PHILADELPHIA – The wind came in, it got dark and the afternoon got soggy, but nothing stood in the way of the party. Not Yu Darvish, not the San Diego Padres and their vaunted stables and certainly not Mother Nature.
Bryce Harper is sure of that.
Author a clumsy for ages in his adopted hometown after signing a 13-year, $330 million deal, Harper smashed a two-time homer off the forehand reliever right of Padres Robert Suarez in the eighth inning to send the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series.
Their 4-3 win gave the Phillies the eighth National League pennant in franchise history on a cold, wet afternoon. They will play the Houston Astros or the Yankees in the 118th World Series, which is scheduled to begin Friday.
Harper’s homer arrives with Josh Hader, the Padres’ closest left-hander, warming up in the cowshed. Hader would have been an option against left-handed Harper, but Padres director Bob Melvin might feel that asking for six saves would be too much.
Call it more family magic for the Phillies, who underscored a message that has built up over time: Don’t mess with them in October at Citizens Bank Park.
This month, with their own Row of Murderers’ by Kyle Schwarber, Rhys Hoskins, JT Realmuto, Harper and Nick Castellanos and in the background Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola and ace pain relievers Seranthony Domínguez and José Alvarado, the Phillies have has the best shots from San Diego and Atlanta and barely flinches.
They are 5-0 at home after this season. And now they have a total of 21-9 in playoff games at their current stadium, which opened in 2004. As of October 3, 2007, the day of the first game after the season. At Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies’ .700 win rate is the best of any pro, ahead of Houston’s home win rates at Minute Maid Park (.651), Boston’s at Fenway Park (.651) and Boston’s Fenway Park (.651) .649), of San Francisco at Oracle Park (.643) and Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium (.623).
That, of course, is about to be rigorously tested when the World Series begins. The Astros entered Game 4 of their American League Championship Series in New York on Sunday night and remained unbeaten after the season.
Without thinking about it, however, when the Phillies, the NL’s last six-man team to win a playoff spot this season, celebrated late in the chilly afternoon.
The immediate reasons for their participation in their celebration were all too familiar. Harper. Hoskins, who crushed his third homer in two games in the third inning. And right-hand man Wheeler, who once again kept the Padres in control.
It was Hoskins who gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead in the third inning. But Juan Soto, who has been disappointing since the Padres bought him from Washington in a deal on August 2, burst into the second game in two nights with one of two Wednesdays to pass. The Phillies lead 2-1. It was a fast 96 mph ball from Wheeler, and left-hander Soto drove it 439 feet over the midfield fence.
Homer briefly signaled that perhaps San Diego could find Wheeler. This run broke Wheeler’s 28⅔ consecutive goalless streak against the Padres, a mix of regular and post-season, as of July 24, 2018. It ranks as the longest running streak currently. In professional tournaments, a pitcher starts before a single opponent.
Having faced disqualification and knowing they needed not only one win to bring the streak back to San Diego but three straight wins to reach their first World Series since 1998, the Padres knew it was a task. sublime service.
“We’ll have to hit his quickball at some point, won’t we?” Melvin said before the game.
Melvin points out that in Wheeler 1’s dominant game (seven rounds), Wheeler used his fast ball early, and when he read the Padres’ plan to counter it, he adapted to use a variety of things. more breakthrough as the game progresses.
“We had a good idea of how he was going to attack us based on how successful he was, and you wouldn’t think he would change that,” Melvin said.
The plan was for Wheeler to do the work, get him to get the ball down into the strike zone and then, as Melvin put it, “hopefully hit some quick balls.”
There seems to be a brief opening as Jake Cronenworth’s lead single in the seventh installment shoved Wheeler out of the game. Domínguez, seemingly struggling with the rain, threw three jumbled throws in the half, giving the Padres a 3-2 lead.
But the Phillies got what they needed in the eighth inning when it was Harper’s turn to appear. Robert Suarez threw him a plane that sank 98 mph at altitude and passed the disc. Harper reached out and tied it the other way, through the wall to the left, and the whole of Philadelphia exploded. When left-hander Ranger Suárez finishes the last two innings of the ninth round, the Phillies will enter the World Series.
