I don't know how it happened, but the Philadelphia Phillies only scored one run, they only got three hits, and they played nine innings. I thought that was impossible, but it happened last night, and the Arizona Diamondbacks are on the board in the National League Championship Series.
Actually, it happened in the afternoon, sort of. Game ended in the evening. Ryan Fagan, Sporting News, baseball reporter, baseball writer, baseball extraordinaire guy opening up a pack of baseball cards as we speak, I'm sure. Alright, Brandon Faught looked like somebody who should start every game for Arizona. Yeah, you know, I mean, all the talk coming into this series was that the Diamondbacks had two pitchers, Zach Gallin and Meryl Kelly, and then that was it. You know, and to be honest, we did track records, so that was wrong to think that way.
Right. When you look at the numbers the other Diamondbacks starters have put up this season, they weren't great, but you know, Brandon Faught's a guy that, what they have high hopes for, you know, they, this regular season was a bit of a disappointment. He didn't touch the way that they thought he could because they knew he had stuff, right? He had the type of stuff to go in there and beat a lineup like Philly. He didn't do that much this year, but it's not because it wasn't there, you know, and this is kind of, you know, his arrival on the big stage, you know, his first start in the postseason wasn't good.
The second one was very good. And then all of a sudden he kind of took advantage of, you know, I mean saying he took advantage of a fully lined up look Philly was very, very aggressive in that game. You know, you look at the number of first pitch swings, second pitch swings, but he, he did a good job to staying out of the middle of the zone, which is something that, you know, in game one, you know, Zach Gallin and game two, Meryl Kelly, they pitched pretty well, but they left a couple over the middle of the plate. And you can't do that against the Phillies, you know, and there's enough movement on, on Fox fastball that, you know, he did a good job of, of avoiding those first pitch home runs and, and working his way through a line up a couple of times.
It was impressive. Yeah. And then, uh, in spite of having nobody on and two outs in the sixth inning, they went and got him like, I guess two times through the lineup, they're, uh, they're done no matter what he's doing.
Yeah. You know, I mean, I think in the Diamondback mind, that was best case scenario that he got through two innings, you know, and it could have been a different story if, if it was for nothing, you know, or, or three to one or something like that. But in a game that was that tight and you have a guy like Schwerberg, you know, I know that he hadn't done much in the first couple of bats, but I mean, look, there's a reason that, uh, you know, Kyle Schwerber has become the player. He has not cause he's hitting three 50 with 20 home runs. He hit under 200 this year, but he at 40 was 47, 48 home runs. I mean, one swing of the bat, he can do damage in a game that that's tight.
They just didn't want to take a chance of guys seeing him for the third time. And I get it right. I do, you know, and Arizona's bullpen has been pretty good, really good this postseason, you know, aside from a little bit of the Philly series, but they were rested. They were coming off the day off.
They kind of had a plan of attack, how they want to do it. And from Arizona's perspective, it could not have gotten any better from the pitching standpoint than the way that it did with, with FOC getting into the six, like he did. I mean, no offense. I was rooting after the walk to Schwerber with two outs and nobody on after the walk to him, I was rooting for Trey Turner to hit a home run just because that would have been a karma home run. Look, I understand the analytics of the game.
I think we can be married to them way too much. You say Arizona's got a good bullpen. They're going to need it today. Apparently it looks like it's going to be a bullpen day for both teams. Christopher Sanchez going for Philly. He hadn't pitched in the postseason yet. And Manta ply, who was actually sort of a local kid here.
He's from Danville, Virginia, which is not that far from where we are. But I assume it's going to be a bullpen day. But let me ask you real, real quick about this series, because I know what the final score and I know how Philly's bats were held in check.
This still feels like an inevitability to me, because that's what happened yesterday really feels like an outlier. With so take two from moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, you could show off your skin again. And you know what that means each day as a tick to inhibitor. So tick two is the only once daily pill of its kind for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Ask your dermatologist about so tick to today and learn more at so clearly you.com.
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It's unknown it's unknown if so take two has the same risks as jack inhibitors call 1-888-SOTYKTU to learn more. Yeah, I agree. I mean, the Phillies just look fantastic. You know what they did in the first two series of the year or the postseason and then in the first two games of the NLCS, they're so good.
You know what I mean? And I think we're going to look back at this series and the takeaway from the Diamondback side is going to be Brandon Potts going to be a superstar here. We're doing what he did because I mean this, yeah, this is a lineup, you know, working on a little something and that's going to publish at some point, kind of looking at all the home runs, the Phillies, 19 of them this year, it's going to be a long piece ready. It is, you know, I've had to kind of hold myself on each of the home runs just talking about them because you could go on and it could be a 4,000 word piece.
My editor might shoot me. There's so many of these home runs and I was looking at it and they've done such a good job of attacking early. I think six of the home runs they've had have been on a first pitch and another four or five have been on the second pitch of the bad or being very aggressive.
They're targeting what they want. They're going after it. And for Fox to pitch the way that he did, you know, it still feels like the Phillies are going to take this series and they might take it and wrap it up before he even has a chance to get back to Philadelphia. But it's, yeah, for the Diamondbacks to get the game the way they did yesterday and for Marque to have that walk-off hit the way they did, I mean, you couldn't ask for anything more going into game 4. 19 home runs for the Phillies through nine games.
They had them through eight games and three each in the first two games of this series. Real quick, it did feel like if Houston could get off they might be in really good shape and looks like their bats are going. Altuve, Abreu, Jordan Alvarez has just been, I remember what he could, he was like Kyle Schwab, where it hit a bunch of home runs but he was hitting like 190.
This guy has become just such a much better overall player. And tonight's pitching matchup looks, or today's pitching matchup looks delicious with Verlander and Montgomery going against each other. I mean, I don't want to say it's a must-win for the Texas Rangers, but it's a must-win for them.
It kind of is, you know. I mean, I know they still have the lineup, but going into the series, I think this is the difference between, you know, a three-game series, a five-game series, and a seven-game series. A seven-game series tests you more, right?
And that's why, you know, I get the expanded playoffs and you don't want to make the postseason take forever. But I mean, a seven-game series is, that's baseball, right? I mean, that's baseball. That's how you're tested.
That's how your depth is tested. That's how you can't get through with five pitchers, right? You know, you need a whole roster of guys that can miss bats. And I think that's where the Astros have the advantage over the Rangers. You know, we saw that kind of in, you know, in the most recent game and we'll see. We'll see. You know, I mean, the Astros have gone back and tied this up. They have all the momentum now. They wrestled back their home field advantage that they gave up in those first couple of games.
We'll see. You know, I mean, all it takes is a couple of swings from that Texas lineup, Garcia or, you know, Seager or Semyon getting the hold of a couple that can change everything around. But, you know, if you're if you're an Astros fan, you feel a million times better right now than you did a couple days ago. I think the Rangers are going to beat him today, though. That doesn't mean Houston won't win the series, but I think the Rangers are going to get him. Jordan Montgomery's been dynamite. I know Verlander is Verlander. I still not.
I don't have tons of confidence in in Justin, but we'll see what happens. Ryan Fagan of the Sporting News at Ryan Fagan opening up packs of baseball cards every hour on the hour. Appreciate your time, sir.
Enjoy today. Nice to have two games. Hey, real quick, because you kind of alluded to it. Should the second or should the division round be best of seven and not best of five? I mean, in the ideal world, every postseason series will be best of seven. But I get that they they don't want to shorten the season, right?
Because that's taking away home revenue. They don't want to make the postseason a grind like the NBA or NHL. But I mean, if you wanted to be true to baseball and what it is and what it should take to get through the playoff series, because right now it's different, right? I mean, there's the regular season that this long grind and you have to have to build your team a certain way and then you get to the postseason. And then if you have two good starting pitchers, yes, then you can probably get through two rounds. And, you know, so if you want to be true to baseball, yeah, everything should be seven games. But, you know, the logistics and the other part of that, it would it would take a lot to make that happen. Yeah, the division series should be best of seven anyway. I mean, it's only two more days, two more days. Let's do that. You and I make it happen. Ryan Fagan, I appreciate your time, man. Thanks, Adam.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-10-20 17:27:29 / 2023-10-20 17:33:25 / 6
