Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto spark Phillies to series-opening win against Diamondbacks

PHOENIX — For the second day in a row, Nick Castellanos is leaving the ballpark with a new bruise.

A day after taking a 97 mph fastball to the arm that nearly caused a brawl between the Phillies and Dodgers, Castellanos wore a 91.6 fastball from Diamondbacks starter Jordan Montgomery in the sixth inning on Thursday.

Castellanos made it pay off, however, scoring on a double from Weston Wilson to put the Phillies on the board. And he kicked off a four-run inning that put the Phillies ahead for a 6-4 win to open the series. It marked the Phillies’ first series-opening win since July 9, ending a streak of seven opening series game losses in a row.

“It’s always good to win the first game. I talk about it all the time,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “It just gives you some momentum going into the rest of the series.”

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With Wilson on second, Johan Rojas and Kyle Schwarber both walked to load the bases. Trea Turner laced a single into left that scored two runs, and Bryce Harper followed it up with a line drive single to plate another. All four runs were scored with two outs.

“We just try to grind out at-bats. And no matter where we’re at in the game, we don’t want to give the pitcher an easy out,” J.T. Realmuto said. “So I think we heightened our focus a little bit there, when we got to two outs, the guys did a great job of just having good at-bats and putting balls in play and just not trying to do too much.”

After going hitless on Wednesday against the Dodgers, Harper went 3-for-4 and was intentionally walked in the eighth.

Making his third appearance for the Phillies, Kolby Allard only allowed one earned run, when Eugenio Suárez got ahold of his cutter for a solo homer off the foul pole in the fifth inning. Allard scattered six hits, inducing contact mostly on the ground, and was helped out by the Phillies’ defense turning three double plays.

“They’re obviously very aggressive from the get-go,” Allard said. “I think you can kind of play that cat and mouse game and use it against [them] a little bit. … I thought we did a decent job of that tonight.”

Allard did not issue any walks and struck out three.

“Great poise. He throws strikes. He’s not afraid of contact,” Thomson said. “The cutter was good, changeup was good. And his strike throwing ability, command was really good. So he’s showed us something during this time.”

The bullpen had another shaky night. Orion Kerkering entered the game in the sixth and allowed a leadoff walk to Ketel Marte, before Jake McCarthy crushed a first-pitch sweeper to cut the Phillies’ lead to 4-3. Kerkering allowed a single and another walk, but escaped further trouble with a fielder’s choice and a pair of strikeouts.

“Leadoff walks you don’t want, and then McCarthy got to him,” Thomson said. “But then he kind of settled in and he was still in trouble, and got out of it. So that was good to see.”

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After a scoreless seventh from Jeff Hoffman, José Alvarado allowed two walks in the eighth, but rebounded with two strikeouts to end the inning.

Carlos Estévez allowed his first earned run since May 20 in the ninth inning, but induced a flyout to earn the save.

The Phillies’ offense was able to pick up the bullpen. Realmuto, on what marked 10 years of MLB service time, added an insurance run with a solo home run to center field in the seventh inning. It was his first home run since May 23. He also hit a double in the ninth, and was driven home by a double from Edmundo Sosa.

“We’ve just been playing a better brand of baseball, putting together better at-bats,” Realmuto said. “Our starters are throwing the ball great, giving us a chance to win every game. So we’re feeling good right now.”