Razing Arizona
Kelly, Diamondbacks weren’t ready for Red October
With all due respect to Team Venezuela and its fans, this was not that.
I suppose you can give Merrill Kelly some credit for trying to speak his worst nightmare out of existence. His pre-NLCS comments downplaying the atmosphere at Citizens Bank Park weren’t even all that inflammatory. Maybe two “Attaboys” on the Arcia scale. If that.
At the same time, everybody knows the rules when you visit a zoo.
You do not disrespect the habitat. You do not tap on the glass. And you do not, under any circumstances, at any time of the year, for any reason whatsoever, feed the animals. Never. Ever.
Ever, ever, ever?
Ever, ever, ever.
I’m mostly having fun here. Kelly’s comments weren’t the reason Kyle Schwarber awoke from his early-October slumber. They weren’t the reason Alec Bohm spent Game 2 working the infield dirt like an archeological dig. They weren’t the reason the Phillies joined the 2008 Rays as the only teams in major league history to hit three home runs in four straight playoff games. And they certainly aren’t the reason the
Phillies are now just two wins away from their second consecutive World Series berth.
That being said, the last thing this crowd needed was some passive-aggressive shade.
After five raucous home wins this postseason, it didn’t seem possible that Citizens Bank Park had another notch to dial up. But then came Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, and a 10-0 thrashing of the Diamondbacks.
Aaron Nola set the tone early, showcasing a filthy knuckle curve that turned the Diamondbacks lineup into a glorified ceiling fan. Schwarber and Trea Turner provided some early breathing room with solo home runs in the first and third innings. Once Kelly left the game in the sixth inning, the floodgates opened. Four runs that frame. Four runs the next. Pack up the sandals and head off to the desert.
“Just keep playing,” said Turner, who entered the night having reached base in 12 of his 24 career plate appearances against Kelly and made it a loud 13 of 25 with his first-inning home run. “We feel good in here. We know where we’re at. We know the situation. We know the job’s not finished.”
They can finish it by winning two out of three in Arizona, starting with Game 3 on
Thursday. The real question is whether the Diamondbacks even want to come back. Turns out, they might as well have shown up to Citizens Bank Park wearing cellophane and butterscotch and riding in the back of a TastyKake truck. They weren’t ready. Not for this. The lights, the noise, the sudden chill in the air, the unrelenting nature of the guys in the lineup and the ones on the mound. You can’t blame them if they’d rather not experience it again.
Kelly and co-ace Zac Gallen were supposed to be the antidote to this ridiculous concoction of energy and power brewed up by the Phillies and their fans. Both were good. Kelly, in particular. But you can’t be too short of perfect to survive on the main stage.
“Look, we could be playing on the moon,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said after watching the Phillies rack up seven extra base hits. “Everybody is talking about coming into this environment, and I don’t care. We have to play better baseball. Everybody has to be better. You can start with the manager and then trickle all the way down through the entire team.”
If Game 1 was the Phillies winning as they have for much of this postseason, Game 2 was them showing off. Bohm made the defensive play in the second inning, throwing out Gabriel Moreno from his knees after making a diving stop of a sharply hit ground ball to his right. He followed it up later with another diving stop that probably kept the shutout in play. Nick Castellanos made a leaping catch at the wall in the fifth inning to retire Evan Longoria. Johan Rojas spoke for all 46,000-plus by giving Castellanos a celebratory kiss.
It was that kind of night. They were those kind of vibes. The Phillies are no longer the underdogs, and they look awfully good as favorites. Seven wins in eight playoff games. A 15-3 run differential in the first two games of the NLCS against an opponent that swept its first two series.
There is nobody who isn’t hitting, nobody who isn’t fielding, nobody who isn’t contributing. It’s a rare sort of thing, a rare sort of magic, except it’s also the same sort of magical thing that happened for an entire month last October. They gas ran out then, but it sure looks like there is more in the tank this time around. You saw it from Nola, who easily could have retaken the mound for a seventh scoreless inning if the Phillies hadn’t given the bullpen more than enough margin for error. You saw it from Schwarber, who hit his second and third home runs of the series after entering it with zero in his first 24 postseason at-bats.
“I think it’s just the trust that everybody has in each other,” said Bohm, who added an RBI double to his slick fielding play. “We’ve got guys up and down the lineup, the pitching staff, the bullpen, who have been in big spots, pitched in big games, had some swing in big games. I think there’s just a lot of trust. We’re just ready to go. We’ve got the crowd behind us, a big boost of energy. There’s not one specific thing. It’s just a group of guys who trust each other.”
As for Kelly? He actually was pretty good. An impressive performance from an impressive guy, and nowhere close to enough.
“I obviously haven’t heard this place on the field,” he’d said before Monday’s Game 1, “but I would be very surprised if it trumped that Venezuela game down in Miami.”
It would have been interesting to hear his thoughts as he walked off the mound in the sixth inning, engulfed by a thunderous roar.
The Diamondbacks arrived as red meat for Red October. They left as an afternoon snack.