Phillies’ Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos power rally in ninth against Marlins for 3-1 win

MIAMI — About 25 minutes before Tuesday’s game, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said he didn’t pay the price for a right-handed outfield bat because he had faith that their offense would find a rhythm. At first, it seemed like the lineup would not back his words up. Then came the ninth inning.

Facing former Phillies reliever David Robertson, and down 1-0 to the Marlins, Kyle Schwarber took a leadoff walk. Alec Bohm struck out, and Bryce Harper hit an RBI double to score Jake Cave, who was pinch-running for Schwarber, and tied the game, 1-1.

Nick Castellanos followed with a two-run home run — his first since July 19 — to give the Phillies a 3-1 lead. Seranthony Domínguez retired all three Marlins he faced in the bottom of the ninth to close out the 3-1 victory.

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Castellanos badly needed the homer. He entered Tuesday’s game hitting .123/.162/.169 since the All-Star break (which wasn’t a break for him, because he was named an All-Star). Thomson gave him a day off on Monday. Castellanos said it helped.

It also helped that he was back at home. Castellanos lives in South Florida in the offseason. When he arrived in Miami on Sunday night, he called his brother and his childhood friend, Rudy, and asked them to throw to him at the batting cage at his house.

“Let’s get this right,” he told them.

He saw the results of that on Tuesday.

“[It felt] amazing, for personal reasons and also because it was a big spot in the game,” Castellanos said. “It’s really nice being home. Just to be able to go back to my house, and be there, and see everybody that’s really familiar to me. Get a feeling of my roots again. Coincidentally, it was [my son] Liam’s 10th birthday today.

“So, to be able to have a nice night and day, on my day off, and not have to stress out on trying to find something and fix something in the game... I got to unplug. Enjoy my home, enjoy my family, and reset a little bit.”

“I think it has potential to be huge,” manager Rob Thomson said of Castellanos’ home run. “Give him some confidence. D-Rob hung it, but he got it. That was big. And it was big for the club, too.”

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It did not look like the game was trending this way. For eight innings, the Phillies were shut out by Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara. They managed only four hits off Alcantara, who looked like the 2022 Cy Young Award winner. Of the 101 pitches the threw, 74 were strikes. He struck out five, and walked only one.

But the Phillies grinded out a win like they did on Monday. They kept the game close with their defense and pitching. Starter Ranger Suárez found himself in a few jams, after allowing a season-high 10 hits, but was able to work his way out of them, allowing one earned run in 6⅓ innings.

In the first inning, Suárez loaded the bases with two outs after allowing three singles. But he induced a groundout to end the inning without any runs scoring.

In third inning, he put runners on first and second after allowing singles to Luis Arraez and Bryan De La Cruz, and saw Arraez score after Avisail Garcia doubled to right field. But Suárez struck out his next batter and induced a groundout to limit the damage to just one run.

In the seventh inning, with a runner on first, Arraez hit line drive double to right field. Castellanos threw to Bryson Stott, whose relay to catcher Garrett Stubbs was in time to tag out Jacob Stallings at home. The Marlins challenged it, but the call stood.

A few batters later, Jesus Sánchez hit a 350-foot line drive to left field. Brandon Marsh was able to track it down, making a running catch just before the wall.

“I thought we played really good defense,” Thomson said. “We had the relay to the plate. We had a couple of double plays, which was big. Marsh made a nice catch. And that’s what you’ve got to do. When you’re facing a guy like Alcantara, it’s like a playoff game. You’ve got to grind at-bats and do the best you can against him, but you’ve got to play defense, and you’ve got to pitch.”

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It wasn’t the easiest win, but it was a gritty, hard-fought one, which in some ways, is just as impressive.

“We’re a resilient group,” Castellanos said. “I still think there are a lot of guys in this clubhouse who aren’t particularly performing the way they would personally want to. But everybody did such a good job of being a professional, and showing up to work, and caring about the right things, that we’re able to squeak wins out like this.”

The Phillies will continue to try to prove Dombrowski right. Harper didn’t disagree with the executive’s assessment of the Phillies. He said that while Dombrowski has faith in their lineup, they also have faith in him.

“I wasn’t really foreseeing us doing anything crazy this trade deadline,” Harper said. “Unless there was a pitcher or a bullpen guy or something like that. We have so much faith in Dombrowski and what he thinks and how he goes about it. Our trade deadline guy was pretty much Trea Turner, right? Free agency, and he comes in and does his thing.

“I think having the team that we do and the guys we do in here, we can beat anybody and play with anybody as well. We’ve just got to play our game and understand that we’re really good. We’ve just got to keep at them and do our thing.”

Catcher J.T. Realmuto was scratched from the lineup before Tuesday’s game. He tore a piece of his skin while sliding on Monday, and it was irritating him while hitting prior to Tuesday’s game.

“We’ll see [Wednesday],” Thomson said. “There’s still some swelling in there.”