of which Merrifield inside-outed down the first base line. Harper smothered it (he said he didn’t want to “get Buckner’d”) and then collected the ball and stepped on first for the final out.

Everyone could breathe a sigh of relief. Estevez knew he got away with one. He needs to be better, but every decision the manager made in this one turned out to be the right one. And that’s because he managed it like a playoff game. He treated it like a playoff game. And when the Phillies attack games like they are a playoff game – situational hitting. Bullpen matchups. Starting pitchers who grind. Gut feelings instead of following the data – they are a much better team than they get credit for.

Remember that, and not the viral moments or the regular season malaise that doesn’t ultimately matter come October.