2023 NLCS: Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Philadelphia Phillies

Phillis in 4 as the D-Backs also don't have home advantage

Phillies in 5.

Phillies in 5, i think AZ will steal a win along the way but can't see them doing much more than that.

Mentioned this exchange the other day:

"Nick, nobody in Major League history has hit two home runs on back-to-back postseason games, but you just did. And you guys are headed to the NLCS."- Matt Winer

"Where's the question in that?"- Nick Castellanos

"There's no question." Winer

"Thank you for telling me."- Castellanos

I actually felt bad for the reporter! I don't think Castellanos was trying to be a wise guy or anything...Is the underlying message that the Phillies are so team-oriented that they're oblivious to individual accomplishment? Or was Castellanos just literally waiting for an actual question?

The latter. His interviews are all…kind of like that deadpan style. He did laugh right after it though, to show he was joking?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQzzE8BxGTY

Deadpan's the best kind of humour there is. I already liked him because he was Greek, now I really like him. (I don't remember him laughing with Winer, maybe I missed that.)

Nicholas Alexander Castellanos is Cuban? That's like the most Greek name I've ever heard!

lollllll wait till you hear about Kevin Youkilis

Cody Bellinger probably the highest profile current player with Greek ancestry afaict

https://ahepa.org/los-angeles-dodgers-all-star-receives-prestigious-hellenic-athlete-award-for-excellence/

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Hahahaha that was great

Schwarber had that “why’d you make me do that?” Face towards Gallen after hitting that

Oh no

Ya know I kinda wanted to get on the dbacks bandwagon because 1. Didn’t want a rematch of last year and 2. Gotta cheer the underdog right?
But: 1. Rangers all the way and 2. Damn this team and what they did to the Dodgers

Go Phils!

I feel the same way about the Phillies, since they seem to have the Braves' number.

Plus, I have always hated their baby blue uniforms.

One pitch one run, can't start any better than that

I mean, I think 5 pitches 2 runs is a little bit better

Trea ruining this Phillies efficiency

Happy birthday Bryce

Geez Phillies, way to ruin the ballgame early

Are you even allowed to throw fastballs in the zone to this team with how they’re hitting atm? What an impossible offence to beat

This Phillies team is just too much

They’re playing a different sport

Yeap

It’s not quite the thrashing the dodgers got, but regardless this is all very satisfying in a primitive way

Geez that’s a gift call. Gallen looks lost

Bryson Stott/Dacre Montgomery is the new Tyler Glasnow/Cilian Murphy

https://s1.r29static.com/bin/entry/592/1440x1850,80/2213580/image.jpg

every time the camera shows marsh on the field he's gassing someone up. feel like he's a real glue guy

Is it me or does the Phillies PA announcer sound like he is 100 years old. I wasn't sure he was going to get through the player introduction without breaking out into an extended spat of heavy breathing and lingering pauses between each word.

Wheeler’s been amazing this game. He’s been a joy to watch

Bit of spice just added for the final 4 innings

Two is a start

Getting good

Giving Harper an at bat with a runner in scoring position

He's actually human

Good lord Marsh’s hair is oily/sweaty. Gotta respect a dude just absolutely not caring like that, peak Phillies move

Alright here we go! I fully expect Gurriel to to some damage

Now this will be good

Gifted

Every time I watch Kimbrel I get the impression he might be the luckiest pitcher who ever lived.

Congrats Phils, keep it rolling

Wow, congrats Phillies

I thought Kimbrel was going to blow it

Reason number 73 to cheer the Phils: They play “Dancing on my own” after winning and the crowd drunkenly sings it over the post-game interviews

I always think Kimbrel is going to blow it, and he somehow never does lol

That turned into more of a game than it looked like it was gonna

Gurriel actually hit it pretty hard, but right at Bohm; he gets around on it a little more and sends it up the line and it's maybe 5-4 with him on second and one out

Yeah it was a good knock, Gurriel was a terror in the DS, nice to see the luck swing.

Reason number 73 to cheer the Phils: They play “Dancing on my own” after winning and the crowd drunkenly sings it over the post-game interviews

On the day the Body Talk poll closed and, of course, Dancing on my Own won.

Confirmed official team of ilx, sorry jimbeaux

unfortunately the phils fans are stanning the calum scott version

*sorry - the official tiesto remix of the calum scott version

There are many paths, some less desirable, to the truth

I felt sorry for the DBacks when they were down 5-0, but they hung in and made a game out of it. Sooner or later the Phillies' bullpen will blow games like that. Playoff Kimbrel can't be trusted.

HARPER RAKES, BAKES SNAKES BDAY CAKE

*sorry - the official tiesto remix of the calum scott version

Bullpen flowers are nice.

It's not easy to keep blooms going into October.

great article!

Was Turner always a bad fielder?

Lol that swing.

He was good defensively his two seasons with the dodgers

Oh wow

I guess defense doesn't matter if you can hit

Gotta believe the Phillies home advantage has to be the heaviest in the league this season. Crowd going nuts. Very nice hr from trea, love seeing the dude smile

15 - 29 well that Is impressive

4 balls to Harper, might be the strat moving forward

Agree, that stadium is always rocking

Good ride

Can’t hit ‘em all out apparently

Damn Bryce, don’t ruin your legend!

Harper is human

Only on the base paths. Turns out I wasn’t joking about 4 balls being the strategy!

This is also the matchup of sexiest vs. ugliest uniforms. Dunno how the dbacks still get away with wearing those

lol

Well, the Phillies can hit

good job, Bam Bam

That was close

kyle schwarber's 2023 statline is one of the greatest i've ever seen.

47 HR, 104 RBI, 108 runs, 126 BB, 215 Ks, .197 BA

just massive

That's crazy

I remember when striking out 100 times made news

ABTA

Does everyone else get the “max muncy - mlb tonight” advertisement in the commercial breaks? Some of the most broken sentences ever put on live TV, and it’s run 30 times each game.

Also had a designer friend get very annoyed at the “Baseball Zen” graphics because the white paint doesn’t start off at the line, there’s the tiniest ammount of bleed over to first base. He emailed MLB about this lol.

Sorry if this just an international mlb.tv thing

Home base i should have said

I think they use the team you watch and then adjust the commercials with those teams. I live in the LA market and when they air the Play Ball commercial the girl pitching always has a Giants cap on.

I'm watching on TBS and so all national ones.

Good pitching

I actually hate that Schwarber keeps proving his value lol. There’s an elitist inside of me that wants to scoff at the concept of a below-Mendoza LEAD OFF HITTER, but damn if he ain’t proving the haters wrong

same - on TBS

BAMM BAMM!

Solo home runs shouldn't kill you but when you keep hitting them, they add up

Part of this is the fact that the “stone-age” Phillies are doing this. Like if it was the Rays I wouldn’t bat an eyelid and think “yeah of course, why doesn’t everyone do that? The Rays are geniuses!”. Yet this boofhead team is doing something really weird and reaping all the benefits. It’s so great

Kelly both lucky and unlucky tonight. 3 hits, all home runs, yet all of them solo despite a few walks.

So many pick off attempts

They just keep on coming, it's sort of incredible

Wow

Haha

There’s an elitist inside of me that wants to scoff at the concept of a below-Mendoza LEAD OFF HITTER

Same--can't adjust. Not just leadoff, but any hitter. Obviously, those HR and walks are valuable. But you have to balance that with all the outs he makes. So he comes out with an slugging percentage under .500 and an OPS+ of 122. If he keeps his average above .250, he's really valuable. This year, he was an above-average hitter on balance.

And I get that he's adorable and a perfect Phillie.

how in the world did Bohm hit that one that far it was like 3 inches low

Like yes correct, and I haven’t watched many Phillies game this year so small sample, and only using the eye-test so prehistoric, but watching this game I 100% understand his value to the team now and don’t fault the hype

He lost it

didnt that exact play happen in Major League

Or really, no one took charge

didnt that exact play happen in Major League

I do seem to recall something like that

Really feels like the Phillies WS to lose. Their offense is doing exactly what people thought the Braves was going to do.

Even better imo

Incredible content

We mic’d up @DAndreSwift and @rell_island6 for their first baseball game.

It definitely won’t be their last 🤣 @BRWalkoff pic.twitter.com/AyKzqxsepf

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 19, 2023

This game is on, nice

A rare game in my timezone I can follow. I do not want the phillies to win tbh

Pfaadt is pitching awfully well for someone who’s twelve years old

Lol, he sure does look young

He’s older than Spencer Strider!

How is this child shutting out the phillies

THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT HIM IN HE WAS COOKING

I'm so happy with my PFAADT. Fast, same-day delivery. Let's see if the SAALFRANK also performs well.

Here we go

They just keep coming

Big double play

That helps

Hi damn!!!!!

You can’t let the 0-0 break like that!!!!!

You can’t let the 0-0 break like that!!!!!

Pfaadt wouldn’t have done thaaat

Of course, on a wild pitch

totaally

You just know the game is going to end 1-0 after that and this is how the dbacks will lose the CS.

Amongst giving up 15 runs in the first two games

well, that post was quickly proved wrong

ORION SHOULD HAVE TIGHTENED HIS BELT

OH LORDES HE COMIN

Gurriel the only dude to have worse hair than marsh in the league

We got a rally happeninnnnnng

your wrong post brought them luck!

^^baseball logic

Sad

https://i.postimg.cc/gJ00hYxX/22b23212-e121-4beb-98c6-b3c7007a3521.jpg

Mariners legend Paul Sewald SOMEHOW runs the gauntlet and gets out

home cooking, delicious

(previous pitch was a strike)

Time for Kimbrel to blow it

Why do I want kimbrel to blow this while supporting the Phillies?

Lol bee ok.

Answer: because it’d be fun

I want it to be a series

And not really a Kimbrel fan

Kimbrel like a kid doing a math test, whose working out is the most bizarrely incorrect incoherence, and yet somehow the answer at the end is always correct.

One thing you can’t deny, kimbrel knows how to make a game entertaining

Damn that was fun

Out

Is he really going to get out of this? Good lord lol

That was some UFC business at the plate there. Credit realmueto for some killer play there

Lol, congrats dbacks

They absolutely did not deserve to win that…But neither did the Phillies. What a terrible game

Celebration was funny at least

i tuned in for the last two batters. what a game!

Kimbrel, more than any other reliever, makes me question how you live with yourself after blowing a game. I don’t mean that in a nasty way, he just always looks so stoic after giving up the big ones and I am dying to know what’s happening on the inside of his head/how he legitimately deals with it.

Congrats Dbacks and Winning Pitcher *checks notes* Paul Sewald

Kind of funny after the boss-chasing-the-secretary-around-deskhome plate first out

"short memory" as the cliche goes

xpost

Kimbrel gotta have the shortest memory in the world

https://x.com/byalexcoffey/status/1715104007008797110?s=20

Maybe I’m missing something, but is the Diamondbacks hype video set to the Nathan for You theme song? Am I imagining this pic.twitter.com/Z7ruRwgDaN

— Alex Coffey (@byalexcoffey) October 19, 2023

that DP in the bottom of the seventh was tight

perdomo chasing marté into center field at the end was so great

yeah that was super cute it looked like a little league thing

agree, very good finish to a weirdly "small ball" game

a young baby faced boy making the Phillies lineup look foolish for a good part of the game.

Marte's little bloop and camera cutting to Smith's reaction, the announcer mentioning the similarity to the end of the 2001 World Series, and I think they even showed Luis Gonzalez was at the stadium?

Great catch

Some fairly hilarious walkup song choices

https://www.mlb.com/phillies/ballpark/music

https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/ballpark/music

Kevin Ginkel
Custom mashup of Snakebite and Poison by Alice Cooper’s team

Beast

Did they just say Schwarber

Has more home runs than anyone else in postseason history?

Oh, left hander...

https://www.mlb.com/news/most-career-postseason-home-runs

Even playing for dynasties, I thought Mantle and Reggie would have had far fewer PA. Yes and no: far fewer than most people on that list, but about equal with Springer and more than Schwarber.

Jeter, 734
Williams, 545
Manny, 493
Altuve, 416
Bregman, 412
Pujols, 360
Springer, 309
Reggie, 318
Mantle, 273
Schwarber, 241

Your amazing Clem

Three walks and no outs

I felt duty-bound to mention that--one of the few things I think Morbius and I agreed on was that all these post-season records have to be taken with a huge grain of salt now.

(But don't worry, I'm not calling for asterisks.)

Such bad luck

But you're right, different ears and less games

Only two and could have gotten out of it with none

Perfect pitch, 99

Yes, definitely a strike.

Triples are so much fun to watch

That was sick

Lol schwarber, getting some practice steals in

They could have had him too with a better throw

welp this would be the inning

good play tre

awww Dbacks fans did a crazy infield play just ruin your rally??? so sorry to hear about that

D. Baxter the Bobcat's head is uncanny valley small

do NOT like

lol frogs

Mad confused why the have a bobcat instead of a snake as a mascot? Yeah obviously you'd have to pay the bloke double the wage to wriggle around on the floor rather than walk like the other mascots, but the price would be more than compensated by having the most iconically silly mascot in all of sports

I want to see a diamondback wriggle around the basepaths

it's kind of a desert animal theme: rattlesnakes, bobcats, Coyotes (NHL team)

and of course the Desert Cardinal

https://www.mlb.com/dbacks/fans/baxter

"the most fan friendly mascot in sports" [citation needed]

that reminds me, Chase Field used to be Bank One Ballpark, aka the "BOB"

So it may have been related to that - a BOBcat?

oh lol, that's what your article said. Reading is hard.

yeah, that's referenced in the link above. They should really call him "Bank One Ballpark-Cat" for accuracy

Gotta shelf my baxter wordsearch, short-memory Kimbrel's pitching and giving lead-off doubles

https://mktg.mlbstatic.com/dbacks/documents/y2020/baxter_wordsearch.pdf

haha that shot of the phillies fan was iconic

god i hate the look of that astroturf

Baxter out here actually making me like the diamondbacks

https://content.mlb.com/assets/images/9/0/0/259178900/cuts/1280x1024/cut.jpg

ooh we have Cardiac Crag again

Kimbrel

I really don't know how he does it

oh fuck me

hah!!!

Texas and Philadelphia seem determined to hand games over to Chapman and Kimbrel like it's 10 years ago.

otm

To be fair, that was actually a good pitch

it literally landed in the pool?????

(Classic second-guess, I know.)

Or maybe not, it was outside the zone

ARE YOU KIDDING!?! pic.twitter.com/Q1zWqIj7Li

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) October 21, 2023

Kimbrel might be a good pitcher, but he absolutely terrorises the fanbases of every team he is on.

ATL
SDP
BOS
CHW
CHC
LAD
PHI

I don't know about ATL and SDP, but the rest of them I saw much talk online of "how is this man still playing for our team". It was so rough having him on the Dodgers

that one was outside the zone as well

look how sweaty craigs arm is. i thought the stadium was air conditioned

Sorry, terrorises not a good word to use about baseball right now, my bad

that was K-Rod's thing too I remember a couple of those seasons in Milwaukee I'd swear his ERA was like 5+ but when you look it up it's 2.5

I actually hitched my ride to the Phillies because I feel that fan base deserves it this year. But when Kimbrel is pitching I seen to root against him

Wasn't expecting that

fuck me

ohhh shit

But Arizona is now in the lead

Good game

When a local station was showing one of Moreno's HR earlier in the playoff, the newscaster said "Jays fans, you might want to close your eyes."

Everybody (Dbacks Back, Alright) 🎵

lol felicity

The 80s were the best

Marsh validated

the fix is in

I know they're a great feel-good story, but I really would rather not end up with Arizona in the WS.

i'm a schwarbeilever

He really is something in the playoffs

alright here we go

looks likely the astros are there so whatever, lets go dbags

Oh lord trea, that was the one

Nooooo trea

It could not end like that

:(

Astros Phillies would be good, Astros Diamondbacks would just be weird

Wow

Whatever, I might not have liked the results but this was a great day of baseball

OTM

yeah both those games ruled

I actually cannot believe the 2023 diamondbacks are about to play a game 5 NLCS game. What a baseball thing to happen

what’s bill p gonna write now - too many lead changes in these playoff games?

Oooooh no they’re calling out kimbrel by name on the speakers with the post game hahaha. That’s got to hurt

great save

(xpost) Joe? He was right on before today--today was what he was clamoring for, I'm pretty sure..

Baxter has a message for all of us following this game

https://content.mlb.com/assets/images/2/7/2/259179272/cuts/1280x1024/cut.jpg

The only good thing about Arizona in the WS for me is that it will force me to up my Immaculate Grid game.

As an NL-west guy and therefore someone with the most reason to not want the dbags in the World Series, I don’t understand how you could not want it! Assuming they keep playing this way, and assuming the astros don’t win it, it’d be an incredibly fun fall classic

if it's them in Astros they better win, scrappy underdog team humiliated by dominant postseason force is not really fun to watch

it is definitely not fall in phoenix. the dbacks are a team against god.

Agreed

To frogs, but probably to you as well 龜

It would be a long explanation, a few hundred words--I knew this would puzzle people so I was thinking it through in advance--but the short version is that I get that it's baseball, that baseball playoffs aren't like the playoffs in any other sport, and that the world's decided I'm supposed to just grab on and enjoy the spectacle. But I have this quaint notion that whoever wins, I should be able to make a credible case to myself that it's one of the best, I don't know, half-dozen teams in baseball. Your earliest impressions are the ones that are hardest to let go, and--primarily because of the limited playoff schedule, obviously--for the longest time starting in 1970, that was true. Even when you get to a team like the '87 Twins, it at least felt like a team, with a couple of Hall of Famers and a bunch of Hall of the Good/Very Good-types. (Like the Giants of the 2010s, winning a second title made the first feel more legitimate.)

I just don't get anything out of the D-Backs. They won 84 games and were outscored.

(Yes--that's the short version.)

Maybe, with their young guys, it's the beginning of a great team. Maybe I'll see them differently in a year or two.

Fair enough. As a kid, I get excited by the concept of chaos and the young bucks setting themselves and the sport on fire as they challenge every rhyme and reason just by continuing to win. As mentioned on another thread, I do think wins are devalued by the current play off format, but essential to any sport is the idea that the worst team could beat the best team at any moment, and I would think most would agree that when that happens? You get some of the most entertaining games possible. When that happens on the biggest stage, well, we’re in for a treat.

Also, it’s not like we have any of the best teams in baseball left around this post season, so whatever, let the “worst” one win it

(Like the Giants of the 2010s, winning a second title made the first feel more legitimate.)

♥️

And then something I never expected, they did it again in 2014. Astonishing really. Bochy really did push all the right buttons

I get the appeal. I watched G2 of the '73 Series, one of the wildest and craziest (and messiest) ever. And if the 82-win Mets had won that series--they came within one game of doing so--I probably would adjusted to the current climate a lot sooner.

This is all a pipe dream, the Phillies are going to take this. Good story, like so many that came before.

Also FWIW, I do think the 2023 DBacks are a good team. They lead the NL west until July, after which they made some great trades (Sewald, Pham), not giving up in a division filled with the Dodgers, competing at that time Giants, and the "who knows?" billion dollar Padres. They bet on themselves without being foolish (A la Angels) and it's paying off. I don't think they're merely getting lucky. I don't think their wins are undeserved. I think they're a team that was smart with there resources, and that have superstar quality that is all popping off at the right time (truly, the only secret to post season success)

I hope I get to quote that to you in a couple days Bee lol

Even tonight it was on the manager. He pitched Kimbrel last night to get three outs, then tonight he wanted another six!

("would have")

Right (xposts to Bee's post about the Giants)--I tend to view teams within a multi-year window, so the Giants and those Twins teams made any skepticism moot. Ditto for the Yankees and Cardinals teams that won this century during off years: they essentially had the same core as teams that were legitimately great in the years that surrounded. Which is why I'm premature in making any kind of judgement about the D-Backs: they've got Moreno, Gallen, Carroll, and others, so who knows what's down the road.

In other words, my floor for "I should be able to make a credible case to myself that it's one of the best, I don't know, half-dozen teams in baseball" is, I think, very flexible. But at the moment, the D-Backs fall short.

Just checked: they led to mid-july, over half a season

And I think the storylines in the other two potential match-ups involving the other three teams are better.

May be true, but that's why you play 162 games. (Or at that used to be case...)

"at least"--slow down, you type too fast; got to make the morning last.

I hope I get to quote that to you in a couple days Bee lol

I do realize that this post can age very badly

Teams that are uncontroversially better than the 2023 diamondbacks imo:

LAD
ATL
BAL
TBR
TEX

Teams where it's a debate:

SEA
HOU
SDP
MIA
MIN
TOR
CHC
BOS?

13 teams there, you're more than entitled to your opinion and you may be right! But if we had an arbitrator up in the heavens that could truly decide this, I'd probably still put money on the Dbacks to be in that 12 over two of those teams.

But I'm confident, this Phillies team does have the IT factor this year

Based on the window-thing I mentioned, I'd definitely move Houston to the first group. (And get the Jays the hell out of there!) But that seems reasonable--one of the best seven or eight.

Cubs and Pads are the two teams I'd cut of that list to fit a nice dozen ftr

It sounds like I hate them. I don't. If they get in, I'll root for Moreno and Guriel.

But I'm confident, this Phillies team does have the IT factor this year

― Bee OK, Saturday, 21 October 2023 14:39 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

If they can just find someone to eat innings besides Craig Kimbrel

But I sure would miss Harper.

Now that I think about it, if they had anyone besides Craig Kimbrel the Phillies would have won this NLCS already so maybe I'm giving the Dbacks too much credit. Unbelievable he blew back to back games

Also thank you for not calling out my folly in putting LAD on the top of that list given the last series lol

Ok, let's talk about the dodgers, when the Giants swept them in Dodgers stadium this year I saw the exposure. They're not as good as teams in the most recent years. The pitching was suspect but when they lost Urias I felt like it was over in 2023. I was still surprised when it happened in their first round.

The win total they got this year is a miracle that relied primarily on a great offense (despite what the NLDS would have you believe) and a Pitching staff that somehow, with a lot of duct tape and chewing gum, held it together for most of the year. Turns out that duct tape and chewing gum loses its stickiness after 6 months and it was an inevitable result no fan wanted to acknowledge. From the start of the season though, Dodgers fans were crying that this was the worst Dodgers team of the Friedman era (primarily due to injuries) and we were resigned that the NL West pennant might not have been ours this year (as was every sports standing predictor, they all had the Padres first). The pitching falling apart was expected, the offense turning off for the first time this year was not. And , we don't even have a consolation prize of a healthy Ohtani to weather this storm!!! Cruel

REPTILES DRILL PHIL, KIMBREL STILL DOWNHILL

lol

I loved this story about the bond between Mike Hazen and Torey Lovullo:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38674717/mlb-playoffs-2023-arizona-diamondbacks-mike-hazen-torey-lovullo-nicole-cancer

Great piece. I am very choked up. <3

Kevin Ginkel
Custom mashup of Snakebite and Poison by Alice Cooper’s team

?
― I’m going to get fined for being right, again (gyac), Friday, October 20, 2023 5:33 PM bookmarkflaglink

Oh it's funny, because they are the Diamondbacks, poisonous rattlesnakes

SNAKES ALIVE!!!! Love to wake up and see this

Friday, March 20, 2023 11:45 PM Site Bryce Harper has been banned temporarily. 0/5 in 48 hours

Oh fudge

Friday, October 20, 2023 11:45 PM Site Bryce Harper has been banned . 0/5 in 48 hours

ffs

He’ll start hitting again in Philly. Their home/road splits have been notable (small sample size though)

Phillies
6 home games
17 2B, 17 HR, .301/.373/.648

3 road games
3 2B, 2 HR, .194/.303/.290

— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) October 20, 2023

Some camera angle made Bryce Harper look like a January 6 Justin Theroux and now I can't unsee it

Unbelievable he blew back to back games

SNAKES ALIVE! PHILS SAY NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Very keen for this game

Gallen vs Wheeler

Marquee match up

Start Kimbrel as an opener you cowards!

xp Zac(k) attack

Wow that trea turner avg is incredible this deep into the post season

I do kinda hope Gallen gets torched. Don’t like the idea of other NL-West team having aces

Throw the ball you coward! Unprofessional

Gallen scared of Mr. .197

WHAT A HIT FROM THE SLUGGER! Hahaha

Crazy start

A great AB from schwarbs. Still a believer

Gallen throwing way too many balls for a team that has a spent bullpen.

Atta boy Harper

Anyways nice at bat Harper

Nice

I thought they would win two in Arizona but now need to win this one

Let’s go Phils.

Gallen is not pitching the game the dbacks need right now. If he doesn’t make serious changes in the 2nd inning he will be lucky to get through 5. Dbacks better hope that wheeler is spent as well. 20 pitches, 12 balls

WOW!

Oof this is sad. Hope he’s alright

Hope no one got hurt

I can't prove this, but Moreno got the winning hit last night, so I'm pretty sure Harper was trying to hurt him there and should be suspended.

Double steal, I like the aggressiveness

HARPER!!! He touches the plate while tending to Moreno!! Made me guilty laugh hah. Glad Moreno looks okay

Lol @ Clem

Lol clemenza

Good hit, good play

I would like to see JT Realmuto’s arm v Carroll’s wheels but Dbacks probably won’t risk it

useless!

Wheeler gets out of it

Huge

I am once again reminded that I don’t like Zac Gallen purely because he complained about not getting Cy Young votes last year and to keeping track of the names of writers who didn’t vote for him. Not quite in my top ten pitchers I like to see lit up but definitely top 30.

Brandon pfaadt wouldn’t do this to us

I don’t like him cause he looks like a nerd

Dbacks D getting it done!

(xpost) Does he have a nickname? The Professor's already taken.

In this household, we call him “four-eyes”

Clemenza, who was that blue-jays that looked like the most milquetoast librarian-accountant in the history of sport. He was a batter, think maybe a catcher? Glasses obviously. I loved watching him play. Recent kid, played for a bunch of teams pretty sure

I think somewhere on the internet some people bulk-voted for him as the face of baseball in some mlb poll for a joke

Tom Henke looked like that, but he's not recent...drawing a blank.

Found him:

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/as-fans-claim-conspiracy-as-sogard-narrowly-misses-face-of-mlb-title/

Sorry, back to the game

Because I have now read the science of hitting, the Ted Williams rant about how you don’t swing at the first pitch permeates my thoughts every time I see a terrible 1 pitch out

There is much more to that first time up than just taking a pitch, there is the continuing matter of proper thinking, and I want to elaborate on it here where it is so important. Nobody has ever said this around me, or, as far as I know, even thought it—but the first time at bat has to be a key to effective hitting, a key to the day you are going to have and therefore a key to your baseball life because the days pile one on another to make a career. You must learn to make that first time up a key time by striving to find out as much about a pitcher as possible, and you do that by making him pitch.

Just looked up Tom Henke, what a guy! Couldn’t get away with wearing those glasses these days. Shame

Unlike hitters, the expanded playoffs--unless you're Bumgarner or Schilling or Smoltz--tends to hurt pitchers on all-time playoff leaderboards. Cf. Kershaw/Scherzer/Verlander. They said Wheeler's got the lowest post-season WHIP ever now. Still only 55 innings, but building a resume there.

Yeah, Trea justified

I thought it was a strike too

But it wasn't

(Add Cristian Javier to that list above.)

Zach is pitching well

And Zac got back into the game in that 3rd inning.

I thought he had that

Inevitable

Wow

How clutch is that?

Harper!

woops

Holy shit that is about as hard as you can hit a ball

16 consecutive solo HR defies the laws of probability.

Two big runs there

The keeping-them-solo HR are obviously why the series is tied and Arizona's not out of this game.

Yes but it's getting later

Drama

Huge out

zack wheeler at 5 yrs/$118M is a contract that has definitely worked out for the phillies

Double didn't cost him

It has, any team would jump at that offer

That was pretty funny with Francoeur.

Let’s go dbacks. Surprised Wheeler’s still in after those two hard hits

What a play!!!!!

Solo home runs shouldn't kill you

Great play. ABK time (anybody but Kimbrel).

Been some great defence this game

Ugh no patience from this dbacks team

Zack Wheeler has done his job, all they could have asked for in this best of three

snuck up on me how great this phillies team really is in its current form, rooting for them

Not a base hit!

That was not a hit

Gone

To ungrammatically paraphrase Raging Bull, he ain't probability no more.

Unit!

A familiar face

Even a grand slam won't hurt

Please not Kimbrel

Ok, good

Ballgame

Ultimately, uncompetitive

Ive been listening to the spanish telecast on mlb network it’s pretty nice

The commentary has actually been decent this year but that sounds fun. Might give it a whirl

re: players with glasses, saw a card with this classic looking guy the other day

https://bostonbaseballhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/RichGedman-PawSox.jpg

catcher, no less - wonder how he fit those specs behind the mask

My favorite catcher with glasses

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ktep7yCML.jpg

The most bookish-looking player ever, with a name to match: Rance Mulliniks.

https://i.postimg.cc/W4cQ1LK6/rance.jpg

terrible throws from marte and carroll to home in the first

harper was not “tending” to moreno he was reaching across him to touch home plate, and realising the optics, and patting him on the way by

harper also looked to me to clearly be trying to take moreno out - if he were sliding he’d have been down already

yes i am watching this on delay rn

damn schwarbo’s homer was 114mph off the bat, 461ft

fuckin stott!

omg clem i was gonna post that very pic of Rance

Here we go, it should end right here but two Game 7 would be cool too

1 2 3

Kelly is not looking good early

this is the real test, pitching around shchwarbs and harper isnt the worst thing

well that was a nice pitch

So true but the first out was warning track power

Xpost

Get's out of it

Why did it have to be him

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy 🙄

lol snap

Wow

wow

Way to take the crowd out of it

look they needed to get up early

They are teeing off him

Longoria could always hit

boy he's having a rough few minutes

Keep stomping, AZ

Jays fans die a little more every time Guriel or Moreno do something.

(Weird synchronicity: I'm going back and forth with a documentary on Jim Leyland on the MLB network. There's a bit about him playing his 25th man, Gary Varsho, who had family coming to a game. Varsho is Daulton Varsho's father.)

Well that could have been a lot worse

Here we go

This game is going to be epic

https://i.postimg.cc/x1T7XbSD/IMG-1129.jpg

Walk, Christian walk. Sounds like a Super Furry Animals song

It's actually

"Run! Christian, Run!"

❤️ Carroll & his wheels

These results are so weird

He's out

Lol, Kimbrel is getting booed at home

Not the Phillies day it seems

A bit under the weather today so slept through this one. Woke up to Kimbrel pitching and not blowing the game and was very confused

Glad we had a ball game. Two game 7’s is a treat. Let’s go Rangers

tbf getting boo'd in Philly is not hard to pull off

xposts

Love seeing fans leave a game early, some of the best schadenfreude available in sports

Weak form for a previously incredible citizen park fan presence. Every action matters!

Game 7!

Yeah, should be fun but the Phillies didn't even show up today

The inevitable eating of your words approaches Bee

Hope you get better H.P.

(Seriously) I think by now most would agree there’s no real favoured team to win tomorrow right? They’ve both shown there stuff and shown it to be round about equal

First G7 in the history of the Phillies franchise!

Ayo letssssss go sssssnakesssssssssss

Terrible start

Time to light up this rookie

(Seriously) I think by now most would agree there’s no real favoured team to win tomorrow right

I don't know if I gave one team better odds in G7 but I definitely see the Phillies as the better team.

OTM

Hope you get better H.P.

― Bee OK, Tuesday, 24 October 2023 10:13 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Idgi?

Whelp the better team is currently losing yet again! Go dbacks!

I need to stop posting

There we go

Idgi?

You said you were under the weather

Oh haha sorry! I forgot I posted that and only saw your post just now. Thank you, back at work today (which means this game is much harder to watch….)

Morning tea break, atmosphere crawling out of the screen straight into my studio. Carrol truly a stud, what a player

STUD

He really is

Yes, go Phillies

Time for the dirt bags to melt down

Heating up! Nice piece of hitting

Here we go!

Hooooooo that was tight

There ain't no cure for what's gotten into the Phillies right now

You sound really vaccinated. https://t.co/o2tvNicBOf

— Lenny Dykstra (@LennyDykstra) October 25, 2023

Is he that slow?

oh is he terrible? My bad

ok yeah ... he seems terrible. So sorry

Anyway, the Phillies - impressive

Hope I'm wrong, but like the Astros, the Phillies are going to deeply regret not cashing in on these promising early innings.

Damn, only one out of that

that could have be so much worse

or better, depending on your perspective :)

castellanos looked utterly lost in that AB

Let this be the inning dbacks

Good pitch

Unbelievable

How can you be this good in both the regular and post season as a rookie? Caroll deserves a statue if the dbacks go all the way; irreplaceable this season

Fuck

Bases loaded last half inning and nothing cost them fast

It's going to happen; happens all the time. If you don't jump on opportunities, you pay for it. Total Jays thing to do.

God damn the wheels on that kid

I thought Harper got it

That's tough

Was there ever a time when Lenny Dykstra wasn't terrible?

It's getting late

Someone tell the Phillies they're running out of outs.

What the hell

Is Carroll up every inning?

What else could he do?

Impressive

The what-the-fuck-happened? club: population, Astros/Phillies.

Don’t forget the Dodgers/Braves

still 9 outs to get but Ginkel and Sea World have been untouchable so far

Actually, Phillies pending, Orioles/Rays/Dodgers/Braves in.

(Tried to post that before xpost...)

I still haven't given up, just old-guy doomsaying.

Turn the lineup over

That's a strike.

I mean this has just gotta be Schwarber's moment

Get's the walk anyways

Harper with the bases loaded, please!

But a HR here would be fine too.

welp its probably gonna be decided right here

Big out

Please Harper

At least he didn't GIDP--they got Harper up there.

Fuck

And THAT’S the ball game

oh man I love this. you've gotta love sports

Oh, man--two or three runs after Harper seems unlikely.

i mean just the AB itself and the stakes thereof, really wanted Harper to HR there

So much fun and is not over

I really wish I could have sat down and watched this one.

Also I fully don’t discount the Phillies taking this in the 9th

Nice Play

You're probably right H.P. I just hate to admit it. Still six outs to go

Great play

Wow

Whoa! SS version of Willie Mays in 1954.

feel like the entire playoffs has been one highlight reel play after another

Get's out of it

As the kids say, the vibes are not good in Philadelphia right now

doesnt this kid know what the water cooler's for

Taking a long break to watch this finish. Dbacks playing right into the Phillies immense hunger. Balls in the dirt becoming strikes easily right now. Can’t win like that

Maybe these are great breaking balls, I don't know--the Phillies look pathetic up there.

Always felt bad for baseball water coolers, a thankless job

WOW

Jesus

Strikes out the side! Incredible performance by Ginkel!!!

Sub optimal

this is some legacy defining shit

I’m normally one to cheer against the team that beats my team (who the hell wants your enemy to win it all?), but I am very thankful that the Phillies are sort of explaining what happened to the Dodgers

Ginkel absolutely disgusting this inning, manifesting strikes just thinking about them

The only name Rance Mulliniks could have had that was even clunkier would have been Rance Ginkel.

Great innings by Zack

yea I mean as a Brewer fan this is reminding me of the Heat beating the Bucks which felt like a massive choke until the Heat managed to reveal themselves as a way better team than they ever were in the regular season

Those Kimbrel stinkers really standing out right now. Coulda won it all

The only thing better than happy Phillies fans? Sad Phillies fans

Lol

Okay, but do you just ignore the 162 games where they were outscored? The A's were unbeatable for a couple of weeks too--they just picked the wrong two weeks.

yup that's baseball in the "half the teams make it to the playoffs" era

I’ve made my arguments Clem. The difference is the A’s didn’t make it to the post season!

If you made it to the post season (through whatever means), and then you beat the other teams in that post season (through whatever means); you don’t necessarily deserve to be called one of the best teams, but I don’t think you can imply said team didn’t earn it/play better than the other team

I think that post was just a tautology lol, but I’ll stand by it!

I've accepted the reality of baseball playoffs. I just don't want to start recasting Arizona as this really good team that flew under the radar for eight months. (Basketball, I don't know, maybe there's a more credible argument there--I know that some teams really do treat the regular season as prelude to the playoffs, which I'm pretty sure wasn't the case with the D-Backs.)

I would love for the Phillies to render all of that moot.

I mean whether they're a "really good team" isn't exactly the debate here, the point is they were not particularly good in the regular season but are playing great now

hard to overstate how big it was for Ginkel to strike out the side there, not just putting up the zero but also potentially denying Philly's 3 best hitters a final chance

Fair, but you’re putting too much stock into run differential to back up your argument. I’m just going to point at the San Diego Padres to hopefully illustrate why I think using run differential as the major metric of whether a team is good or not doesn’t always work

(xposts) Framed that way, absolutely agree; it was the notion of "I didn't realize how good they really were till now" I was disagreeing with.

as a poker player idk how much I like 'run differential' as the most important metric - runs scored/allowed are really a big function of timing and it's definitely possible to run hot or cold over the course of 162 games

Geez, at least get one guy on and make it fun.

^

Sea World is doing it!

Is there an actual Arizona fan on this board? Someone who used to start seasonal threads? I can't remember anyone.

Last strike

Cave battling

What a series. Condolences dback haters ;)

This is all a pipe dream, the Phillies are going to take this. Good story, like so many that came before.

― Bee OK, Saturday, 21 October 2023 2:30 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sorry Bee, but I’m a man of my word

I like corbin carroll but i am not looking forward to Corbin Carroll Ultimate Winner discourse over the next 20 years*

*we all gonna die go AZ

I deserve it

Stunning. Texas was somewhat of a surprise, but not major; this is different.

remember when Phillies won 10-0 to take a 2-0 lead

Just want to say, late season call ups are a thing

~~Cinderella story~~

Congrats Dbacks!

happy for torey lovullo i guess

Anyway, I assume Marte is MVP? I didn't watch every game.

Tip my cap

I love chaos like this in baseball. It’s much more satisfying to me than reading into all the stats and predictions and narratives of what *should* happen.

Congrats AZ and TEX, sparing me from the absolute worst WS matchup I could imagine. (Rooting for Bochy.)

MLB odds 10/2/2023:

Texas Rangers +1700
Diamondbacks +3000

Anyway, I assume Marte is MVP? I didn't watch every game.

― clemenza, Tuesday, October 24, 2023 10:28 PM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Kimbrel IMO

(xposts) Putting aside whatever I've said about Arizona, I was rooting for the Phillies far more for the same reasons, I'm guessing, as most people who were rooting for them--they're an intense, combustible team, typified by Harper. (Or at least till these last two games.) The things everybody loved about them last year. Didn't have a lot to do with stats.

I’m with Michael. Team chaos!!

lol eephus

I hope Kimbrel doesn't get the Mitch Williams treatment around town.

Ketel Won!

i can finally say what i'd been hoping to say during the NLDS - suck it Philly!

The first publication/site that does a position-by-position rundown of the Rangers and Diamondbacks to determine who will win, I'm going to send them a dozen 1967 calendars.

that i cannot find photos of Billy Crystal and Rudy Guiliani during the D'Backs '01 run is driving me mad.

reconfirming my allegiance to team buzzkill. there are too many teams in the playoffs.

That i can’t find the willie randolph/joe torre IT’S A LOT OF MEAT commercial makes ME crazy

"Team Buzzkill"--I found a home.

Wow wow wow!!!

I’m so glad they finally let Carroll steal. And the child Pfaadt did well too. 5 hits from the Phillies is not getting it done.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F9Ql41UXAAEkMKP?format=jpg&name=large

I love chaos like this in baseball. It’s much more satisfying to me than reading into all the stats and predictions and narratives of what *should* happen.

Bulletin board material…When will teams learn?

Garrett Stubbs’ plans to celebrate in the pool “motivated” the Diamondbacks, Torey Lovullo said. “I’m glad we could defend the pool,” Zac Gallen said. https://t.co/MQ2zf3UkbP

— Matt Breen (@matt_breen) October 21, 2023

I would never forgive that backup catcher for talking about celebrating in the pool, or the Phillies fan who bought all those seats in AZ. That’s when everything went from great to bad to UGLY. That was Aaron Judge playing NY, NY esque. Cant do that stuff. Its already hard enough

— KFC (@KFCBarstool) October 25, 2023

Unbelievable to think that they lost 110 games just two years ago.

If you made it to the post season (through whatever means), and then you beat the other teams in that post season (through whatever means); you don’t necessarily deserve to be called one of the best teams, but I don’t think you can imply said team didn’t earn it/play better than the other team

I agree with this. It might also be a case like the 2021 Braves -- at the time most people were surprised that they were buyers at the trade deadline. With hindsight, seeing how good the Braves are now, I think it's clear that they were a great young team coming into their own by the end of the season, rather than a .500 team that went on a hot streak. If the Diamondbacks win their division next year then we'll have the answer.

Poll Results
Option Votes
D-Backs in 7 2
Phillies in 4 2
Phillies in 5 2
D-Backs in 5 1
Phillies in 6 1
D-Backs in 4 0
D-Backs in 6 0
Phillies in 7 0

ILBB polled this "correctly."

Who else had D-Backs in 7?

(xpost) I can endorse that: a pretty good team playing very well right now. And, earlier in this thread, I allowed that I may need to reevaluate them in a year or two. Anything beyond that, I've got to put down to, as the vernacular would have it, a heavy case of "recency bias."

If the Diamondbacks win their division next year then we'll have the answer.

hurts

xp What are you saying? That the 2023 Diamondbacks are a better team than the 2023 Orioles? Or that post-season success is a better metric of a teams quality than overall wins? Or something else?

Mookieproof btw pointed out back in April that the Diamondbacks were clearly a serious team when they chose to eat the remainder of the Bumgarner contract rather than continue running his corpse out there. Bumgarner was DFAed on the 26th April & Pfaadt was called up a week later.

I thought about this comment specifically because I saw this tweet (and Haren’s reply):
https://i.postimg.cc/SQ6gPGbq/IMG-1191.jpg

And thought about the Athletic article, which while on the surface was solely about the dfa but actually between the lines portrayed an organisation that has a plan and wanted to execute it.

I guess my tl;dr is that people complaining about “oh no they’re an 84 win team” probably haven’t seen much of them this year, and really whatever but it’s enjoyable to see a scrappy team like this do well.

They really need Christian Walker to wake up though, he’s their home run leader and he’s done fuck all this postseason except for hitting one off Lance Lynn that game everyone else did and looked terrible at the plate in the Championship Series.

This seems a strange ask considering the other team that lost 100+ a couple of years back was the Orioles, who did win their division this year, and then promptly went to pieces in the division series

The Braves were the best team on paper this year, and should continue to be one of the best teams for the next few years. I meant that you can't write off the 2021 Braves as an OK team that got hot in October, considering what they've done since (in the regular season at least).

Oh fair enough then yeah, I agree. Diamondbacks were also pretty savvy to give Carroll that long contract - his price would be through the roof in a few years.

SBORZ and PFAADT are my two "brand names you're likely to find on amazon" names for these playoffs

― 龜, Monday, October 16, 2023 7:09 PM (one week ago)

in retrospect this is where i jinxed it for the phils :(

Bryce, I see what you're going for, but that's a Sixers jersey and you're trying to win an important game https://t.co/m8p283h10b

— Marc Normandin (@Marc_Normandin) October 24, 2023

https://i.ibb.co/ftPfMLt/IMG-4704.jpg

i was a bit more explicit in the jinx in texting my friend but i guess i also ultimately predicted the ws matchup

oh weird my image didn't post. ah well

I hope Kimbrel doesn't get the Mitch Williams treatment around town.

― clemenza, Tuesday, October 24, 2023 11:39 PM (yesterday)

he absolutely will, lucky for him his contract was up at the end of the season (i think). i imagine he was on the first flight out from PHL this morning before fans get around to doxxing his address.