The Philadelphia Phillies Grab Their Nuts And Walk Off A Damn Baseball Game To Make This A Series
Hunter Martin. Getty Images.Saturday was one of the more soul-crushing losses we've seen in our lifetime as Phillies fans. An unbelievable scoreless 7-inning gem out of your ace, a leadoff home run, and the Phillies did absolutely nothing with it before getting their dicks kicked in that 8th inning to lose in horrific fashion.
Truth be told, things weren't looking so great tonight either. You got a great outing out of Christopher Sanchez, but the offense still looked like they've never picked up a bat in their life before. Pretty sure they only had 3 hits in the first 5 innings, down 3-0 in the bottom of the 6th, and the gas at Citizens Bank Park was running on fumes. Fans were getting frustrated at the players, players were getting frustrated at the fans.
Things weren't looking great. But whenever you need someone to step up, grab their nuts and inject that ballpark with some juice, all you need to do is give Bryce Harper something he can finally get a barrel on. And in the bottom of the 6th, the man delivered.
Turner on 1st after having a huge bounce back game. Obviously the Mets wouldn't want to put the tying run at the plate, so they finally had to stop being cowards and actually pitch to Harper. Big mistake because the Bad Man decided to step on one and get some life back in the park. 2 pitches later, Nick Castellanos ties it up.
What a night out of Castellanos. He's had moments where he's hot as shit in the playoffs, and he's had moments where he's ice cold. The guy had 5 homers in 3 games during last postseason, but he also goes on these streaks where he swings at every pitch in the dirt and causes fans to hate his guts for days and weeks at a time. But Nick Castellanos just keeps swinging either way because he knows that whenever he gets ice cold in the playoffs, it's only a matter of time before he heats back up.
So with the Phillies down 4-3 in the bottom of the 8th, he gets on base and moves Harper over to 3rd. Then Bryson Stott, who has also been shrinking in big moments lately, decided to give everyone a little birthday present with a massive triple to bring in 2 runs.
He gets brought home by a Realmuto grounder and now it's 6-4 Phillies heading into the top of the 9th. Can the boys do it? Can this bullpen hold on to a tight lead and take care of business? Can they head up to New York with a 1-1 split?
Well…..no. Matt Strahm continues to struggle, the bullpen continues to be absolute dog shit especially with a 2-strike count, and those goddamn son of a bitch Mets tie it up in the 9th inning. This goddamn team just won't die. Or at least they won't die quickly. Because here comes the bottom of the 9th. The Phillies know they can't afford to let this team hang on anymore. They have the top of the lineup up. If it goes to extra innings, they are fucked. They need to end this right here, right now.
Turner walk. Harper walk. Nick Castellanos have a fuckin' day, buddy.
A night for Nick Castellanos which pretty much embodied the night for the entire Phillies team. It's not just the fact that they won this game, but it's how they got the job done.
The offense was putrid through the first 5 innings. They made some really solid plays defensively, but the Mets were still able to get on the board. It would have been a perfect time for a lesser team to just throw in the towel. But they kept fighting, they started to work the at-bats a little better instead of just letting the Mets pitchers off the hook, and they found a way to get the job done time and time again. There are clearly still some serious areas of concern for this team (bullpen), but they have life and they showed that they have the balls to fight. It wasn't perfect, but goddamn was it exciting.