Phillies hitters sit with the sting of an NLDS Game 1 dud that raises familiar doubts
PHILADELPHIA — It was 7:55 p.m. when Trea Turner trudged through the Phillies clubhouse Saturday. The result, a 6-2 loss to the New York Mets , had lingered across Citizens Bank Park for 31 minutes. But Turner was still in his full uniform. He carried two bats. His hat was turned backward. Some of his teammates had showered and gone. The sting wafted in the room.
Turner needed time. He analyzed video of his at-bats from Game 1 of this National League Division Series. Batting between two lefty sluggers, Turner went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. The Phillies went 19 batters without a hit in the middle of the game. This wasn't on the $300 million shortstop. But it's impossible to view these Phillies now and not think about last October. The seeds of doubt were planted in this ballpark and, as at-bat after at-bat failed to yield hard contact by a Phillies hitter, an exuberant sold-out crowd oozed nervousness.
"You don't know when it's going to happen," Turner said. "That's why you have to keep pushing. Keep looking forward to that next pitch, that next opportunity. Tomorrow's a new day."
Tomorrow is Sunday and the Phillies must win. For the first time in the postseason under manager Rob Thomson, the Phillies dropped a Game 1. The Phillies have failed to win the series all seven times in franchise history when they lost a Game 1.
So they must do something that has never happened in 142 seasons of Phillies baseball.
The Phillies lost Saturday despite not allowing an extra-base hit. Zack Wheeler delivered one of the greatest October pitching performances the Phillies have ever seen — 111 pitches in seven innings of one-hit ball — and they lost. They watched their two best relievers — Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm — get ahead in every count and the Mets hung five runs on them. They received a familiar jolt, a leadoff Kyle Schwarber blast, and they still lost.
That eighth inning was 24 minutes of hell for a Phillies team built to win in October — a team that cruised for months this season. The bullpen meltdown was unexpected. "It was stunning," Thomson said. "It was." But the Phillies had left the door ajar for New York's resilient lineup.
This game was lost in the middle innings, when Wheeler did everything possible to carry the Phillies.
"Obviously, as an offense, we wasted that start," Bryce Harper said. "It's the same thing, man. Chasing balls in the dirt. We didn't work deep into counts like we should have. We have to understand what they're trying to do to us and flip the switch as an offense."
The same thing. What are the Mets trying to do?
"Obviously, they're going to bury stuff and try to get us to chase as much as possible," Harper said. "They have really good pitching. But we got really good hitters in here. We just have to bear down and understand that we can do it."
It was interesting, then, to hear the contrasts from two teams after a jarring Game 1. Brandon Nimmo , who singled on a mistake 0-2 fastball from Strahm, credited Mets pitchers for keeping them alive. They knew Wheeler was almost unhittable, especially with the challenging shadows that affected both offenses. But a one-run deficit allowed Nimmo to "still think small." The Mets batted around in the eighth inning with five singles and a walk. They scored two runs on sacrifice flies.
"It's doing whatever is asked of you by the game at that point," Nimmo said. "If that's just a sac fly, if that's putting the ball in play, if that's getting a guy over — whatever it is. And all these guys are believing in going up there again with a plan, understanding what the baseball situation is, and not trying to do too much. Now, sometimes that turns out to be a home run or a big double or something like that."
Sometimes it doesn't.
"I feel like from the first inning to the seventh inning, it was really hard to see a baseball," Nick Castellanos said. "I think on both sides. What did we have? Three hits in the first seven innings. I think both teams after the sun was behind the stadium put together better at-bats."
They did. But New York 's were better. Nimmo said he couldn't see any laces on the ball. "So you literally are just swinging at a black ball," Nimmo said." The shadows at Citizens Bank Park are the worst, hitters have said, when the mound is darkened and the batter's eye is still bright. It was that way for most of the game.
"I don't know if I was seeing much," Mets third baseman Mark Vientos said. "It was hard to see the baseball, for sure. But both teams were dealing with it."
They were. Castellanos acknowledged that. Game 2 starts at the same time — 4:08 p.m. So, now what?
"It's going to be a grind," Castellanos said. "It's going to be the same for us as it is for them. We're going to have to find a way to deal with it."
By now, the scouting report is clear. Teams are throwing the Phillies fewer fastballs in the zone. They do damage on those when pitchers make mistakes. Opponents are throwing more off-speed pitches for both strikes and balls. The Phillies are aggressive. They will chase.
"Sometimes you go in passive and all of a sudden you're taking good pitches to hit," Castellanos said. "And then sometimes you're ready to hit and you don't get anything in the zone to hit. I think step one is just washing it down, coming together, understanding that this isn't going to be easy. Just regroup and fight. That's all we can do."
Said Harper: "We have to be better."
Turner pored over his at-bats. He chased one pitch in his first at-bat, strike three. He took a borderline 0-0 changeup in his second at-bat and it was called a strike. He swung-and-missed at a curveball in a similar location later in the at-bat. It was a ball. "You're kind of thinking you have to swing at that," Turner said. Then, he grounded into a fielder's choice.
He came to the plate in the fifth inning with a runner on second and one out. Johan Rojas had worked a nine-pitch walk to begin the inning. His run would have been tremendous insurance.
Turner chased a first-pitch changeup and whiffed at it. He took a ball. He was facing a lefty, David Peterson , who was a starter all season but now was on his 46th pitch two days after closing a clinching win in Milwaukee. This was Turner's moment.
He clipped a slider down and away. It floated into foul territory and landed in Mets first baseman Pete Alonso 's glove for the second out. Harper struck out. Rojas was stranded there.
"A lot of balls I went back and looked at for me personally were hitting the edge of the box," Turner said. "It's tough to hit those pitches. I don't know. I wish I could point to something and take those pitches or do this or do that. But I think I made the right decisions today personally. It's more executing. And I didn't execute well enough."
Maybe Sunday will be better. But it's getting late fast for these Phillies.
-run 8th inning to win Game 1: Takeaways
