By AJ Johnson
Let’s quickly go over the Phillies pregame checklist.
Sold out Citizens Bank Park – CHECK
Drunk Phils Fans – CHECK
Champaign on ice – CHECK
Momentum – CHECK
Unbeatable at home this postseason – CHECK
Nola on the bump – CHECK
Kyle Schwarzer & Bryce Harper in the lineup – CHECK
Poles greased – CHECK
Every expert on the planet predicting the Phillies to steamroll the D-Backs – CHECK
Dancing On My Own cued up – CHECK
Un-Phinished Business – CHECK
Tell the Arizona Diamondbacks that they have No chance of winning – OOPS!
Thirty years to the day of the Phillies worst postseason loss in their history (Joe Carter.) The 2023 Phillies, the team that was built for the sole purpose of winning it all, the team that made easy work of the Miami Marlins and sent baseball’s best regular season team (Braves) home for winter, the team with un-phinished business, gave us exactly what we should all expect from this team – the unexpected. For the past two seasons this Phillies team has been a team of extreme highs and unexpected and inexcusable lows. Maybe we should have seen this coming.
Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit back-to-back homers in the second and Merrill Kelly struck out eight in 5 innings after getting smoked in a game two 10-0 loss.
“Getting there is really important, so we have that all-in mentality,” Torey Lovullo said ahead of Game 6. “We didn’t come cross-country to get our asses kicked. We came here to play our best baseball game, and our guys will be ready to go.”
The Diamondbacks came ready to go.
Kelly retired Schwarber, Turner and Harper in order in the fifth and the Diamondbacks held 4-1 lead. When Kelly returned to the dugout, Lovullo told the right-hander he was finished for the night. Kelly, who had thrown 90 pitches, appeared to not be happy with the decision.
“Getting through Schwarber, Harper and Turner right there in that fifth I figured I’d probably would be going out there for the sixth,” Kelly said. “It kind of just caught me off guard a little bit. But that’s Torey’s job. My job is to pitch. His job is to make the decisions, and at the end of the day, I got to live with those decisions.”
The Phillies were held to six hits and lost at the Bank for the first time in seven home postseason games. They lost Games 4 and 5 to the Astros in the World Series last year, but had won 11 straight postseason home games against NL opponents.
The Phillies had never trailed by more than two runs in the postseason until the second inning when Nola walked light-hitting Alek Thomas, who hit a game tying, two-run homer in Game 4, and Evan Longoria doubled for a 3-0 Diamondbacks lead.
The Phillies had absolutely nothing going on offense all night. Bohm had a couple of singles, Marsh had 2 hits, Stott chipped in with a single and Realmuto doubled.
Other than that:
Schwarber 0-2, Turner 0-4, Harper 0-3, Castellanos 0-4, making Nick 1 for 20 in the series.- the 4 combined for 6 strikeouts.
Now we go to game 7. Win and go on to play in the World Series, lose and go home empty.
After tonight it’s fair to say that the D-Backs have all the momentum and the pressure will be on the Phillies. The Phillies that were supposed to sweep Arizona into the offseason. The Phillies that were the varsity to the Diamondbacks JV team. The Phillies that every so-called expert picked to make easy work of this over achieving Arizona team. Now the Phillies are literally the team with their backs to wall with everything to lose. The Diamondbacks are playing with house money – their season was a success no matter what happens in game 7.
That being said, would I be surprised if the Phillies get blown out of the Bank tomorrow night? Absolutely not. Would I be surprised if they win by 10 runs tomorrow night? – Absolutely not. This is who they are, this is who they have been for the past two seasons. Win when they should lose and lose when they should win.
Tomorrow’s checklist will have all the boxes checked off again and Philly faithful will show up and show out. The bank will be rocking (at least early in the game) Everyone knows that game 7 will be the greatest show ever played at Citizens Bank Park — except the Diamondbacks
“They don’t know it’s a show – they think it’s a fight! Now let’s finish these chumps off and go home.” – Duke (Apollo Creeds trainer) Rocky
#RedOctober
