Phillies are rolling, breaking records and smelling another World Series berth
PHILADELPHIA −The Philadelphia Phillies sat around late Tuesday night, nursing a few Coors Lights and Presidente beers, telling a few jokes, sharing some videos, and trying not to get too giddy after their 10-0 beatdown of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
They were in no hurry to go home, not with three sporting events happening in the same complex, with the Philadelphia Flyers playing at Wells Fargo Center and a Mexico-Germany soccer game at Lincoln Financial Center while they were playing Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
The traffic was so brutal that one player said his wife tried to make her way to Citizens Bank Park from home but turned around and watched the game on TV.
Really, everyone could have saved some time watching at home. The game was over the moment Trea Turner hit the fifth pitch the Phillies saw into the left-field seats. By the time the game mercifully ended, the Phillies produced three more home runs − two by Kyle Schwarber − 11 hits, six shutout innings by co-ace Aaron Nola, and a 2-0 lead in the NLCS.
The game was so lopsided that the most suspenseful moment came when an overzealous fan ran onto the field to celebrate as the game ended, only to be smashed into the ground by security, drawing oohs and aahs from the sellout crowd of 45,412.
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"Did you see that? He got absolutely crushed. He was de-cleated," said Phillies outfielder Jake Cave, laughing. "I love it. Really, just being here and watching all of this is unbelievable. You look around, and it’s crazy. I’m around a bunch of guys who are the best baseball players I’ve ever seen.
"I mean, Bryce (Harper) is the best hitter I’ve ever been around in my life. The way he can take over baseball games is incredible. And the fear he puts into pitchers is something I’ve never seen before.
"This is the most fun I’ve ever had in baseball just watching these guys."
The Phillies are putting on a power show for the ages, hitting three home runs for the second consecutive game, ripping up the record book on a nightly basis.
"We all want to hit," Turner said. "We’re not scared to swing the bat as a team."
Take a look at the record book, and you’ll see for yourselves.
▪ They have hit 15 homers in the last four postseason games, the most by any team in a four-game span, and 19 this postseason.
▪ They have 17 home runs in their last five home games, another record.
▪ They have trailed at the end of only two innings this postseason, the fewest by any team after eight postseason games.
▪ They have outhomered the opposition by 15, the greatest differential in any eight-game span by any team in postseason, and by 37 home runs in the postseason history of Citizens Bank Park.
▪ And their winning percentage there of .718, 28-11, is also the best by any team in postseason history.
"It’s just amazing," Cave said. "I can barely talk because I’ve been screaming the last two weeks watching this. This is the world stage. The best players in the world. The best league in the world.
"And I think we’re the best team in the world."
Few outside the state of Texas, where the Astros and Rangers are battling in the ALCS, would argue. But right now, there’s little debate that the Phillies are the best team in the National League.
They swept the Miami Marlins in the wild-card round, dropped Atlanta to its knees, and are now manhandling the Diamondbacks.
Two series down, two games down, and a World Series to go.
Surprised?
You haven’t been watching the Phillies this month.
"I wouldn't necessarily say surprised, no," said Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto. "I think this is kind of the lineup that we envisioned ourselves having all season long. And I just think that we're clicking at the right time right now.
"From top to bottom, everybody seems like they're going good at-bats. The focus is there. The intent is there.
"We're hitting home runs all over the field, and these guys are doing a ton of damage."
They certainly are proving to be unstoppable at Citizens Bank Park, where they have now won 11 consecutive postseason games against NL teams, with the raucous crowd so intimidating that it has thrown the Diamondbacks completely off their game. This is a team that has run wild all season, with rookie Corbin Carroll stealing 54 bases, and the D-backs stealing seven bases this postseason.
This series? Carroll and the D-backs haven’t even attempted a stolen base.
The crowd was so loud in the seventh inning when Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott hit a routine infield pop-up, the D-backs couldn’t hear one another, and the ball dropped in for an embarrassing hit.
"Look, we could be playing on the moon," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "Everybody is talking about coming into this environment, and I don't care. We have to play better baseball. Everybody has to be better. You can start with the manager and then trickle all the way down through the entire team.
"We've got to play Diamondback baseball. What we watched out there was not anything that we have done for a long period of time."
In the words of D-backs DH Tommy Pham: "We’ve got to start winning some games. We’re getting humbled here."
Welcome to the club.
The Phillies have a way to doing that to everyone in their path this postseason. If they’re not hitting home runs, they’re stringing together singles. If they’re not scoring, they’re shutting down the opposition. The Phillies have a 1.39 ERA this postseason, the second-lowest in the first eight games of a postseason, according to MLB.com researcher Sarah Langs, behind only the 1983 Baltimore Orioles (1.23).
It was Nola who was the latest one to snuff out the D-backs, pitching six shutout innings yielding just three hits while striking out seven. If the game hadn't been lopsided, he may have pitched a complete game the way he dominated the strike zone. He’s 3-0 with a 0.96 in three postseason starts this year.
Certainly, the Phillies believe this could be the year they win their first World Series title since 2008, and only their second in the last 43 years.
"This series is a long way from being over," Realmuto says. "But if we keep playing this brand of baseball, we feel pretty good about our chances."
The Phillies are having a hard time explaining this domination. They had scouting reports revealing that D-backs ace Zac Gallen throws first-pitch strikes, and took advantage with their onslaught in Game 1. Their reports showed that D-backs starter Merrill Kelly lives off the edge of the plate, so if you want to homer, just wait for that ball to drift over the middle. And they instructed their pitchers to implement slide steps, change the pace of their delivery, and shut down the D-backs’ running game.
It has all worked like a charm, but as the Phillies will tell you, the cohesiveness in their clubhouse, the determination to win, and the sheer desire to make their fanbase proud, is going an awful long ways too.
"These guys in this clubhouse are A-plus," Schwarber said. "When you get to go out and battle with this locker room, it fires you up. We play for each other.
"We have an amazing fan base, and obviously we want to do this for the city, but when you have a bond like we all have in that clubhouse, it's so tight."
It’s a team that has its fan base dancing in the aisles during games, screaming until their lungs burn, and now is ready to cut loose with an after-hours party that will last until Thanksgiving.
Maybe longer.
"There are 45,000 people going crazy for nine innings," said Cave, who doubled and was thrown out at third base in his excitement with his first postseason extra-base hit in the eighth inning. "It’s insane. It’s absolutely insane. It’s the best baseball environment I’ve ever seen, seen videos of, maybe ever. I have no voice myself. I’ve been losing my mind screaming.
"So, I feel what they feel. I’m losing it, too. And it’s genuine.
"Believe me, it’s a beautiful feeling for all of us."
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