After defeating the Braves in 11 innings, Nick Castellanos extends the Philadelphia Phillies’ lead in the NL East to seven games.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – In the final meeting between the top two teams in the NL East during the regular season, the Phillies defeated the Atlanta Braves 3-2 on Sunday night thanks to a game-winning single from Nick Castellanos in the eleventh and five clean innings of relief pitching by Philadelphia’s bullpen against Aaron Nola.

The Phillies won three of four games in the series to increase their lead in the division to seven games thanks to Castellanos’ all-out offensive output. He concluded the game with a two-out single off Grant Holmes after tying the score in the sixth inning with a two-run double off Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach.

In the race for the last National League wild card, Atlanta leads the New York Mets by one game.In the tenth and eleventh innings, Carlos Estévez (3-4) retired all six batters he faced, leaving the Braves’ automatic runner stranded in both innings.

When Philadelphia loaded the bases with one out in the ninth inning, left-hander Matt Strahm was the only one in trouble coming out of the bullpen. To maintain the tie, though, he got Luke Williams to fly out and Orlando Arcia to pop out.
Nola pitched six innings, giving up two runs, four hits, one walk, and nine strikeouts. After teammate Zack Wheeler, he has made the second-most quality starts in the majors with eighteen this season.

Before the sixth, Schwellenbach kept the Phillies off balance and caused a lot of soft contact. It wasn’t until Bryce Harper blooped a double down the left-field line one hitter before Castellanos in the sixth inning that he let a baserunner reach scoring position.The Braves took an early lead in the third inning thanks to a curveball by Michael Harris II that went 2-2 and into the first row of seats in right-center.

In the fourth, Whit Merrifield beat out a possible double-play grounder with runners at the corners to score the other run for Atlanta. He was originally ruled out on the play, but the Braves contested the call, and when a replay was reviewed, the ruling was reversed, letting the run stand.

The loser was Aaron Bummer (4-3). Even though he did not allow a hit for two-thirds of an inning, he was credited with an unearned run.