NLDS: Phillies can’t escape their October ghosts
Offense falls silent vs. Dodgers in Game 1
From The Reporter: https://tinyurl.com/vux9ynr4
With another postseason came more October struggles for the Phillies’ biggest bats.
The Phils’ top hitters disappeared along with a three-run lead in Saturday night’s 5-3 loss to the Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League Divisional Series at Citizens Bank Park.
One through four in the Philadelphia lineup — Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm — were a combined 1-for-13 with a single, three walks and six strikeouts.
Overall, the Phillies produced just five hits while fanning a dozen times.
It was a familiar theme. A year ago, the same quartet was 11-for-56 (.196) when the Phils got bounced in four games by the Mets.
The year before, in games 6 and 7 of the NLCS against Arizona — and adding Nick Castellanos to the mix — the group was 4-for-35 as a trip to the World Series slipped away.
After putting up three runs in the second inning Saturday, Phillies bats swooned as Shohei Ohtani settled into a groove. He piled up nine strikeouts over six frames before Tyler Glasnow, Alex Vesia and Roki Sasaki took over the rest of the way.
“I thought Ohtani threw the ball really well, obviously the heater, curveball, split,” Harper said. “We jumped on him and then we kind of laid low for a bit. We weren’t able to do more than that.
“We were chasing a little bit … and I thought we missed a lot of pitches over the plate against him tonight, and that just can’t happen.”
The Phils failed to deliver on two-out scoring opportunities and finished 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. It’s an example of why many fans — haunted by Octobers past — were hesitant to fully jump aboard all summer, even as Schwarber bombed 56 home runs and the team charged ahead to 96 wins and the second-best record in the majors, capturing the NL East by 13 games.
“He really pitched them well,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said of Ohtani’s approach to his top hitters. “A lot of offspeed, dotted his fastball. … So tip your cap and move on. It’s a tough loss, but we’ve got to shake it off and come out here Monday and get after it again.”
Sure, this was only one game, but it’s only a best-of-five series. And the Phillies have lost four of their last five playoff games at home.
Phillies lefty Cristopher Sanchez, displaying strong command a devastating changeup, lasted 5 2/3, giving up four hits and a pair of earned runs while striking out eight and walking two.
Questions may linger about Thomson’s bullpen management, particularly about sending 40-year-old David Robertson back out for the seventh — and the subsequent three-run shot Matt Strahm gave up to Teoscar Hernández was a crushing blow that flipped the game — but Phillies hitters still had nine outs to do something about it.
It didn’t help that Harrison Bader, the Phils’ trade-deadline sparkplug in center field, had to exit after suffering a groin injury.
“This is never going to be easy,” Schwarber said. “You’re facing the best of the best out here. (Ohtani) does a really good job of mixing up his pitches. I feel like it’s all quality pitches. There’s not a below-average pitch. I feel like they’re all above average. …. Glasgow comes out of the pen, got some traffic on base and did a good job. And then obviously Sasaki comes in there at the end and was making some quality pitches.
“It’s up to us to be able to make the adjustments and go out there and do everything possible to put ourselves in a good position. … It’s up to us to go out there and keep having quality at-bats and find a way to get a win.”
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Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.