Look on bright side
The Phillies are still playing in November, with Wheeler on the mound for Game 6
PHILADELPHIA — The last time the Phillies were caught in Houston in the regular season, they were bathed in champagne, but also in caution.
They had just won the third-to-last game of the season and were rightfully thrilled that for the first time since 2011 the club would play beyond Game 162. So the players goggled-up, wasted cases of bubbly wine and tried, for that moment, to celebrate the closest thing to history that they’d enjoyed for years.
That’s when Rob Thomson looked not back, but forward.
“And now,” he announced, “we have to win 13 more.”
It may have been the earliest last-call to a clubhouse carry-on in baseball history, but it said something about the manager, about the players and about what they had the chance to do.
At that point, all the Phillies were guaranteed were two road games in a cheap play-in round, but Thomson knew there was a chance for a much greater achievement.
A month later, that’s why they were not only still playing Thursday, but some employees at Citizens Bank Park were semi-bracing for the possibility that the joint may be used one more time this season, that being for a possible championship parade next week. That was all because the Phillies had won 11 times since that Thomson countdown clock began to tick, and they would have a chance to grab serious command of the World Series before another rambunctious crowd in Game 5 against the Houston Astros.
Pretty big game.
“Yeah, at this stage, every game is extremely important,” J.T. Realmuto said beforehand. “They all mean a lot. Every
win is one step closer to the ultimate goal. That’s obviously a great team we’re playing over there, and we don’t want to go back to Houston down a game.
“Obviously, this is a really big game.”
For the occasion, the Phillies would trust Noah Syndergaard to try to secure both a victory and one more thick contract somewhere else. In that, it had the chance to be a win-win for a pitching-challenged team trying to forget being no-hit 24 hours earlier and a free-agent soonto-be.
“I feel good about him,” Thomson proclaimed. “He’s going to go out, he’s going to pound the zone, he’s going to try and mix it up and change speeds behind in the count, things like that. I think he’s going to pitch well.”
Syndergaard wasn’t bad in three-plus innings, flashing some of his old “Thor” fire and not walking a hitter. But as popularly suspected, he was good for no more than three innings and 44 pitches, the first three of which the Astros used to build a 1-0 lead. Jose Altuve hit the second pitch of the game to deep right center for a double and hustled to third when Brandon Marsh handled the ball like Joel Embiid with 10 seconds left in a close game. Signaling that he expected a low score, Thomson yanked the infield in, and Jeremy Pena bumped Altuve with a ground single.
When Realmuto ended the inning by nailing
Pena at second and Kyle Schwarber led off the bottom of the inning with a home run, order was restored and Syndergaard worked into the fourth. But when Pena looped a leadoff home run into the left-field audience, it was quite likely Syndergaard’s final pitch in a Phillies uniform. He left trailing, 2-1, but like Aaron Nola the night before, he hardly was over-gifted with run support.
The Phillies, though, received enough strong relief pitching from Connor Brogdon, Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez to keep it close into the late innings — quite in character, as they have remained alive much longer than their 87-win regular season and third-place NL East finish suggested was possible.
They also executed defensively, particularly in the seventh, when Dominguez coaxed Chas McCormick into bouncing to third, resulting in Yuli Gurriel being retired in a rundown between third and home.
“All season long our defense has continued to get better and better,” Realmuto said. “The guys have put in a ton of work with the coaching staff. They’re out there every single day grinding.”
Those remaining days are dwindling.
At the minimum Thursday, the Phillies knew they would be in Houston Saturday with a rested Zack Wheeler available to try and reduce the entire season to a one-game Sunday showdown.
“The numbers kind of speak for themselves with how well he’s pitched — not just this season but in his entire career — with that extra day of rest,” Realmuto said. “I don’t know exactly how to define it, but starting pitchers always seem to do a lot better and feel a lot better with that extra day.”
The Phillies were hoping to play Saturday for a world championship, but their recent historically poor offense had not been cooperating.
Either way, the countdown remained on. A week into November, that would be plenty.