Return to Red October, Part 3

The swing of his life.

Oct 16, 2023

We looked at the start of the Phillies’ 2022 playoff run here, as they mounted an improbable 9th-inning comeback against the Cardinals in St. Louis. We relived NLDS Game Three (the bat spike game) here. Now we check in on NLCS Game Five.

Sunday, October 23, 2022.

2:37 p.m.

For the first time in over a decade, the Philadelphia Phillies are a win away from the World Series. They have a 3-1 lead over the Padres in the NLCS, and Game Five is about to get underway.

Zack Wheeler has the ball.

The Phils won Game One behind a stellar Wheeler performance and dingers from Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber’s home run ball went a ridiculous 488 feet, startling San Diego fans in Petco Park’s upper deck.

In Game Two, the Phillies stumbled, blowing an early 4-0 lead and losing 8-5.

Schwarber homered again in Game Three, a 4-2 Fightins win in Philadelphia. And the Padres blew a 4-0 lead of their own in Game Four as the Phils’ offense unleashed the fury: Schwarber, JT Realmuto, and Hoskins hit home runs (two from Hoskins) in a 10-6 W at Citizens Bank Park.

Now, at the Bank for the third straight game, the Phillies are ready to finish off the Friars. They need one more win. But with a loss, the series would shift back to San Diego. The momentum would shift back to the Padres.

Wheeler throws strike one to Jurickson Profar, and the game is underway.

3:58 p.m.

Rhys Hoskins is at bat.

Wheeler and Padres pitcher Yu Darvish had started strong. Wheeler retired the first nine batters he faced, and Darvish induced double plays in each of the first two innings.

But here, in the bottom of the third with Schwarber on base, Hoskins unloads on a 3-0 cutter and puts it in the left field seats. Phillies lead, 2-0.

4:34 p.m.

Zack Wheeler gives up a single to Jake Cronenworth to start the top of the 7th, and Seranthony Dominguez takes over on the mound. It is raining.

Wheeler had been spectacular, serving up a home run to Juan Soto in the 4th inning but otherwise avoiding trouble. He allowed three hits and struck out eight, walking none.

Dominguez, however, immediately stresses fans out with a wild pitch. Cronenworth advances to second, then scores on a Josh Bell double. The game is tied at 2. Jose Azocar replaces Bell as a pinch runner.

Seranthony is clearly struggling with wet baseballs, but for a moment he seems to regroup. He strikes out Brandon Drury with a 96 mph four-seam fastball on a 2-2 count, then strikes out Ha-Seong Kim on three pitches.

Then… disaster. With Trent Grisham at bat, Dominguez throws another wild pitch and Azocar advances to third base. A couple pitches later, Azocar scores on Seranthony’s third wild pitch of the inning.

Grisham flies out, but the damage is done. The Padres lead, 3-2. Bryson Stott leads off the bottom of the seventh with a double but the Phils fail to bring him home.

The Phillies are down to their final six outs in a gloomy Citizens Bank Park.

5:47 p.m.

Bryce Harper is at bat in the eighth.

Jose Alvarado had pitched a scoreless top of the eighth for the Phils, and JT Realmuto had led off the bottom of the inning with a single. The Padres had star lefty reliever Josh Hader looming in the bullpen, but elected to keep righthanded pitcher Robert Suarez in the game.

Harper swings and misses at the first pitch from Suarez, a 96 mph sinker.

Every fan in the ballpark has done the math, and every fan in the ballpark is praying for a Harper home run.

Harper takes a 97 mph fastball. It’s high. Ball one.

Millions of Phillies fans watching the game on television have the same thought: “Just launch one here, Bryce.”

Harper fouls off the next pitch. Strike two.

Bryce Harper had delivered a slew of memorable hits for Phillies fans. But none of them came close to what he is about to do in this moment.

Foul ball.

Another foul ball.

On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Harper lays off a tough changeup. The count is 2-2.

On the seventh pitch of the at-bat… well… it’s best to just watch.

“Pure chaos, right? I don’t think anybody was surprised,” Hoskins would later say. “This guy has a knack for coming up in the biggest moments. It’s just what he’s done his whole career, and we’ve seen it plenty of times.”

After the Swing of His Life/Bedlam at the Bank/whatever else you want to call it, the game was not over. David Robertson walked a couple batters in the ninth before Ranger Suarez came in to get the final two outs.

The Padres came closer than many of us remember to ruining the whole thing. And maybe they would have on some other day.

But not on this day.

This day belonged to Bryce Harper.

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Tweets of the week.

Real-time reactions to Bedlam at the Bank from October 2022:

The historical significance was understood immediately:
https://x.com/TimKellySports/status/1584300858988429312?s=20
Even Harper couldn’t believe what happened:
https://x.com/BaseballBros/status/1584305564829777921?s=20
Just imagine if they blew it in the top of the 9th:
https://x.com/von_tann/status/1584305338349936640?s=20
Here’s a view from the stands:
https://x.com/rkuestnernbc10/status/1584329247027392512?s=20
Harper was of course named NLCS MVP:
https://x.com/jaysonst/status/1584328849395179520?s=20

This week in 2008.

Thank you to everyone who followed the 2008 regular season in this space every week. By October 16, the ‘08 Phillies had dispatched the Brewers in the NLDS and the Dodgers in the NLCS. We’ll review the Phils’ entire 2008 postseason run in a separate issue.

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Go Phils! We need eight more, Topper.