Phillies advance to NLCS in a dream-like season

The playoffs returned to Philadelphia this past week as they had never left. The casual fan was back on the scene, and that combined with the always-present rabid Phillies fans added up to dynamite in the stadium when the Atlanta Braves played the Phillies at home.

Embed from Getty Images

Citizens Bank Park rose to life again with 2 sellout crowds that filled the seats and standing areas to capacity and over. The roar was deafening if you were there, several times my Apple watch went off alerting me to a ‘noisy environment’ and noisy it was! 95 or more decibels were registered a few times in Game 3 by the device.

The Phillies have had a magical playoff season so far. They are peaking at the absolute best time. As we have seen in other series, the Guardians going up tonight against the Yankees for a Game 4, and the Padres knocked off the Dodgers, at least we know who our opponent is in the NLCS that will start up on Tuesday in San Diego.

Rhys Hoskins went from zero to hero in the course of 30-seconds the other day in Game 3 vs the Braves when he hit his long HR. It was so needed by him and the Phillies. And the ‘bat spike’ we can’t even call it a flip, will go down in Phillies history for a very long time. Bryson Stott started it all off with a ringing double down the right field line, and I will tell you he reminds me more of a Larry Bowa-type player with every game.

Maybe it was the guys throwing out the ceremonial first pitches, the Flyin’ Hawaiin, Shane Victorino on Friday afternoon, and then Pat Burrell on Saturday? Maybe that is what inspired this bunch of guys to play so well on consecutive games vs the Atlanta Braves.

Embed from Getty Images

It almost doesn’t seem real, the Phillies have advanced to the National League Championship Series, it is so surreal after the season that they have had. A team that really didn’t dominate along the way very much, and always seemed like it had a glaring issue with either the bullpen, the offense, or both on some days. That’s baseball though, it’s really kind of unexplainable at times. The pundits will now jump on the Phillies and extoll them as best as they can. The bandwagon jumpers are back, the fans who turned their backs on this team a long time ago. They are baseball fans, a rare breed that love games that still can last 17 innings as the Houston-Seattle game did last night, or show up and see a no-hitter as Roy Halladay treated fans in Cincinnati to on October 6, 2010 when he became only the 2nd Major League pitcher in history to throw a no-hitter in the playoffs. Do you know who the first was? Don Larson did it back on October 6, 1956 when the Yankees were playing the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series in Game 5.

Embed from Getty Images

How do you top an inside-the-park homer from J.T. Realmuto yesterday?

Game 1 starts in San Diego on Tuesday probably with Zack Wheeler on the mound for the Phillies, and for the Padres it is still a question mark about the starting pitcher. Even for the Phillies, it is a question mark, but I think Wheeler will get the ball for Game 1 of the series. The first two games are in San Diego, then the series moves to Philadelphia for Friday and Saturday games.

Please follow and like us: