Via Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer
SAN DIEGO – Facts Padres won the NLCS for a five-round 42-yard run on Saturday night at Petco Park. On Wednesday afternoon, they defeated the NLCS with an even longer rally. They played each other in a five-time, 46-yard round to liven up a matinee playoff.
This, in Win 8-5may be even more important to their World Series chances.
San Diego bet for the first time Philadelphia Phillies 4-0 lead with some nasty second half defense. At that score, Padres’ probability of winning is about 15%. But they don’t stay that low for long. Brandon Drury and Josh Bellthe two men have split into all-out-of-season designated assassin roles, attacking each other on Wednesday’s roster and repeatedly hitting the mark.
Because of Drury, Bell, and the others of San Diego, who teamed up on the 13-hit effort, the Padres turned the series in their favor. With 5 games remaining and the next 3 scheduled to take place in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia has the home field advantage. But San Diego has the starting advantage, at least behind Joe Musgrove on Friday Game 3.
Juan Soto, Brandon Drury push Padres to 7-4 lead against Phillies
Juan Soto and Brandon Drury contributed to the Padres’ fifth-round rally with an RBI double and a two-half single to give San Diego a 7-4 lead.
Wednesday’s back-and-forth game began with both starters, Blake Snell and Aaron Nola, missed the board in the first half – and both teams failed. Snell completed the first half six yards. Nola surrenders two doubles, two doubles for Manny Machado but got caught Jake Cronenworth seek to end the threat.
The Phillies held their first rally of the second. Bryce Harper shoot a person in the yard, and Nick Castellanos blooped once over them. Alec Bohm followed by snapping an RBI single in the center right and when Juan Soto Overturning his target, Bohm occupied the second base. With two runners-up in scoring and one running out, Matt Vierling raise a sacrifice capable of flying into the right field. Soto jogged close to where the ball landed, but, with the early afternoon sunlight blazing, was powerless to let it bounce beside him.
That scored the second and provoked boos from the home audience. Next, Edmundo Sosa cross into the short area on the left, perhaps not far enough to perform the sacrificial function but not far enough for the left hand either Jurickson Profar to achieve. That scored a third run.
Kyle Schwarber then slams directly into a grounder on the first base, where Drury played for the first time in 11 days. If Drury puts on the gloves quickly, he can turn a doubles match over. Instead, he wobbled it and settled for a turn. That scored a fourth run.
Next, Rhys Hoskins loft a routine flight to the right. Soto stirred beneath it as the crowd tensed and worried. When he won the baseball, the Padres fans cheered for him in the Bronx. That is over.
Phillies won four points in the second round of Game 2
The Philadelphia Phillies scored four runs in the second half after a single from Kyle Schwarber and Edmundo Sosa and a double from Matt Vierling.
Drury and Padres made up for their mistakes after rushing. He hit Nola’s second pitch in the second half through the shortest part of this perimeter, down the left touchline. Bell clears the wall to make room for Nola’s next throw. Thus, San Diego halved Philadelphia’s lead. The Padres made up the other half – and more – in the fifth inning.
Ha-Seong Kim ignite the rally with a lead single, then glide all the way around the bases on a Austin Nola Single. The hit-and-run play has boosted his odds. Profar was alone on the next pitch to put runners into the corners, and Soto soon doubled down to score Nola.
As he did in the Padres’ epic rally that helped them win the NLDS, the next Machado was brilliant. The Phillies then pull their Nola in favor of the left-hander Brad’s hand, who hit Cronenworth and delivered the scheduled single to Drury, along with an additional RBI single to Bell. Like the NLDS repeat, this rally scored the Padres’ 5 runs, and they’ve held the lead in 3 runs since.
Machado and Hoskins swapped solo footage before it ended, and the Phillies started a rare protest against the man who set the shutdown. Robert Suárez on the eighth day. But a smooth double play by Machado and Kim breaks that down before it presents an existential threat.
Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the Dodgers for The Athletic, Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and LA Times, and his alma mater, USC, for ESPN Los Angeles. He is the author of “How to Beat a Broken Game.” Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.
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