Her Take

You know what’s worse than watching your team lose game 7 of the NLCS? Watching your team lose game 7 of the NLCS, in person, from 11 rows off the field.

My dad is a season ticket holder and if he opts into the playoffs, he enters a lottery for postseason tickets. He ended up with game 7 tickets. As much as we wanted to be there, we equally didn’t want to have to be there. But the Phillies had so many chances to wrap up the series before a game 7, and they just couldn’t do it.

But let’s back up.

After losing the 2022 World Series to the Astros, the Phillies were poised to have a great 2023 with many returning players and terrific off-season acquisitions like Trea Turner. But just as they did in 2022, they got off to a rough start. The team went 1-5 in their first six games and 4-8 in their first 12. They finished April on a 10-4 run and barely over .500 with a record of 15-14.

May wasn’t much better, despite Bryce Harper making his season debut after a record short recovery period following Tommy John surgery. They were swept in two series and dropped multiple games in series against the Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Braves, and Mets. At the end of May their record was 25-30.

Watching the Phillies’ slow start to the season was tough, however, I had to remind myself (and several others) that the 2022 season started similarly and ended with a trip to the Fall Classic. No matter what, it’s hard to count the Phightins out. They’re a resilient group of young guys who want desperately to play good baseball for their city.

June started horribly with the team falling to 7 games under .500 and into last place in the National League standings. But, an offensive resurgence and clutch pitching sent them back up to just one game under .500 by the end of the month. In July the Phillies went 14-11 and in August they went 17-10, taking them to 74-59 on the season. This was certainly a surprise, given how the season started and how offensive struggles were plaguing the team all summer. Trea Turner’s struggles were by far the biggest disappointment, though they also led to, in my opinion, the greatest thing to happen all season.

Through the first 107 games, Trea recorded a .235 average with 10 home runs, 34 RBI and 21 stolen bases. That’s not terrible, but it’s not a $300 million performance. His disappointment was palpable in every post-game press conference. He was getting boo’d at every at-bat. His own mother boo’d him.

Then, Phillies fans showed Trea Turner what Brotherly Love is all about. Jack Fritz, a producer for WIP, suggested a standing ovation to let Trea know we had his back. The word spread, the opinions varied, but in the end, the fans gave Trea his standing ovation on August 4. In that game, he went 1-4 and kickstarted a 10-game hitting streak, bumping his average to .252. He thanked Philly fans with a billboard on 95.

And in the 48 regular season games after the standing ovation, Trea notched a .337 average with 16 home runs, 42 RBI, and nine steals. He even had a 16-game hit streak that started in the middle of August. His offensive performance through the last couple months of the regular season rejuvenated the entire team and catapulted them to a National League Wild Card spot for the second year in a row.

What Phillies fans did for Trea was incredible. It was a truly touching display of devotion to their $300 million man. They let him know they had his back and desperately wanted him to reach his potential. They set aside their reputation as rough, mean, gruff grumps and lifted him up with a gesture he likely never saw coming. As a fan of the Phillies, I’m asking honestly, who else can say that about the fan base to which they belong?

The Phillies’ bats were red hot coming out of the regular season. That momentum carried into a 3-game Wild Card series with the Marlins, a division rival against whom the Phillies went 6-7 in the regular season. They swept the Marlins and moved on to face a familiar opponent in the NLDS.

The Atlanta Braves won a league-best 104 games in the 2023 regular season and finished first in the NL East. Eight of those victories were against the Phillies. Going into the series, the Braves were a heavy favorite but their pitching was simply no match for the Phillies’ bats. Case in point, in this series, Nick Castellanos became the first player in MLB history to hit multiple home runs in consecutive postseason games. The Phillies outscored one of their fiercest rivals 20-8 in five games and sent them home before the NLCS for the second year in a row.

Here’s where it gets hard. On paper, it was a mismatch; Arizona was the unlikeliest playoff team this postseason. With home field advantage, the Phightins took the first two games of the NLCS and hit the road for three games in Phoenix. They dropped games 3 and 4 but took a pivotal game 5 before heading back to Philadelphia, where the Phaithful were ready to create more Bedlam at the Bank.

After they lost game 6, I thought it was destiny: my dad and I were going to the franchise’s first-ever game 7 where we were going to watch the Phils punch their ticket to the World Series for the second year in a row. We were going to watch the bell ring. We were going to hear the song. We were going to take October.

But we left Citizens Bank Park with rally towels and broken hearts. The Phillies outscored the Diamondbacks 30-21 and lost the series 4-3.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Never did we think the NLCS would be the end of the road when we saw:

1. Kyle Schwarber hit the most home runs in NLCS history
2. Bryce Harper reach 15 home runs in less than 50 postseason games (the only other person to do this? Babe Ruth.)
3. The team become the 1st team to score 10+ runs in multiple home games in a single postseason since the Phillies in 2009

The bats went silent at the worst possible times. Every strikeout, every fly-out, every runner stranded on base cut a little deeper. This was the team of destiny but their redemption story ended one chapter short.

What hurts the most is knowing how much the players love Philadelphia and the fans, and how much they are hurting waiting to lead a parade down Broad Street. They crave it. They’re ready for it. And everything is nothing until they do it.

Rest assured, Phillies fans, the hunt for Red October will be back.

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