October 07, 2022
The Phillies turned eight innings of absolutely nothing into one of the most memorable wins in team playoff history with a six-run ninth for the ages Friday afternoon.
Zack Wheeler was epically good and the Phils jumped on Ryan Helsley when he couldn't find the strike zone in the 6-3 victory.
Here's a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from a win for the ages.
• If you watched the first eight innings of this game, flipped the channel or went to make dinner and came back, you wouldn't believe your eyes. What a turnaround. J.T. Realmuto got a base hit, followed by walks to Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos, setting up an Alec Bohm hit by pitch that won't soon be forgotten.
On the board and trailing 2-1, Clutch Jean (Segura) drove in two runs on a single to second base and the parade continued with RBI to Bryson Stott, Brandon Marsh and Kyle Schwarber to run up the score.
"It means a lot," Segura said on ABC after the win. "I have been waiting so many years for the opportunity."
Credit is due to the team for coming together and believing until the end. It was ugly, with just two hits prior to the ninth inning rally. The six runs scored were the most ever by a team trailing in the ninth in the playoffs.
• Wheeler — who hasn't thrown more than 76 pitches in a game in nearly two months — gave the Phillies nearly everything they could have wanted (except of course that he didn't go the distance). In six and one third scoreless innings he allowed just two hits, and wiggled out of a jam in his final full frame with a clutch double play on a pitch to Albert Pujols.
Whether or not it was there right decision for manager Rob Thomson to take the ball from Wheeler and give it to Jose Alvarado to face a lefty will likely be debated for a while — but Wheeler tossed a gem. If we see Wheeler again, the Phillies are hoping he'll be able to start Game 1 of an NLDS series and get a little deeper into the game (he threw 96 pitches Friday).
• Alec Bohm doing his best Derek Jeter impression was nice to see from the formerly defensively challenged third baseman. The infielder made several key plays with the glove including this one:
Alec Bohm WHAT A CATCH!
— Barstool Philly (@BarstoolPhilly) October 7, 2022
Derek Jeter would've swan dived into the first row for the attentionpic.twitter.com/jEd3DvMhWu
One of the biggest players to step up this season was Bohm, who wasn't even penciled in as a probable starter when spring training began. He's played better in the field and he swung a fairly consistent bat in the middle of the lineup all season. His double in the top of the fifth gave the Phils a legitimate scoring chance but as we'll discuss in just a bit, he was stranded at third with both one and two outs. He seems to have a bit of Chase Utley in him.
• Contrary to what you might think after seeing the Phillies' struggles late in the season, prior to their clinching this playoff berth, Philadelphia as a unit averaged .270 with runners in scoring position in 2022, the second best mark in all of baseball. Very interestingly, their productiveness slides considerably to .233 with RISP and two outs. That mark is 15th of the 30 MLB teams. They made both of those stats meaningless when they scored six runs in the ninth.
• We should acknowledge that this is the first playoff game in the entire existence of PhillyVoice. Hopefully there will be more in seasons to come.
• It really can't be overstated how bad the Phillies' offense was early in this game. On paper the Phils loaded up on power bats that could win a postseason game with a single swing and none of them did until they came together at the end. The Phillies top five hitters combined for zero hits or walks before the final frame.
• The Phillies' first postseason hit in 11 years came from — you guessed it — Matt Vierling, who reached on a single to put two on with one out in the third, the Phils first scoring chance against Jose Quintana. They failed to convert with a Kyle Schwarber strikeout and Rhys Hoskins groundout.
• Philly entered the playoffs with the worst bullpen (by ERA, and many other metrics) of any team in the tournament field and it was no galloping shock that as soon as Wheeler was lifted, Alvarado surrendered a walk and then a 2-run homer to Juan Yepez to get St. Louis on the board and put the Phillies' backs to the wall with six outs left.
The Phils also walked a tight rope late, as Zach Eflin let the Cardinals back into things plating a run and getting a few others on base. He was able to get out of the jam to secure the win, but the pen has got to hold it together if the Phillies want to contend for the rest of the fall.
• Exactly 11 years ago to the day — back when Bryson Stott was 14 — the Cardinals scored on back-to-back extra base hits in the first inning against the Phillies in Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS. The Phillies mustered no offense (Chase Utley had a hit and Shane Victorino had two) in a 1-0 loss to end the Phillies most recent "dynasty."
It's only fitting that Phillies fans — starving for playoff baseball — were treated to yet another pitcher's duel in Game 1 of the 2022 Wild Card Round. But this time, perhaps what many thought the '11 Phillies should have done occurred with the memorable victory.
It's weird and beautiful how things work out sometimes.
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