Phillies secure HUGE shock to eliminate defending champion Braves and book NLCS slot  

Brandon Marsh homered for three runs and JT Realmuto lined an inside-the-park homerun that sent the Philadelphia Phillies to the NL Championship Series for the first time since 2010 with an 8-3 win over the Atlanta Braves in Game. 4 Saturday.

Realmuto became the first catcher to hit an inside-the-parker in postseason history and Bryce Harper punctuated the romp with a resounding homerun that helped the Phillies win the NL Division Series 3-1 against World Series champion Braves .

The Phillies will face San Diego or the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. The Padres held a 2-1 lead over the Dodgers going into Game 4 of the NLDS matchup on Saturday-evening.

Atlanta’s loss meant that Major League Baseball has not had a repeat champion since the New York Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000.

Philadelphia finished third in the NL East, 14 games behind the Braves’ 101 wins this season, but is now running on all cylinders under manager Rob Thomson. He took over from the fired Joe Girardi and transformed a team of 22-29 in early June.

And the Phillies used a dose of Marsh Madness to keep the party going in October.

Heck, call it Mash Madness, as the Phillies turned Citizens Bank Park into a cozy home band box for the second straight game—and with a different excited, towel-waving crowd for each long ball.

After Rhys Hoskins nailed his bat on a three-run shot in a Game 3 win, it was Marsh’s turn in the second inning to hammer his own three-run homer in Game 4.

Braves starter Charlie Morton was hit on his pitching elbow by Alec Bohm’s 71.9 mph single to open the inning. After being checked, Morton gave up a single to Jean Segura and hung a 2-2 curveball that launched No. 9 hitter Marsh deep into the right field seats for a 3-0 lead.

Marsh, 24, is known for his stringy hair and ZZ Top-esque beard as well as being one of the Phillies’ best young players. Marsh, who also doubled in the fourth, was taken over from the Los Angeles Angels in August, just before this season’s trading deadline. Phillies president Dave Dombrowski swung another deadline deal with the Angels, giving them Game 4 starter Noah Syndergaard, also known for his long locks.

Hey, it’ll be easy for the Phillies to let their hair down and party.

Reliever Brad Hand was one of six Philadelphia pitchers and took the win.

Syndergaard, who was bumped by the rotation at the end of the season, was not asked by Thomson to do much other than keep the Phillies in the game. Maybe go around the order unscathed. Syndergaard struckout three batters in three innings in a short return to his impressive “Thor” days with the New York Mets.

Orlando Arcia knocked off a solo shot off him in the third to make it 3-1.

Realmuto then made its way into post-season history.

He connected and started the third inning against reliever Collin McHugh. The ball hit the angled section of the wall out of reach of midfielder Michael Harris II, and the carom rolled along the warning lane to the center right. Ronald Acuna Jr. stood in right field watching the game and didn’t start running for the ball until Realmuto was way past first base. Realmuto, who runs exceptionally well for a catcher, made a headfirst slide into the plate, well before the relay.

With that, the bedlam was in the park as a sold-out crowd of 45,660 people cheered frantically, tingling every sense that there would be no Game 5.

No. Just Game 3 of the NLCS back in Philadelphia on Friday.

Harper hit a solo homer in the eighth, the second in the series for the reigning NL MVP.

It seemed fitting that the trio of Phillies sluggers that make up the heart of the franchise threw out the game in the sixth. Hoskins-Realmuto-Harper all had RBI singles that made it 7-2 and a run to a formality.

The Phillies trotted out 2008 World Series champion Pat Burrell to throw the first pitch after his ’08 teammate Shane Victorino did the same for Game 3. 2007 through 2011 until the franchise was saddled with so many dry years without hope. They no longer have to look to Burrell, Victorino, and other members of that run as the only memories of the postseason stars — Harper, Hoskins, Realmuto, Marsh carved their own October signs, with at least one more series to go.