Phillies path to promised land now considerably trickier after falling behind in NLDS originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Nothing to worry about, the Phillies said. We got this, they assured their nervous fan base. Pay no attention to that 33-34 record from the middle of the July to the end of the regular season. Don’t mind the recent history which suggests teams earning a bye in the first round of the playoffs tend to resemble a creaky-kneed senior citizen trying to get out of their recliner chair after sitting for five hours when play resumes.
Get me rewrite!
With the exception of seven brilliant shutout innings from starter Zack Wheeler, they came out in Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Mets Saturday at Citizens Bank Park looking very much like a group that hadn’t yet had its morning coffee.
Manager Rob Thomson talked earlier in the week about the importance of scoring early and then continuing to pile on.
“It’s always the message. It’s the constant message,” he preached. “Doesn’t matter who you’re playing. The game is about control in the strike zone. If you do that you’re going to win a lot of games. Once you get the lead, then you keep going, and you keep putting pressure on the other club, because they will feel it.”
What happened instead was that Kyle Schwarber ripped his hardest-hit ball of the season – 115.8 mile per hour exit velocity – into the second deck to lead off the bottom of the first. After that the Phillies had just three more hits before pushing across a cosmetic run in the ninth.
The party line was that the time off was good for everybody, especially the relievers. Oops. The bullpen imploded in the eighth.
The result was an unsightly 6-2 loss by the team with baseball’s second-best record to a team that had to play all out until through a makeup doubleheader the day after the regular season ended just to qualify for the tournament.
When the Phillies failed to score in the bottom of the eighth, one of the sellout crowd of 45,751 rose from his seat, tossed his re rally towel over the railing and headed for the exits.
Yes, this was only one game. Yes, the Phillies are fully capable of taking three of the next four and to win the best-of-five series and advance to the NLCS against the winner of the Padres-Dodgers grudge match.
But, again, while every Game 1 is important, this one carried even more potential to set the tone than most.
The Mets have been fire, playing heart-thumping, must-win…