Phillies Advance to NLCS After Cruising Past Defending Champion Braves

PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper stood as still in the clubhouse as he does when he admires a home run and accepted the beer bath from bottles his Phillies teammates took delight in pouring on him.

Harper’s goggles provided no defense for the waterfall of booze streaming down his cheeks.

“It’s so cold! But it’s so good!” slugger Rhys Hoskins barked in Harper’s face.

Then it was time for the Phillies to sing: “I’m going going, back back, to Cali Cali!” they shouted in unison to the Notorious B.I.G. classic. That’s right, the next stop is a trip West to the NLCS, as a team that looked lost in May suddenly looks every bit like a World Series contender in October.

Brandon Marsh celebrates after his two-run homer.Ray Stubblebine/UPI/Shutterstock J.T. Realmuto, left, celebrates with Bryce Harper. Getty Images

Brandon Marsh hit a three-run homer and J.T. Realmuto lined an inside-the-park home run that sent Philadelphia bolting headfirst into the NL Championship Series for the first time since 2010 with an 8-3 win over the Atlanta Braves in Game 4 Saturday.

Realmuto became the first catcher to hit an inside-the-parker in postseason history and Harper punctuated the romp with a clinching home run that helped the Phillies win the NL Division Series 3-1 over the World Series champion Braves.

Atlanta’s loss meant MLB hasn’t had a repeat champ since the Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000.

“Like I told them, the goal when we leave spring training is to win the division. Until you win the division, you don’t have a chance to do anything special because you never know what’s going to happen, you don’t know what team’s going to get hot, what things have to go right for you to go deep into the postseason,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.

Bryce Harper salutes the crowd after his eighth-inning home run. Getty Images J.T. Realmuto hit an inside-the-park home run against the Braves on Saturday.AP

“And we got in. It didn’t happen for us this year,” he said.

Philadelphia finished third in the NL East at 87-75, a full 14 games behind the 101-win Braves this season, but is playing like a contender under manager Rob Thomson. Thomson, who had been a career coach for the Yankees and Phillies, transformed a team well out of contention at 23-29 when they fired Joe Girardi on June 3.

“We just got off to a little bit of a slow start and kind of spiraled,” Thomson said. “Then once we hit June, the schedule kind of lightened up a little bit and we started winning, and guys started getting confidence and believing that they could win and believing that, OK, now this is the team that we thought we were. And just kept going.”

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