There was an instant, as the ball soared off the bat of Ronald Acuña Jr. toward center field, when the 45,831 fans at Citizens Bank Park fell silent. The Phillies led by two in the top of the seventh with two outs and the bases loaded, seven outs from the National League Championship Series, and the whole thing seemed to hang in the balance as the ball hung in the air. Then the crowd roared to life as it dropped, as so many Atlanta attempts have this series, into a Phillie’s glove.
“If you want to score on me playing center field,” said center fielder Johan Rojas later, in the delirious aftermath of Philadelphia’s 3–1 series-clinching victory, “you’re going to have to hit a homer.”
It was a memorable line from a series stuffed with them, most notably Atlanta shortstop Orlando Arcia’s clubhouse taunt of Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper after Game 2, an Atlanta win, ended with Harper doubled off first base. “Attaboy, Harper,” he yelled afterward. The Phillies and their fans enjoyed using his words as a rallying cry, from the crowd’s chants of “Attaboy” when Arcia made an out to the “Attaboy Harper” T-shirt Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering donned during the postgame celebration.
