Phillies Playoff
With the regular season coming to an end, the Philadelphia Phillies were able to secure the 2nd best record in the National League, making them the 2 seed in the playoffs. This gives them a bye in the first round of the playoffs and home field advantage for the first 2 games of their first series. The Phillies play the New York Mets in the Divisional Series. After an exciting first 2 games in Philly, the series will head to New York for Games 3 and 4. Idf the teams split the games in New York like they did in Philly, Game 5 will be played in Philadelphia.
Game 1
This game was a pitchers duel for 7 innings. Other than Kyle Scwarber leading off the game with a towering solo shot, neither team was able to get anything going. Zach Wheeler threw a strong 7 innings of 1 hit baseball for the Phillies. Kodai Senga in only his 2nd outing of the season looked solid and David Peterson was able to pitch an extremely solid 4 innings for the Mets. In the top of the 8th when the Phillies bullpen came in, was where the game totally changed. The Mets were able to score 5 runs in the top of the 8th, completely taking all the momentum from Philadelphia and eventually go on and win the game. The Phillies would score a meaningless run to make the final score 5-2 with the Mets taking game one.
Game 2
Looking to bounce back after the Game 1 loss the Phillies would pitch Christopher Sanchez who has looked amazing for them this year especially when pitching at home. For the Mets, Luis Severino would take the mound. The first 2 innings were scoreless for both squads but the 3rd was a different story. Mark Vientos hit a 2 run homerun that would give the Mets the lead and in the 6th Pete Alonso would hit a solo shot to give the Mets a 3-0 lead. In most likely Severins last inning he leads off the bottom of the 6th getting 2 quick outs but gives up a 2 out hit to Trea Turner bringing up Bryce Harper. Bryce has a reputation for being the most clutch player in baseball. He proves to be clutch by hitting a 2 run home run to cut the lead down to 1. Next at bat Nick Castellanos rode the momentum hitting a solo shot to tie up the game. The Mets answered right back with a Brandon Nimmo solo home run. In the bottom of the eighth the Phillies struck again with a two RBI triple by Bryson Stott. Right after JT Realmuto hits a dribbler that Mark Vientos can’t handle to score Bryson Stott. Going into the top of the 9th with a 2 run lead and Matt Strahm pitching, Philadelphia was pretty confident about their chances to take game 2. Mark Vientos and New York had other plans, with Vientos hitting his second home run of the game. This blast tied up the score but the Mets were not able to start anything else back up in the top of the 9th. The Mets got 2 quick outs and it looked like the game was going to extras. 2 straight walks though, sent up Nick Castellanos with 2 guys on and 2 guys out and he delivered. Castellanos gets a walkoff base hit to win the game 7-6.
