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Daniel Nava gives Phillies a spark | Sam Donnellon

BIG EXPLOSIONS always need a flint, a fuse, something to create anticipation. Or in baseball terms, hope. The Phillies had struck out nine times against Atlanta starter Mike Foltynewicz before Daniel Nava stroked a single to centerfield in the seventh inning Sunday. Aaron Altherr, who entered the game with a .379 average and had reached base three times the n

BIG EXPLOSIONS always need a flint, a fuse, something to create anticipation. Or in baseball terms, hope.

The Phillies had struck out nine times against Atlanta starter Mike Foltynewicz before Daniel Nava stroked a single to centerfield in the seventh inning Sunday. Aaron Altherr, who entered the game with a .379 average and had reached base three times the night before, looked particularly lost, whiffing three consecutive times, including on three straight pitches the inning before. Odubel Herrera followed that up with another three-pitch strikeout to end the sixth, and the pall over the 28,632, on the Phanatics' birthday, was palpable.

It seemed destined to be one of those games when the loudest cheers were for catches made in the stands.

Or walks. Nava had two prior to that at-bat, the only two issued by Foltynewicz. His single, an 0-1 fastball left over the outside of the plate, started a seventh-inning rally that tied the game at 1 and ran Foltynewicz's pitch count into the 90s. When the inning ended, it stood at 98, he was done, the Phillies were alive, and so were their fans.

One inning later, 1-1 became 5-1 on back-to-back-to-back home runs, the first time that has happened here since May of 2004, the year Citizens Bank Park opened. The three sluggers - Cesar Hernandez, Altherr and Herrera had, up to then, accounted for six of the nine Phillies strikeouts.

"Nava has been really valuable to us,'' Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. He's a part-time player who gives you good quality at-bats . . . and doesn't get himself out.''

Nava is 34. He once hit .303 as an everyday player with the Boston Red Sox back in 2013, starred in a playoff against Detroit, won a World Series ring. His .831 OPS that season trailed that of only Mike Trout and Jose Bautista, a neat trick given he only left the yard 12 times.

He's also been with four teams and on four rehab assignments since, traded by the Angels to Kansas City late last season for cash considerations (Re: To help pay Albert Pujols' salary). After sending him to the plate 11 times, the Royals cut him loose. Signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent, he, with Brock Stassi, made the team on the last day of spring training.

There is nothing he hasn't seen, nothing he hasn't been through. Imagine boarding a bus in Omaha at age 33, after hearing fans chant your name in Fenway Park just a few seasons before. "The injuries are the hardest thing,'' he was saying after the Phillies' 5-2 victory completed a three-game sweep. "The injuries take you off the field, they take you out of rhythm, they take you away from the time you could have had.

"But I'm grateful to have the opportunities I've had here. That's what you want, when you're trying to fight back and stay healthy, you want a team that's going to give you an opportunity. And the Phillies have given me that opportunity.''

He's run with it. After his fifth start Sunday, Nava's average is .391 with a .516 on-base percentage. His six walks in 31 plate appearances is exceeded by only three players (Cameron Rupp, Herrera, Maikel Franco), each with more than twice as many plate appearances.

Nava may not still be here when the Phillies become contenders again - although at 9-9, that could come sooner than anticipated. As Mackanin again noted Sunday while praising starter Zach Eflin's effort, he's got options now that he didn't have when the team began last season splitting its first 18 games. There are arms to beckon down below. Bats too. Clay Buchholz's season-ending injury has restarted 23-year-old Eflin's major league journey. Howie Kendrick's injury allows Altherr a chance to re-establish his budding star status after the injury-altering season of a year ago.

But Sunday underlined why he might - in one form or another. "They all talk as hitters among themselves,'' said Mackanin. "And remind each other of what they need to do and what their weaknesses are and how to go about their at-bats. And I think watching a guy like that, you can't help but notice. If it were me, and I was more of a free swinger, I'd go up to him and ask him how do I tone it down a bit.''

You take a journey like Nava has, you can't help but have a knowledge base, an empathy, a feel for the game that is as palpable as the mood swing of Sunday's crowd. There's a reason he's back in the bigs, registering the same kind of at-bats that marked his ascent from an Independent League player a decade ago to World Champion - the at-bats that make all the difference in games played on the margins.

"I don't think it was intentionally, 'This is the role you're going to have' " Nava said. "But with the situation of some of our younger guys on the bench, you just start talking about baseball. Understanding that, when you come off the bench, obviously you want to get those hits. But you also want to give yourself a lot of slack. You've got to look at it from a different perspective. Almost, you've got to lie to yourself.''

donnels@phillynews.com

@samdonnellon

Columns: ph.ly/Donnellon