Phillies Keep Mashing Through the MLB Playoffs With One Goal in Mind: Win It All This Time
By the eighth inning, Phillies outfielder Jake Cave had entirely lost track of the score.
“A lot to nothing,” he says. “I knew we were shutting ’em out and we were scoring a ton of runs.”
That sums it up at least as well as the scoreboard did: Phillies 10, Diamondbacks 0. Philadelphia now holds a 2–0 lead in the National League Championship Series, which will resume Thursday in Phoenix. Another two wins will send the Phillies to their second straight World Series.
Every Philadelphia starter reached base except glove-first center fielder Johan Rojas, a night after every starter had a hit except third baseman Alec Bohm. In two consecutive innings Tuesday, all nine hitters came to the plate. They have hit 15 home runs in their past four games, a postseason record. On Tuesday, DH Kyle Schwarber hit two dingers and scored three runs, the fourth time this postseason a Phillie has gone deep twice. The game got so out of hand that backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, who saw zero innings and zero plate appearances in last year’s 17-game run to the World Series, caught the top of the ninth.
Surely the hitters’ meetings, held in the batting cage, three and a half hours before first pitch every day, must be imparting some mysterious insight.
Actually, according to those present, they average about three minutes, and that includes first baseman Bryce Harper’s rallying cry, “Leave no doubt!”
Cave paraphrases the information thusly: “This is what this guy’s been doing. This has been his tendencies here and there. This is how he’s been feeling. Let’s go out and jump on him and make it hard for him.” They note when the team stayed disciplined. On Tuesday, for example, coaches mentioned that in Game 1 they had seen 129 pitches, of which 54 were clearly balls, and they swung at only 10 of those. (And one was a hit.) They often add a “f--- these guys,” and then they run outside to take ground balls.
“I think we do a very good job of keeping it simple with a lot of complicated information,” says left fielder Brandon Marsh. “You hear what you need to hear.” He adds, “I call myself just dumb enough. You don’t overthink it or underthink it. Just dumb enough. I’m sure all teams have the same information we do. We do a really good job of relaying the message.”
Turner (7) and Harper have combined to hit .446 this postseason.
Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
The Phillies have reams of data, of course, and it all informs how the coaches approach those meetings. But hitting coach Kevin Long, whom shortstop Trea Turner calls “an old-school guy,” pores through it with the staff and then makes details available only on request. Manager Rob Thomson likes to say Long is so good at distilling information and instilling confidence that a hitter could have the worst cage session of his life, talk to Long and then have a great day at the plate.
“It’s less information in a good way,” says Turner. “We have all the information. We have everything we need, but we’ve got a lineup of guys that just want to hit and play baseball. … I think that’s refreshing as well. Sometimes you can get caught up a lot in the video or the numbers and different things, and I think throughout the season, we’ve kind of learned what we like and what we don’t like. We’re doing the same thing we’ve kind of done all year. … Don’t overthink it. Keep it simple. Get a good pitch to hit, and put a good swing on it.” He adds, “We’re not up there to walk. We’re up there to hit.”
They talk a lot about waiting for their pitch—and then crushing it. They did both Tuesday, working six walks and smashing those three home runs. Turner, who went 1-for-2 with two walks, is now hitting .500 this postseason with a 1.525 OPS. Harper, who went 1-for-4 with a walk, is hitting .385 with a 1.389 OPS. Right fielder Nick Castellanos, who went 0-for-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly, is hitting .345 with a 1.325 OPS. And he hits seventh! No team has ever before boasted three hitters with such good numbers through at least 25 postseason plate appearances.
“From top to bottom, everybody seems like they’re [having] good at-bats,” says catcher J.T. Realmuto, who himself went 2-for-4, including a sixth-inning two-run double that broke the game open. “The focus is there. The intent is there. We’re not chasing as much as we did early in the season. We’re trying to cut down our swings and just put the ball in play. Then you turn around, and we’re hitting home runs all over the field, and these guys are doing a ton of damage.”
The data has helped get them here. But right now, the only figure the Phillies care about is six: the number of games left to win.
