Should be a fascinating series. The Phillies have been getting better as they progress with Harper outstanding, but Houston are arguably the best overall team in Baseball. They also have the extra home game and probably the best Pitcher on either side in Verlander the likely AL Cy Young winner who may start 3 games. The Phillies will be tough to beat but I think Houston is that bit stronger. I'll go Astros in 6.
I've been a Phillies fan since living out there for 6 months in the summer of 2006. The last 11 years have been rough, especially after the 97 win 2010 team and the 102 win 2011 team who were the favourites to win it all lost to teams they were clearly better than but who got hot at the right time and went on to win the World Series (92 win Giants in 2010 and 90 win wild card Cardinals in 2011).
The Phillies have collapsed each of the last 4 Septembers and missed out on the post season each time. This year looked like it was going to be another September collapse when they went to Chicago and got swept. Thankfully they managed to squeak in and since then they have looked like a whole other team. They look like the team then was beating everyone over the summer. The pressure is clearly off them and they are playing freely, or maybe they just got hot at the right time. The games in Philadelphia have been wild, both on and off the field and its been so much fun following them. The Astros will clearly be the best team the Phillies face this October with very few weaknesses to exploit, but who knows. The Phillies have a pair of veritable aces in Wheeler and Nola who on their day can compete with anyone in the game. They have a solid number 3 in Ranger Suarez who might be the most relaxed man in baseball, coming in last night to get the save in a crucial spot, and they have two of the top relievers in baseball right now in Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez.
As for the lineup, Harper has looked every bit the player he was hyped up to be when he was on the cover of SI at the age of 16, when he was drafted 1st overall and when he received a 330M USD contract from the Phillies 4 years ago, Hoskins and Schwarber are on fire, and the younger less heralded players like Bohm, Stott etc have chipped in when needed.
The rest of bullpen leaves a lot to be desired, though they have contributed at times and Ron Thomson will need to do what he can to navigate the outs he can't get from his top 5 guys, bringing in Eflin, Robertson etc.
Can they win it all? Maybe? A 7 game series will almost never tell you who the better baseball team is, and the team who wins the most games in the regular season is likely the more complete team, but plenty of underdog teams have won the World Series before, so why not the Phillies in 2022! They may not be a 100 win team, but their talent level is clearly higher than the 87 wins it took to get them in, since Rob Thomson took over they have been playing at a 98 win pace, including the playoffs, 95 win pace in the regular season.
As for the idea that it sucks that two Wild Card teams got to the NLCS, I dont care. If you are upset your team got knocked out then tell them to win more games. The Cardinals in particular play in a soft division, had the weakest schedule in all of baseball and still only managed to win the 4th most games. Everyone knew the deal coming in and with the way these series have played out I doubt the league wants to make any changes. For god sakes the Cardinals won the World Series with 83 wins in 2006. The Braves won the East with 88 wins last year, and went on to win the World Series. The Nationals finished second with 93 wins in 2019 and won the World Series. The 2022 Phillies ended up with 1 win less than the Braves last year and on balance are not as good a team as the Dodgers, Braves or Mets but it doesnt matter. They did enough to get in and then they got hot. We're not gonna get two wild card teams in a championship series every year, but it led to great entertainment this year so lets just enjoy it, I know I am!
I've been a Phillies fan since living out there for 6 months in the summer of 2006. The last 11 years have been rough, especially after the 97 win 2010 team and the 102 win 2011 team who were the favourites to win it all lost to teams they were clearly better than but who got hot at the right time and went on to win the World Series (92 win Giants in 2010 and 90 win wild card Cardinals in 2011).
The Phillies have collapsed each of the last 4 Septembers and missed out on the post season each time. This year looked like it was going to be another September collapse when they went to Chicago and got swept. Thankfully they managed to squeak in and since then they have looked like a whole other team. They look like the team then was beating everyone over the summer. The pressure is clearly off them and they are playing freely, or maybe they just got hot at the right time. The games in Philadelphia have been wild, both on and off the field and its been so much fun following them. The Astros will clearly be the best team the Phillies face this October with very few weaknesses to exploit, but who knows. The Phillies have a pair of veritable aces in Wheeler and Nola who on their day can compete with anyone in the game. They have a solid number 3 in Ranger Suarez who might be the most relaxed man in baseball, coming in last night to get the save in a crucial spot, and they have two of the top relievers in baseball right now in Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez.
As for the lineup, Harper has looked every bit the player he was hyped up to be when he was on the cover of SI at the age of 16, when he was drafted 1st overall and when he received a 330M USD contract from the Phillies 4 years ago, Hoskins and Schwarber are on fire, and the younger less heralded players like Bohm, Stott etc have chipped in when needed.
The rest of bullpen leaves a lot to be desired, though they have contributed at times and Ron Thomson will need to do what he can to navigate the outs he can't get from his top 5 guys, bringing in Eflin, Robertson etc.
Can they win it all? Maybe? A 7 game series will almost never tell you who the better baseball team is, and the team who wins the most games in the regular season is likely the more complete team, but plenty of underdog teams have won the World Series before, so why not the Phillies in 2022! They may not be a 100 win team, but their talent level is clearly higher than the 87 wins it took to get them in, since Rob Thomson took over they have been playing at a 98 win pace, including the playoffs, 95 win pace in the regular season.
As for the idea that it sucks that two Wild Card teams got to the NLCS, I dont care. If you are upset your team got knocked out then tell them to win more games. The Cardinals in particular play in a soft division, had the weakest schedule in all of baseball and still only managed to win the 4th most games. Everyone knew the deal coming in and with the way these series have played out I doubt the league wants to make any changes. For god sakes the Cardinals won the World Series with 83 wins in 2006. The Braves won the East with 88 wins last year, and went on to win the World Series. The Nationals finished second with 93 wins in 2019 and won the World Series. The 2022 Phillies ended up with 1 win less than the Braves last year and on balance are not as good a team as the Dodgers, Braves or Mets but it doesnt matter. They did enough to get in and then they got hot. We're not gonna get two wild card teams in a championship series every year, but it led to great entertainment this year so lets just enjoy it, I know I am!
Speaking of off the field fun and games, a mate of mine in Philly sent me this last night lol
Game 1 @ Houston 28th Oct Game 2 @ Houston 29th Oct Game 3 @ Philadelphia 31st Oct Game 4 @ Philadelphia 1st Nov Game 5 @ Philadelphia 2nd Nov Game 6 @ Houston 4th Nov Game 7 @ Houston 5th Nov
I had 100% given up when they were down by 5, figured at that time it was all about preserving the key relievers for a better opportunity but credit to them they never believe they are beaten and turned it around pretty quickly and then the bullpen pitched lights out. Rob Thomson managed like it was game 7 and it worked. Not sure who will be available for tonights game, hopefully Wheeler can go deep. Worst case scenario we get 3 home games in Philly which should be wild.
I'm in Kansas visiting my girlfriend's family and we turned the game on last night when we were having dinner (pics attached). It was 5-0 Astros and Verlander was on the mound and I said something about how the Astros just feel like they're going to stroll to a World Series ring.
When we got home her uncle called to tell me it was 5-5. I've seen the highlights this morning and it was an absolutely crazy game.
Not to make this too White Sox-centric, but the Phillies are basically the good version of the White Sox: get a bunch of sluggers who are 1B/DH who are awful on defense, some top line starting pitching and a good bullpen and that shit works in the playoffs when your sluggers hit and when you're usually only using three SPs.
Interesting and brave call by the umpire in the bottom of the 10th to call Díaz back after being hit by pitch. You don’t see that call made too often, but I reckon he got it right - Díaz definitely leaned into it.
The ump could easily have let that go and it might have been a very different story.
Astros back in it after last nights win, although it looked like the Phillies were going to make another comeback with the Schwarber close call homer correctly called as a foul ball. The atmosphere will be electric in Philly where either side could win it with 3 straight wins although I think that's unlikely. Still like the Astros just but a long way to go yet.
It definitely got tense there for a couple of innings with that Schwarber homer that wasn’t making the score 5-3 temporarily, then a brief rally in the 9th that almost brought Schwarber back to the plate as the tying run.
One thing is for sure, the Phillies don’t know when they’re beaten.
I think the Astros would take a 3-2 deficit now if you offered it to them, bring the series back to Houston for game six and try to force a game seven.
Ok,never seen this before so how is that perfect when there are balls called inside the strike zone and strikes called outside?
I thought the same.
If you’re going to call something a “perfect game” it should be 100% on both graphics surely? If they’re going to equate this sort of thing to established baseball terms, they could maybe call this a “no hitter” - close to a perfect game, but not quite… 😉
Tonights game postponed due to rain. This pushes the entire series back a day. Theoretically this is a pretty big advantage for the Phillies as it should mean the starters for the next three games are Ranger Suarez, Aaron Nola, Zach Wheeler instead of Noah Syndegaard and friends, Suarez, Nola.
Depends on whether Wheeler is good to go on normal rest, and if Wheeler and Nola can pitch better than they did in Houston. It also means Ranger Suarez should be available for a potential game 7
A no hitter and 5-0 win. Only the second no hitter in World Series history.
Series is levelled at 2-2.
Third no hitter in all of post season baseball. Two of which were at Citizens Bank Park, and Dusty Baker was the away team manager on both occasions.
Also theres this weird stat, fact, piece of useless trivia?
There have been 3 combined no-hitters in 2022 1. By the Astros started by Cristian Javier against the Yankees. 2. One against the Phillies when they started Aaron Nola, by the Mets. and 3. One by the Astros started by Cristian Javier against the Phillies when they started Aaron Nola
Nail biter. Astros win game five 3-2, and take a 3-2 lead in the series. Phillies will need to win back-to-back games in Houston. Possible but you’d think the Astros will be favoured now…
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Astros Phillies World Series begins on Friday.
Astros in 2021: get to the World Series and lose to 88 win Braves from the NL East
Astros in 2022: get to the World Series and face 87 win Phillies from the NL East..........
Game 1 @ Houston 28th Oct
Game 2 @ Houston 29th Oct
Game 3 @ Philadelphia 31st Oct
Game 4 @ Philadelphia 1st Nov
Game 5 @ Philadelphia 2nd Nov
Game 6 @ Houston 4th Nov
Game 7 @ Houston 5th Nov
Rob Thomson managed like it was game 7 and it worked. Not sure who will be available for tonights game, hopefully Wheeler can go deep. Worst case scenario we get 3 home games in Philly which should be wild.
When we got home her uncle called to tell me it was 5-5. I've seen the highlights this morning and it was an absolutely crazy game.
Not to make this too White Sox-centric, but the Phillies are basically the good version of the White Sox: get a bunch of sluggers who are 1B/DH who are awful on defense, some top line starting pitching and a good bullpen and that shit works in the playoffs when your sluggers hit and when you're usually only using three SPs.
Now the series heads to Philly tied at 1-1.
One thing is for sure, the Phillies don’t know when they’re beaten.
If they’re going to equate this sort of thing to established baseball terms, they could maybe call this a “no hitter” - close to a perfect game, but not quite… 😉
Phillies leading 7-0 through six innings. With five home runs off the starting pitcher, a WS record.
Buzz online is that the Astros starter was unintentionally tipping his pitches.
A no hitter and 5-0 win. Only the second no hitter in World Series history.
Series is levelled at 2-2.
1. By the Astros started by Cristian Javier against the Yankees.
2. One against the Phillies when they started Aaron Nola, by the Mets.
and 3. One by the Astros started by Cristian Javier against the Phillies when they started Aaron Nola
Six outs away.