On Friday the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals played game one of the National League Wild Card series in St. Louis. This series began with a rubber match as the two starters were spectacular, but it was the ninth inning that captured everyone’s attention.
Dominant Pitching
The game remained scoreless through the initial 6.5 innings. After Phillies starter Zack Wheeler was removed after 6.1 scoreless innings the ball was handed over to reliever Jose Alvarado who gave up a two-run home run.
The Cardinals went into the top of the ninth with full control as their pitching held the Phillies to only two hits. They looked to close out the game behind excellent reliever Ryan Helsley who in the regular season was 9-1 with a 1.25 ERA, 0.74 WHIP and 94 strikeouts over 64.2 innings.
The Phillies Comeback
The Phillies were in desperate need of a big inning after being shut out to this point. The top of the ninth did not look so promising.
Rhys Hoskins led off and went down quickly by striking out. This meant Helsley only needed two more outs to complete the shutout, but the big hitters were still to come.
Free Passes
J.T. Realmuto gave them a bit of hope as he reached with a single. This brought up last season’s National League MVP Bryce Harper who worked a walk. He was immediately followed by Nick Castellanos who also drew a walk.
One of the most important sayings across baseball is that walks kill. The Phillies have not been the most productive team over the past couple of months, but they certainly know how to make pitchers pay for their mistakes. Alec Bohm came to the plate in a big spot and continued the parade of players reaching base by a free pass as Helsey hit him on the shoulder to bring home a run.
Helsley was immediately taken out for Andre Pallante, who has pitched as a starter and reliever.
Put it in Play
Strikeouts are such a massive part of baseball. For the Cardinals, this is a situation that desperately called for strikeouts and they got a great pitcher for that. Over Pallante’s 30 appearances of two or fewer innings, 14 featured at least one strikeout and four featured multiple.
The first batter Pallante faced was Jean Segura who is playing in his first playoffs in year 11. On a 2-2 pitch, Segura punched a ball well below the strike zone into right field for a go-ahead two-run single to put the Phillies up 3-2. He put the ball in play and it worked in his favor.
Next up was Bryson Stott who hit a ball right to the Cardinals’ first baseman Paul Goldschmidt who threw home, but Edmundo Sosa slid in just before the tag. Once again, a weakly hit ball allowed good things to happen for the Phillies.
Following Stott was the midseason acquisition Brandon Marsh who bounced a ball toward gold glove third baseman Nolan Arenado. This was not necessarily a tricky play for the surehanded Arenado but he whiffed and Segura scored the fifth run. The third straight batter hit a weak ground ball that led to a run.
Looking to continue adding insurance runs was slugger Kyle Schwarber. With a runner at third and less than two outs there are plenty of ways to score. Schwarber lifted a medium deep fly ball out to the center fielder to bring home Stott to extend the lead to 6-2.
The Phillies came away with a massive 6-3 victory.
The Cardinals were 93-0 in playoff games where they led by two going into the ninth prior to this loss.
Phillies Perfect Execution
That top of the ninth is the type of inning that defines playoff teams. It began with a bunch of free passes. It does not matter the caliber of the pitching when the opposition does not have to work to reach base. Then with the bases loaded from free passes, the next batters put the bat on the ball. Striking out does not allow for any positive offensive result, but contact can lead to any number of results. The Phillies got plenty of positive results out of just hitting balls weakly toward defenders.
Game two takes place Saturday at 7:37 p.m. CST. The rubber match takes place between Aaron Nola for the Phillies and Miles Mikolas for the Cardinals. The final NL Wild Card team is attempting to send home the NL Central champs whereas the Cardinals aim to send it to game three.
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