Diamondbacks Discusses Facing the Loud Philadelphia Crowd
The Diamondbacks will open up the 2023 National League Championship Series with two road games in Philadelphia. On top of the Phillies presenting a tough on-field opponent, they will have to deal with a loud, passionate, and raucous crowd at Citizen's Bank Park. When 42,000+ fans get on a team, it can be an intimidating environment to play in.
"We know that it's a great home field advantage for the Phillies" said D-backs manager Torey Lovullo. "Their fans are intense. We've been there and have felt that."
For Arizona they've already played their first four games in the postseason on the road. They've recently come back from Dodger Stadium, a recent house of horrors before taking both games last week. Lovullo ranks the Dodgers fan base just under the Phillies fans for the loudest road environments faced, believing his team handled that challenge very well when they took Games 1 and 2 in the National League Division Series. He then added that the team is looking forward to the challenge of playing in front of the Philadelphia crowd.
The players also have a pretty good idea of what to expect when they go into Philadelphia next week.
"It's going to be loud, they're rowdy fans" said closer Paul Sewald. "Now they're really feeling confident after last season and they're on a pretty good roll right now".
Sewald added that grabbing an early lead and playing downhill allowed them to be more comfortable pitching in Dodger Stadium. They'll need to do the same to win at Citizens Bank Park, as dealing with a deficit with the combination of the loud fans and a very strong pitching staff will be tough to contend with.
"I don't know if you can prepare for it, you just have to experience it" said left-hander Joe Mantiply. "For me any crowd like that, you have to embrace it. Try to not let it fester in your mind, embrace it, and try to stay focused on what you got to do."
Merrill Kelly, the scheduled starter for Game 2, got to experience that crowd firsthand last year. He took his brother to Game 3 of the World Series, a game that the Phillies won 7-0 to take a 2-1 series lead.
"I've seen them as loud as they can possibly be, they hit five homers that game. I have a hard time believing that anything I'm about to experience is louder than that."
Kelly later joked that his brother better be wearing a D-backs jersey this year.
First baseman Christian Walker, a native of nearby Norristown, will get the chance to play in front of his family in the NLCS. Walker called it one of the best postseason environments in baseball.
"It's hard to prep for something you've never experienced personally, but in the same sense we've played in some really good environments. Dodger Stadium is rowdy for sure, we've played there quite a bit. The last few weeks of the season we were really trying to handle it like postseason baseball, so when we got here it was the same intensity, the same preparation. You hope little things like that translate to that environment."
As part of the preparation for handling that environment, the D-backs held a scrimmage yesterday crowd noise piped in in order to best simulate what it would be like. Here's a clip from that scrimmage.
