Phillies beat Braves, 3-2, in 10th inning behind rebuilt bullpen

José Alvarado spun Thursday afternoon, pumped his fist, and shouted. He had thrown 21 pitches in the eighth inning of a 3-2 win over Atlanta, danced ever so close with disaster, and came out of opening day on top.

A year ago, it would have been a situation hard to fathom: A Phillies reliever loads the bases but escapes with the game tied. Alvarado, who loaded the bases by hitting Austin Riley, watched Christian Pache’s potential go-ahead hit fall just foul before he pumped a triple-digit sinker past him.

Two innings later, the game was over. Jean Segura hit a walk-off single in the 10th after the Braves intentionally walked Didi Gregorius. The Phillies, playing with fans at Citizens Bank Park for the first time in 551 days, started their season with the fourth walk-off win on opening day in franchise history.

And it was made possible by a bullpen that looked quite different than the unit that sank last season.

“I think there’s a lot more sense of urgency and guys who have done it and had success and been around a little while,” said Aaron Nola, who pitched into the seventh inning before the bullpen entered. “It’s nice to have a guy like Alvarado throwing absolute gas, too. The bullpen shut it down. They gave us a chance to win it.”

» READ MORE: Jean Segura makes sure the Phillies’ opening-day performance is a crowd pleaser | Bob Brookover

The Phillies know they have a lineup that can produce. They know their rotation is led by three legitimate starting pitchers. But they needed to let the season begin before they knew about their bullpen after their season was soured in the late innings last year.

Alvarado was erratic Thursday as he walked a batter, hit a batter, and threw just 12 of his 21 pitches for strikes. But the left-hander struck out the side and threw eight pitches at 99 mph or faster. It’s possible to escape jams when you can blow a hitter away with 100 mph. The Phillies didn’t have that velocity last season. They now have plenty of it.

Connor Brogdon, electric as a rookie last September, had the task of pitching the 10th inning with a runner starting on second base as last season’s extra-inning rules return for another year. The Phillies carried just one left-handed reliever — Alvarado — because they were confident that right-handers like Brogdon could handle left-handed hitters.

They wasted little time finding out as Brogdon’s first batter was left-hander Freddie Freeman, one of the game’s premier hitters. Brogdon made him ground out with a changeup. The runner from second moved to third, but the damage was avoided.

“We saw his confidence take off last year,” Girardi said. “I know it’s a tough spot to put him in, but I have a lot of belief in his ability and what he’s capable of doing. I believe he has the capability of striking people out and that’s why I brought him in there. That has to give him another boost of confidence.”

» READ MORE: Phillies fans return home to Citizens Bank Park for the first time since 2019

Marcell Ozuna then flew out to center and Roman Quinn threw a perfect strike home to J.T. Realmuto, who placed a perfect tag on Ozzie Albies to end the inning.

“I had a great view,” Brogdon said. “I was backing up the plate just in case the throw got by. Great throw. Right on the money. Got him all the way. I had the best seat in the house for it.”

The Phillies missed the playoffs last season by one game with their bullpen — which finished with the highest ERA in 90 years — shouldering much of the blame. They focused their offseason on restructuring their bullpen and adding hard throwers for the late innings. Half of the team’s eight relievers were offseason acquisitions.

One game is not proof that the albatross has been lifted, but it was a good start. Archie Bradley, the team’s $6 million free-agent addition, was the first pitcher out of the bullpen. Last summer, Joe Girardi’s first reliever to enter on opening day was Ramon Rosso, a rookie who had been a starter in the minor leagues. The upgrades were easy to see on Thursday.

“Last year was pretty rough,” Brogdon said. “To get of onto the right foot like that is a great start.”

Bradley threw seven pitches to pick up the final out of the seventh after Aaron Nola allowed a two-run homer by Pablo Sandoval to tie the game at 2. Alvarado sweated through the eighth, and Hector Neris handled the ninth before Brogdon showed poise in the 10th.

» READ MORE: An emotional reopening day for the Phillies, their fans, and their workers | David Murphy

The defense did its part as Quinn’s throw aided Brogdon, a sliding catch by Didi Gregorius helped Neris, and a leaping catch by Alec Bohm bailed out Nola.

Nola, starting his fourth straight opener, was excellent until his 0-2 fastball trailed across the plate with two outs in the seventh. It was one of Nola’s lone mistakes and Sandoval, the 34-year-old veteran, did not miss.

Realmuto was set up outside but the pitch moved inside. Nola fooled Sandoval, who entered as a pinch-hitter, a pitch earlier with his curveball. It then seemed like a good chance to try and fool Sandoval once more. Instead, he went with his fastball and the ball landed in the second deck of right field.

“That was a pretty bad pitch,” Nola said. “Obviously, wasn’t trying to go there. I tried to backspin it as much as I could and I cut it. He made me pay. Definitely a tough pitch to swallow. But overall, we got the win and that’s all that matters.”

The Phillies provided Nola with two runs. Andrew McCutchen slid past the tag in the first inning to beat the throw from left-fielder Ozuna on Alec Bohm’s sacrifice fly. Realmuto hit a 61.6-mph infield single in the third to score Rhys Hoskins. The grounder dribbled toward the second-base hole but the fielder was shifted toward the bag.

The Phillies wouldn’t score again for seven more innings. Last season, it would have been hard for them to hang in a game after going scoreless for such a long stretch. The bullpen would have likely faded. But on the first day of a new season, the new bullpen kept them in it.