From the people who brought you Bedlam at the Bank, a year to the day later … Bedtime at the Bank.
The Phillies looked flat in Monday’s Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, which the Diamondbacks won 5–1 to force a winner-take-all Game 7 on Tuesday. It was the worst performance by a group of people who reside part time in Pennsylvania since Mehmet Oz’s senatorial campaign. By the eighth inning, the 45,473 in attendance could barely bring themselves to boo erstwhile closer Craig Kimbrel as he entered for mop-up duty. (They managed, though.)
The series looked over when the Phillies took a commanding 2–0 lead in the first games here, but the Diamondbacks took two out of three in Phoenix and looked on Monday like the plucky underdogs who swept the Dodgers in the National League Division Series.
Arizona starter Merrill Kelly, who faced jeers in Game 2 when he said he couldn’t imagine that the Philly crowd could be louder than that of the World Baseball Classic, quieted the fans and the Phillies’ lineup, scattering three hits and one run in five innings. The four relievers who followed combined to allow two hits. Philadelphia went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
“Just couldn’t get it done,” said first baseman Bryce Harper, who went 0-for-3 with a walk.
“We also have to give credit to them,” said right fielder Nick Castellanos, who went 0-for-4 and is now 1-for-the series. “They pitched a good game. They were on the edges—outside, inside, bottom of the zone—all day.”
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Indeed, Kelly only threw one offspeed pitch in the heart of the zone, a curveball; DH Kyle Schwarber swung through it for strike three. The Phillies also expanded the zone, swinging at 25 balls. (None went for a hit.) Schwarber walked twice and Harper walked once; no one else did.
Meanwhile, Phillies No. 2 starter Aaron Nola, in what could be his final start at Citizens Bank Park in red pinstripes as he will become a free agent after this postseason, made mistakes, and the Diamondbacks hit them. “It was a little strange, because [in the] first inning he [came] out and he really executed everything,” said manager Rob Thomson. But in the second, Nola allowed consecutive home runs in the second, to Tommy Pham on a hanging curveball and to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on a fastball Nola failed to elevate. Then he walked Alek Thomas and permitted an RBI double to Evan Longoria on a meatball.
“Bad inning right there,” Nola said.
Nola settled down, but it was too late. “He didn't execute some pitches, and he paid for it,” said Thomson. “But we didn't score any runs.”
The Diamondbacks won 84 games and squeaked into the playoffs, but they seem to be peaking. Second baseman Ketel Marte has hit in the first 15 games of his postseason career, tied for the longest such streak in history. Center fielder Alek Thomas, who hit a game-tying, three-run home run in Game 3, reached base three times, swiped a bag and recorded five putouts on Monday. The Diamondbacks stole one base total in Games 1 through 5. They stole four in Game 6. Game 3 starter Brandon Pfaadt, who had a 5.72 ERA this year, has not allowed a run in his last two starts over 10 innings of work. He is scheduled to pitch Game 7.
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“I’m tired of that narrative that we’re lucky to be here,” manager Torey Lovullo said after they won Game 4 to tie the series at two games apiece. “I want everybody to know that we don’t feel like it, and hopefully they’re starting to change their mind as well.”
The Phillies will counter with lefty Ranger Suárez, who, if he has ever been nervous, has kept it to himself. Monday’s lopsided score meant that they stayed away from their two most reliable relievers, lefty José Alvarado and righty Jeff Hoffman, so they should be rested. Ace Zack Wheeler is available for a few outs. But the bats will have to awaken if the Phillies expect to advance to a second straight World Series and avenge their loss in the last one.
“You don’t want to put any added pressure, right?” Schwarber said. “The writing’s on the wall. It’s Game 7. Everyone sees it. Everyone knows it. We know that we’ve gotta come out and we’ve gotta play our best game tomorrow.”
Good, because they didn’t tonight.
