Game 1 of the World Series was sent to extras after Nick Castellanos made a sliding grab on Jeremy Pena's fly ball. There is a time and a place. In the first game of the World Series, Philadelphia found themselves in a five-run hole against the best pitcher in the American League, but they came back to win. "I think it's normal for us," third baseman Alec Bohm said of the win that gave Philadelphia home-field advantage for the rest of the playoffs. At the beginning of the month, the worst of the 12 playoff teams this season by record, the Philadelphia Phillies, were cannon fodder for St. Louis. The Phillies were until then. Philadelphia was 14 games behind Atlanta in the National League East division. They were throttled by thePhilly team. By the time of the NLCS, thePhillies were a dangerous team with nothing to lose. They set their sights on Houston after they defeated the Padres. After getting tagged for five runs in the first three frames, the Philadelphians came back to tie the game against the Astros. For the second time this month, Nick Castellanos made a diving catch that looked absolutely nothing like Nick Castellanos, this time he saved Jeremy Pena from driving in Jose Altuve, which would have ended the game in the bottom of the ninth. J.T. Realmuto hit a home run just over the right-field fence to break the game open. A pair of runners in scoring position were stranded by David Robertson. We were reminded once again that impossible is a construct they refuse to acknowledge. You can say "Oh, Justin Verlander's on the mound" "We can't come back now," he said. They do not give up any runs. That's five. Let's quit, get on the bus, and start over tomorrow. You think you're going to win? What if you don't? October has been a month of what-ifs for the Phils. They are going to the World Series. Their journey to the Fall Classic was covered by us. The Phils won the NLCS. The season was saved by Philadelphia.
How Schwarber became an October star »
If you are down 2-0 in the first game of the playoffs, what would you do? In the ninth, you scored six runs and won.
If a team walks a guy who is 0-for-18 in the playoffs, what would you do? If you want torile up the crowd, hit a home run, and then spike the bat to make them angry.
If you are outmatched on a pitch, what do you do? As long as the Phillies win, it doesn't need to be pretty, because Jean Segura has moved his body like a contortionist and wielded his bat with artistry, two times in this playoffs.
What if you're down in the NLCS by a big margin? Why wouldn't you tie it that way and then win the game? This sort of thing starts to feel like something special, so when you hit a home run in the fifth game of a series, it's just a reminder that it is.
Nola said what a team. Things you don't expect will happen. It's defense, offense, and pitching. It's everything.
In the first game, it was everything. The Philadelphians were almost 2-to-1 favorites to win in Houston. In front of nearly 43,000 at Minute Maid, Kyle Tucker's first home run of the season gave the Astros a lead they wouldn't relinquish, and the Astros would go on to win their 106th game.
The first phase was Verlander's downfall. The first, with two outs in the fourth, saw a trio of runs. After Brandon Marsh doubled and Kyle Schwarber walked to start the fifth, manager Dusty Baker trusted his ace.
There is no sense in what the Philadelphians are doing. This is baseball, the sport in which can transform into excellence overnight, and they've been a mediocre team for the entire of theHarper era.
The best team doesn't always win, even if they are better than the Astros over the course of the season. Why not seven? Do you mean after four Game 1 victories away from Citizens Bank? Saturday is the second game of the series. There are three games at Citizens Bank and obscene ticket prices.
The secret to their success is that they can be better than the Astros now.
"You just keep playing, because no matter what the end is, what the score is, anything can happen."
The merry band of clowns who just so happened to figure out how to win baseball games at precisely the right time have become an all-consuming identity. Maybe that sounds trite, cliché, and positively Philadelphia, is it?
Maybe this will be the end of the Philadelphia's magical run where the Astros turn on their Death Star vibe and Philadelphia's buzz. It might be something different from the polar ends. It will make for a World Series that's going to be a lot better, and a lot closer, if Game 1 can be repeated.
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