"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness." - Oscar Wilde

 

 

 

 

 

That one rubs the wrong way: Astros 5, Phillies 2

That felt big.

The game settled from there, both pitchers getting through the lineups without much resistance, but whatever Wheeler was able to do, Valdez was able to do better. Of course, this being the World Series, there are cameras everywhere, able to watch every little move, amplify it and make it something more than it

probably is. And Valdez’s dominance caused some to start to wonder.

Personally? This is much ado about nothing. Sure, you can look at his spin rate numbers on Baseball Savant and start to scratch your head about why these numbers are all up, but it just feels like fishing for an excuse for why the Phillies were unable to hit him. Is it suspect? Sure. The reputation that Houston has

means nothing can be considered “too far” for them, but as Rob Thomson said in his postgame conference, the umpires check him. Nothing was found. Focusing this much attention on something nefarious that probably wasn’t going on, it just feels like a stretch.

Back to the game, Valdez’s pitch count was creeping up and up as the night wore on, the Phillies still taking some decent at bats, so the game was far from over. We saw last night how quickly they could come back so long as the starter, in this case Wheeler, kept the game within reach. No mistakes were able to be made.

Whoops.

That one felt like a knife in the back, but still, the evidence was there that you could not walk away from the game just yet. In the sixth, Kyle Schwarber walked and Hoskins singled to start the inning, noise being made by the offense that made Valdez start to sweat a bit. However, that threat was quickly squashed as

J.T. Realmuto struck out and Bryce Harper grounded into a double play that ended the inning with nary a runner crossing the plate.

In the seventh, Nick Castellanos started things off with a double, then went to third on a ground ball by Alec Bohm. That would end the evening for Valdez, Rafael Montero coming into shut things down. Jean Segura would step in a fly out to give the Phillies their first run, but that was all they would get, the score 5-1

going to the seventh.

The bullpen of Andrew Bellatti in the sixth and Connor Brogdon in the seventh kept things close for the Phillies, bringing their top of the order to the plate in the eighth. Bryson Stott, pinch hitting for Sosa, drew a long walk against Montero to start the inning, bringing up Schwarber to face Montero. After getting the

count to 2-2, he got a pitch he turned on that was originally called a home run, but was overruled to correctly be called foul. It was a moment that went from euphoria to groans in an instant, but on the next pitch, he hit a ball that would fall just feet short of making the game 5-3.

That...was a back breaker.

In the ninth, Bohm hit a one out double, then scored when Gurriel couldn’t corral a groundball off the bat of Brandon Marsh that made it 5-2, a pulse detected from the dugout, but it was for naught as the final out was made on a groundball by Stott that ended the game and tied the series.

Tonight just didn’t feel like the Phillies’ night. They gave the Astros too many extra chances that Houston capitalized on, they didn’t get some of the bounces they did in previous series and yet they still showed they can hang with this Goliath. It was never going to be easy and tonight showed that, but it’s over and

they need to move on.

[MLB] アストロズを初のWS進出に導いたレジェンド ビジオ＆バグウェルが始球式に登場！

Found a way.

 

.@JuliaMorales catches up with @ABREG_1 following our Game 2 win in the 2022

 

 

 

 

#WorldSeries GAME 1

 

Friday Oct. 28

 PHI 6 vs 5 HOU   

 Just enjoy the ride: Phillies 6, Astros 5

By The Smarty Jones 

It didn’t feel like a win. When the Astros took an early 5-0 lead, many Phillies fans were already looking ahead to Saturday. When Jeremy Pena poked a ball to right field with a runner on second in the bottom of the ninth, we should have begun mourning what could have been. And when David Robertson had to

protect a one-run lead by facing the heart of the Astros’ order in the bottom of the 10th, there’s no way the Phillies should have emerged victorious.

But the Phillies somehow came back from that 5-0 deficit. Nick Castellanos made a tough catch in right field. And David Robertson was able to record three outs in the tenth without allowing a run. Combined with a heroic hitting performance from J.T. Realmuto, the Phillies somehow took a 1-0 lead in the World

Series by defeating the Astros 6-5.

It looked bad early on. Justin Verlander was sharp and Aaron Nola didn’t. Verlander retired the first ten Phillies batters he faced, while Nola couldn’t locate his curveball, and couldn’t keep Kyle Tucker in the park.

Faced with a 5-0 score, many Phillies fans started hoping that Zack Wheeler would be able to salvage a split in Houston. But you know who wasn’t looking ahead to Saturday? The Phillies.

They finally got a couple of runners on base against Verlander, and thanks to RBI hits by Nick Castellanos and Alec Bohm, the lead was cut to two.

Those runs didn’t just break up the shutout; They also seemed to pierce the seeming invincibility the Astros had up to that point. Nola retired the Astros in order the following inning, and then the Phillies got their first two hitters aboard in the top of the fifth. With one out, J.T. Realmuto came to the plate.

Now pitching in a tie game, and seemingly having settled down, it seemed like Nola could have pitched a little longer. But Rob Thomson disagreed, and with one out in the fifth, he turned to the bullpen. I haven’t agreed with every move Thomson has made this postseason, especially when it comes to removing

pitchers from the game. But I’ll be darned if he doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing.

Jose Alvarado relieved Nola and retired the next three batters. It felt like he might have been able to go longer, but Thomson called upon Zach Eflin who covered 1.1 scoreless innings. Making a bullpen appearance between starts, Ranger Suarez was called upon to record two outs, and then Seranthony Dominguez

covered the final 1.2 innings of regulation.

The game almost ended in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, Jose Altuve’s pop up somehow found grass in centerfield. Jeremy Pena followed with a similarly weakly hit pop-up that almost dropped in for a game-winning single. But for the second time in these playoffs, Nick Castellanos made a game-saving catch.

With the game in extra innings, the Phillies - or at least J.T. Realmuto - didn’t waste much time in taking the lead.

The Phillies had the lead, but it felt like protecting it would be the hard part. Thomson called upon David Robertson to close it out, and to the surprise of nobody, it wasn’t easy. Alex Bregman had a one-out double, and after another out, Yuli Gurriel followed with a walk to put the winning run on base.

When a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, disaster seemed imminent. But Robertson finally got Aledmys Diaz to ground out to third, and the Phillies escaped with an improbable 6-5 win.

The Phillies are now three wins from a championship. They’ll have Zack Wheeler on the mound on Saturday with an opportunity to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series. I can’t predict what is going to happen, but it seems likely that Thomson will make at least one decision I disagree with, and something

improbable will happen in the Phillies’ favor. At this point, I can only suggest that you stop questioning it, and sit back and enjoy the ride.