Rafael Marchán makes the most of his chance to lead the Phillies past the Braves, 5-4

Upon getting rained out Wednesday, the Phillies asked their best pitcher if he preferred to start the matinee first game or the nighttime finale of Thursday’s doubleheader.

Zack Wheeler picked the opener, then swiftly reconsidered.

“Is it too late to switch?” he asked.

“You can do whatever you want,” manager Rob Thomson said. “You’re Zack Wheeler.”

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Fair enough. But there were ripple effects. For one thing, it meant Rafael Marchán would catch the first game to keep J.T. Realmuto paired with Wheeler.

No big deal there. Marchán will take every opportunity he gets, especially because he plays so rarely. That’s life as Realmuto’s backup, and it isn’t easy.

Imagine, then, how satisfying it must’ve been for Marchán, starting for only the 11th time in 55 games, to smoke a two-run homer in the third inning and take a two-strike slider off his right foot in the eighth to force in the go-ahead run in a Bryce Harper-less 5-4 victory over the Braves at Citizens Bank Park.

Actually, let’s rephrase: Did it feel better to do those things or to throw out the potential tying run at second base in the ninth inning?

“I would say the throw in the ninth,” Marchán said. “That was close right there and helped the team to win.”

The Phillies won for the 11th time in 12 games and hiked their best-in-baseball record to 36-19, a 106-win pace. They also widened the canyon between them and the third-place Braves to 10½ games in the National League East.

Oh, and they had Wheeler lined up to start the nightcap.

» READ MORE: The Phillies will keep riding their starters while they figure out their bullpen mix

Never mind, then, that it was more difficult than it needed to be. Neither Matt Strahm nor Jordan Romano, among the three trusted late-inning arms in the Phillies’ post-José Alvarado bullpen, was sharp. Strahm gave up two runs in the eighth to fumble a 4-2 lead; Romano loaded the bases with two out in the ninth.

And that was after Marchán erased a Romano-issued four-pitch leadoff walk by throwing out Ozzie Albies trying to steal second base. The Braves challenged the ruling on the field, but Marchán never had a doubt.

“I knew it,” Marchán said. “When I saw [Bryson] Stott tagging the guy, I knew I got him. It’s pretty exciting. I feel like a kid when you do something good. You’re really excited; you’re really hyped. There’s a lot of emotion when you do that.”

Especially when you play only once a week.

Thomson maintains that he has confidence in Marchán’s game-calling. He noted that the 26-year-old’s last two starts behind the plate before Thursday resulted in shutouts: May 22 in Colorado and May 18 over the Pirates in pitching prospect Mick Abel’s major league debut.

But Thomson also said this week that he has no plans to cut back on Realmuto’s workload, even though the iron man catcher is struggling offensively. It isn’t an indictment of Marchán, Thomson insists, but rather an acknowledgment of Realmuto as the Phillies’ de facto captain on the field.

» READ MORE: Phillies drop J.T. Realmuto to eighth in the batting order but have no plans to reduce his workload

“I’ve been saying all along this kid’s a really good player,” Thomson said of Marchán. “Although there’s not many numbers there, he’s really given us good at-bats. He understands the zone. He’s very disciplined. He can really throw, obviously. He calls a great game. So, yeah, he does a great job.”

Even so, the Phillies have taken advantage of days off in the schedule to rest Realmuto. He hasn’t caught more than four days in a row but remains on pace to start more than 130 games.

It leaves Marchán with considerable gaps between games. He wasn’t going to start in the series against the Braves but was forced into action because of the rainout.

And so, entering his unscheduled start, Marchán had only two hits since April 20 and was 4-for-31 overall.

“I try not to think much about that,” he said of the lack of playing time. “I try to come every day and do what I need to do to get the rhythm right away [at the plate] and see pitches and control what I can control.”

With Harper sidelined with a bruised and swollen right elbow after getting hit by a pitch two nights earlier, Marchán hit a missile into the right-field seats to stake the Phillies to a 2-0 lead against Braves starter A.J. Smith-Shawver, who exited in the third inning after feeling a pop in his right elbow.

Kyle Schwarber opened a 4-2 edge in the seventh by going deep into the second deck in right field for his team-leading 19th homer.

But Strahm gave up a solo homer to Sean Murphy and back-to-back doubles to Ronald Acuña Jr. and Michael Harris II to tie the game.

The Phillies loaded the bases in the eighth on a single and two walks. Marchán took a two-strike pitch from reliever Daysbel Hernández off his foot to force in the go-ahead run.

And then, even after throwing out Albies, Marchán helped Romano through a dicey ninth inning that ended with a low-and-away slider that froze Eli White for a game-ending strikeout.

“I know J.T. likes to catch a lot, but I’m going to be there if he wants a day or something like that,” Marchán said. “So I try to be ready as possible to do my job.”