Phillies outlast the Braves in the 11th as Nick Castellanos plays the hero

PHILADELPHIA — They have squared off 53 times now across these last three seasons. If they meet for a 54th, it will be in the playoffs. Again. For a third year in a row.

Phillies-Braves, Round 3?

Yes, please.

What baseball-loving soul wouldn’t want more of these taut, cuticle-chomping showdowns with late-inning drama that will gray your hair. Inject them directly into our veins. Sure, a few of the names on the rosters have changed, but the two best teams in the National League East never disappoint.

The latest chapter, played Sunday night in front of a sellout crowd in 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 tied it up to begin with — shot a two-out, two-strike single up the middle to score Kody Clemens from third base and send the Phillies spilling from the dugout to celebrate a 3-2 victory.

A big win? Well, it might have dashed the Braves’ shot to win a seventh consecutive division title. The Phillies stretched their lead to seven games — one more than it was when they traveled to Atlanta 12 nights earlier — with 25 to play.

It isn’t too early, then, to start thinking about a magic number to clinch the Phillies’ first NL East crown since 2011: 19, for the record.

The Phillies (81-56) also moved one game ahead of the Brewers for the No. 2 seed in the NL playoffs, which comes with a first-round bye. They capped the homestand and headed into a Monday off-day with a 5-2 record and finished with a 6-7 record in the season series against the Braves.

Trailing 2-0, the Phillies tied it with a two-out spark in the sixth inning against Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach. After Trea Turner singled and Bryce Harper chipped an opposite-field double, Castellanos stayed on a slider and split the gap in left-center for a two-run double.

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

The Phillies passed the baton from Orion Kerkering to Jeff Hoffman to Matt Strahm to Carlos Estévez for five scoreless innings. Strahm loaded the bases with one out and Houdini’d his way out. Estévez, the closer, pitched two innings for only the second time this season and stranded the automatic runner both times.

Across the way, the Braves got two scoreless innings from their closer, too. Raisel Iglesias was part of a six-reliever relay that kept the game tied until Castellanos’ decisive blow against righty Grant Holmes.

In holding the Phillies to two runs on three hits in 6 2/3 innings 10 nights earlier in Atlanta, Schwellenbach served heaping doses of sliders and curveballs. This time, he led with his fastball.

And for five innings, he was even more effective.

The Braves staked Schwellenbach to a two-run lead on a solo homer by Michael Harris II in the third inning and an overturned call on a potential inning-ending double play that put a run on the board in a 31-pitch fourth for Aaron Nola.

Schwellenbach, meanwhile, sliced through the order twice on 70 pitches, only eight of which were sliders. Harper, mic’d up on the ESPN telecast, compared the Braves rookie to two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber.

But Schwellenbach altered his pattern slightly the third time around, and the Phillies adjusted accordingly.

Turner kick-started the tying rally with a two-out single to right field. Harper followed by fouling off back-to-back fastballs before taking a curveball the other way to left for a double.

With runners on second and third, Schwellenbach got two quick strikes on Castellanos. But rather than sticking with the hard stuff, he slung a slider at the belt that Castellanos drove into the gap in left-center for a two-run double.

If the Phillies face Schwellenbach again this season, it will be in the playoffs.