Daily News | Phillies-Padres NLCS: Aces, taters and other thoughts from a big Game 1 win
over the Padres in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on Tuesday night. A couple of home runs from Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, seven scoreless innings from Zack Wheeler, and suddenly the World Series is three wins away.The combination of Wheeler and Aaron Nola was always the biggest reason to believe that the Phillies would have a chance to make some noise if they just made it to the postseason. It was as true last year as it was this year. This year, they made it.
You knew that Schwarber was going to make his presence felt at some point. He entered Game 1 with just one hit in 20 postseason at bats. The slump ended in the loudest imaginable fashion, with a solo home run in the sixth inning to the second deck of Petco Park, the longest home run ever hit there. Clocking in at 488 feet, it was the second-longest home run of the season not hit at Coors Field.
After Harper gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead with an opposite-field solo home run in the fourth inning, this was his batting line in his last 24 postseason plate appearances: 11-for-22, four home runs, three doubles, one walk. It was his third straight postseason game with a home run, all three of them Phillies wins.
After a nine-pitch at bat by Machado in the first inning, it didn’t look like Wheeler would be in position to get anywhere close to the eighth inning. But after finishing the first frame with 24 pitches, Wheeler needed just 13 to get through the next two innings, including a five-pitch third inning. A huge stretch. Game-changing.
Since their remarkable ninth-inning rally to beat the Cardinals in Game 1 of the wild-card series, the Phillies have trailed for just three of the next 54 innings and have held a lead in 35 of those innings. In their five wins, the Phillies have scored 15 runs in the first three innings.
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