The Philadelphia Phillies are one step closer to advancing to the World Series by winning both games at home.
Philadelphia defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-10 in the 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason National League Championship Series (NLCS, best-of-seven series) held at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 18th (Korean time). They were completely defeated by 0 and had a 2-game winning streak.
Arizona showed its will to win by starting Jack Gallen in Game 1 and Merrill Kelly in Game 2, but ended up preparing for Game 3 with heavy steps without being able to secure a single win in the away trip to Philadelphia.
▲Starting lineup of both teams
– Arizona: Corbin Carroll (right fielder) – Ketel Marte (second baseman) – Tommy Pham (designated hitter) – Christian Walker (first baseman) – Gabriel Moreno (catcher) – Louerdes Gurriel Jr. (left fielder) – Alec Thomas (center fielder) – Evan Longoria (third baseman) – Heraldo Perdomo (shortstop), starting pitcher Merrill Kelly
– Philadelphia: Kyle Schwarber (designated hitter) – Trey Turner (shortstop) – Bryce Harper (first baseman) – Alec Bohm (third baseman) – Bryson Stott (second baseman) – JT Realmuto (catcher) – Nick Castellanos (right fielder) – Brandon Marsh (left fielder) – Johan Rojas (center fielder), Aaron Nola
▲Arizona ‘committed to counterattacking’, while Philadelphia ‘won 2 games in a row despite being pushed out’
The team that succeeded in taking the series lead in the first game held the day before was Philadelphia. After taking the lead in the bottom of the first inning with solo shots by Schwarber and Harper, they added one more point with Castellanos’ solo shots in the bottom of the second. In the bottom of the third and fifth innings, Harper and Realmuto hit timely hits with one RBI, widening the gap between the two teams to five points.
Arizona, which caught up late with Perdomo’s two-run shot in the top of the 6th, narrowed the gap to 2 runs with Thomas’ sacrifice fly in the top of the 7th, but the Philadelphia bullpen maintained the lead by finishing the top of the 8th and 9th without allowing a run.
In particular, Arizona’s starting pitcher Gallen had a bit of a struggle, hitting three home runs in five innings, and the batting lineup was unable to hit the Philadelphia mound with a total of four hits. On the other hand, Philadelphia’s Turner and Harper led the batting lineup with multi-hit performances, and starter Jack Wheeler gave up only 2 runs in 6 innings, giving the team the win.
While the results of the first game were mixed for both teams, Arizona announced that Kelly would be the starter for the second game. Kelly is a familiar face to domestic fans as he played in the KBO League in the past. In this year’s regular season, he pitched well with 12 wins, 8 losses, and an average ERA of 3.29 in 30 games and 177⅔ innings.
Philadelphia’s starting pitcher for Game 2 was Nola. His regular season performance was 32 games, 193⅔ innings, 12 wins, 9 losses, and an earned run average of 4.46. Nola, who appeared as a starter in the Wild Card Series against the Miami Marlins and the Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, lived up to the team’s expectations with an ERA of 1.42 in 12⅔ innings in two games. Philadelphia hoped Nola would continue that performance in this series.
▲Philadelphia, which attacked Kelly from the beginning,
won the first game and took the lead in the second game as well. Turner, who came to bat with one out in the bottom of the first inning, pulled Kelly’s second cut fastball with the ball count at 0-1 and drew a solo arch that went over the left wall.
This time Schwarber helped. With two outs in the bottom of the third inning, he hit Kelly’s second fastball and hit a solo shot to go up 2-0. Kelly, who hit two home runs in the first half of the game, could not hide his disappointment.
In the meantime, Nola completely blocked Arizona’s batting lineup with a scoreless streak. He maintained his composure even after sending out leadoff hitter Marte with a hit in the top of the 4th inning, and succeeded in escaping the crisis by inducing a ground ball to Gurriel Jr. with 2 outs and 1st and 2nd bases.
▲The pendulum of the game tilted sharply after the middle of the game.
It was in the bottom of the 6th inning that the game swung significantly. Arizona clearly secured the victory. Schwarber, who had hit a home run in his previous at-bat, sent home fans into a frenzy by hitting another big solo shot.
The timing of Arizona’s pitcher change, which put Joe Mantipli on the mound instead of Kelly in the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs and a runner on first base, was also off. After Stott’s hit and stolen base, Realmuto completed the big inning with 2 RBI and a timely hit with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd base, and after Castellanos got on base with 4 intentional pitches, Masi’s 1 RBI and timely hit closed the gap between the two teams to 6. It went up to -0.
Philadelphia, not satisfied with a 6-run lead, scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning thanks to Bohm’s 2-RBI double, Realmuto’s 1-RBI timely hit, and Castellanos’ sacrifice fly, scoring double-digit scores. Arizona’s will to chase was inevitably broken.
Philadelphia, which started its bullpen in the top of the 7th inning, ended the game with Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm, and Orion Kerkering taking charge of one inning each. It is a huge win for Philadelphia that they finished the second game not only with the explosion of the batting lineup but also with the victory team saved.
▲Aaron Nola’s perfect pitch, which dominated the game, and a batting lineup that made history.
Nola, who continued his upward trend with scoring support from the batting lineup, recorded 3 hits, 7 strikeouts, and no runs in 6 innings, earning his 3rd win in this year’s postseason alone. His precise pitch control stood out to the point that he did not give up a single walk.
There was a scoring crisis in the top of the 4th inning and then the top of the 6th, but Nola, who did not care about runners, performed his duties as a starting pitcher perfectly. Thanks to this, Philadelphia finished the second game by sparing its sure-win team as much as possible. It is as big an income as two consecutive wins.
The role of the batting line, which produced 11 hits, was also decisive. Schwarber, Stott, and Realmuto achieved multiple hits together. In particular, Philadelphia hit a whopping 15 home runs in the last four games, including today’s game, which is a new major league postseason record.
Kelly took the loss, allowing 3 hits (3 home runs), 3 walks, 6 strikeouts, and 4 runs in 5⅔ innings. Marte was the only player to record 2 hits, and like in Game 1, he was unable to break down the Arizona mound as he was limited to 4 hits in the batting lineup.
▲Both major leagues have two consecutive wins at the beginning of the series. Will Texas-Philadelphia go to WS
like this? Arizona, which maintained a lethargic performance in the first and second games, is aiming for a counterattack at home. However, as the starter for Game 3 is ‘rookie’ Brandon Pott, and Game 4 is likely to be a bullpen day, it is unclear whether the Arizona mound will be able to quickly turn the atmosphere around. If Game 3 follows a similar trend, it is highly likely that Philadelphia will secure a ticket to the World Series.
The atmosphere of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) is similar. Texas is close to advancing to the World Series by winning both the first game (2-0) and the second game (5-4).
In the case of Texas, they started the series on the road, but showed concentration despite the one-sided support of Houston Astros fans. Games 3 to 5 will be held at Globe Life Field, Texas’ home stadium.토토사이트
Houston has no place to retreat anymore. At a press conference on the 18th, Houston coach Dusty Baker pledged a sure win, saying, “I’m not thinking about losing three games in a row.” The starting pitchers for Game 3 are Christian Javier of Houston and Max Scherzer of Texas. Scherzer, who has entrusted the starting role to Scherzer, who returned from injury, is aiming for three consecutive wins.
▲Pitcher performance for both teams
– Arizona: Merrill Kelly (89 pitches, 5⅔ innings, 3 hits, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts, 4 runs) – Joe Mantipley (16 pitches, ⅓ innings, 3 hits, 2 walks, 3 runs) – Line Nelson (29 pitches, ⅔ innings) 4 hits, 1 walk, 3 runs in innings) – Slade Ceconi (14 pitches, 1 inning, 1 hit, no runs) – Andrew Salfrank (1 pitch, ⅓ innings, no runs) – Philadelphia: Aaron Nola (82 pitches, 6 innings, 3 hits, 7 strikeouts, no
runs ) ) – Jeff Hoffman (10 pitches, 1 inning, 2 strikeouts, no runs) – Matt Strahm (25 pitches, 1 inning, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, no runs) – Orion Kerkering (21 pitches, 1 inning, 1 hit, 3 strikeouts, no runs) ▲ Key players for both