PHILADELPHIA — The Game 3 variety involved empty at-bats and not enough balls put in play. The Game 6 version slumped around a lack of converting early opportunities with runners on base.
Twice in this National League Championship Series, the Phillies offense has by and large been a no-show. And thus, despite outscoring the Diamondbacks by a 28-17 margin, the Phillies find themselves knotted up at three games apiece and headed to the first Game 7 in franchise history.
“Just couldn’t do it,” was Bryce Harper’s succinct assessment of his team’s offensive shortcomings in Monday’s 5-1 loss to Arizona in Game 6.
Whatever criticism might be thrown at Aaron Nola for the first bad start of his postseason, there are only so many games to be won 1-0 in the playoffs. The Phillies offense didn’t provide Nola or the other arms any more backing than that.
They had chances. Merrill Kelly walked Kyle Schwarber and Harper in the first inning, eliciting a mound visit 11 pitches into the game. But an Alec Bohm strikeout and a Bryson Stott pop out helped Kelly escape. The Phillies stranded Brandon Marsh on third after his RBI single in the second, then left two runners in the third.
That allowed Kelly to survive and settle. Even with a fastball dropping near 91 mph, he mixed in enough sliders and cutters to keep Philadelphia bats off of it, completing five innings and retiring the last eight guys he faced before reluctantly accepting manager Torey Lovullo’s hook.
Kelly allowed three hits – the same as he did in 5.2 innings of what became a 10-0 loss in Game 2. The difference was that all three hits stayed in the park Monday, from a Phillies team that has generated more than half of its runs this postseason from the longball (30 of 59). Only J.T. Realmuto’s double was for extra bases among the Phillies’ six hits.
“He didn’t really miss very many spots to me,” said Nick Castellanos, who went 0-for-4 and is 1-for-20 in the NLCS. “The pitches that he did throw over the plate had pretty good movement.”
“I thought Merrill threw the ball well,” Harper said. “He threw the ball well the last game, too, and we just weren’t able to get anything going. Had a couple of guys on there early and we weren’t able to capitalize.”
The Phillies had base hits in each the sixth, seventh and eighth innings against an Arizona bullpen that has been similarly taxed, but the home team couldn’t string together safeties to push a run across. Both they and the Diamondbacks left seven runners on.
But Arizona, which had just three homers in the first five games of the series, played the power card that the Phillies have relied on. Tommy Pham, scuffling mightily at 1-for-13 in the series, took Nola out for a solo homer to lead off the second inning, then Lourdes Gurriel followed with a back-to-back shot.
Manager Rob Thomson didn’t think his guys were getting overly aggressive at the plate. He also was adamant that he doesn’t foresee changes ahead of Game 7.
“Maybe a little bit, but he was getting ahead, a lot of first-pitch strikes,” Thomson said of Kelly. “He did get us to chase a little bit, so we just have to get back in the zone tomorrow and hit it like we can.”
Swinging for a fence-clearing momentum boost led to swings and misses. That leads to the Phillies needing a Game 7 to try and get the job done.
“We’re at home,” Harper said. “It’s a great place to be. Of course we wanted to get the job done tonight, weren’t able to do that, but tomorrow’s all about going 1-0.”
Source: Berkshire mont