Phillies vs. Astros World Series and Postseason Recap

HOUSTON – No one said anything in the Phillies dugout Friday night because no one needed to. Seven months into the season — 12 games into the postseason, they hope to have three more wins — the imperatives are pretty well understood.

So when Kyle Tucker’s pair of bombs in Game 1 of the World Series landed in the seats in right field, giving the Houston Astros a five-run victory, the Phillies weren’t looking for someone to rally the troops. They summed up the results, understood the matter and went about their business.

“Everybody’s just looking at each other and saying, ‘we’ve been here,'” Alec Bohm said after the 6-5 win in 10 innings. “Should we go up to the clubhouse and go out and start tomorrow’s game? Is this what we should do? Or should we just play?”

Anything potentially encouraging has already been absorbed in this exciting postseason run. If the clubhouse didn’t know it after being down 2-0 in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the Wild Card Series in St. Louis … or after trailing 4-0 after half an inning in Game 4 of the NLCS … or after blowing a lead in the top of the seventh inning of Game 5 of this series with a chance to close it out, no neat “win one for Topper” speech is likely going to convey that right now.

“Let’s work,” Nick Castellanos summed up. “We were already there. I think that’s what this team does so well. In fact, we know that we cannot give up. We really respect all 27 cars, we take it seriously and personally.”

The Phillies have done that repeatedly this postseason. Castellanos and others called their opener “the perfect game” for it, looking dead against the Cardinals before giving them six hits in the top of the ninth and waltzing away from the series.

In Game 4 of the NLCS, two games after going down 4-0 to San Diego, they came away with a win right after it as Bailey Folter struggled and the Padres struck out four in the first at Citizens Bank Park. The response was immediate, with Rhys Hoskins’ two-run homer and Bryce Harper’s RBI double making sure they got within 4-3 before the Padres recorded a shutout — or, as Castellanos would have it, a 27-run save to get the final run back.

Friday was no different in approach or execution. With all due respect to his Hall of Fame career, Bohm wasn’t about to let Justin Verlander’s legendary pedigree hold them back from future work.

“If we’re going to sit there and think, ‘Verlander’s on the mound, we don’t have a chance.’ Why are we here at all?” Bohm said. “We were confident and felt good. It’s either we do or we don’t, so you might think we’re going to.

As with the rally in San Diego, the response was swift. Tucker made it 5-0 in the bottom of the third; The Phillies strung together four hits in the top of the fourth to erase 60 percent of the deficit. Castellanos stroked an RBI single and Bohm hit an RBI double, both with two outs.

Brandon Marsh kept it going in the fifth with a leadoff double. He and Kyle Schwarber scored on JT Realmuto’s RBI double to make it 5.

“That’s a big time when we answered the pitch after, just like we did against the Padres, so we had more time to keep coming back instead of waiting until the last inning and we have to put up four runs.” Marsh said. “The chances of that happening are not too great. … You’ve got to keep chipping away, as fast as you can, chip, chip, chip, and that’s what we did.”

Thomson met their urgency. Afterwards, he said he wanted to respond to their rally with a blackout. After they tied the score, the plan was to chase down the Astros’ big bats, which meant Jose Alvarado pitched in the fifth for Jordan Alvarez and Tucker leading off the sixth. The relievers were up for the challenge, ensuring the Astros wouldn’t have a runner safely reach third base again until the 10th.

“It’s a big thing to respond when the other team scores and score a goal after you score,” Bohm said. “It’s a big thing for momentum. They just scored five runs in two innings, but we got three back and stopped them, so now we’re on our way.”