shutime

I’m writing this the morning after the Philadelphia Phillies knocked off the Atlanta Braves in 4 games in the 2023 NLDS. This will likely be a long post, but if you like baseball and/or have watched any amount of the 2023 postseason I promise it won’t be a total waste of time. This one’s for you Gilly.

If you’ve followed any amount of my posts, or read any of my predictions from the beginning of this season, you know how bad I’ve been at predicting this season’s outcomes.

However, everyone else has been terrible at this too. Almost nobody predicted the Arizona Diamondbacks making the postseason. And I’m sure nobody predicted they’d be facing off against Philly in the NLCS.

No one thought much of the Orioles or Rays and both of them proved the haters (and me) wrong and made the postseason. The Rangers led the AL west until the last day of the season and the Twins broke a winless playoff streak of over 21 years.

The Dodgers won 100 games and immediately got swept by the same Arizona team no one thought would win, and the Texas Rangers have not lost a postseason game en route to the ALCS.

Nothing was even slightly predictable.

Sure, a lot of people probably predicted the defending NL champs to make it back to the NLCS but it was not many. The addition of Trea Turner was a big deal before this season started. You have to remember that even last year, this was a wild card team that happened to make a crazy run to the World Series. Bryce Harper missed the first quarter of this season to injury too.

Most MLB analysts, commentators, former players, etc. had one of two teams making a postseason run; the Atlanta Braves or the New York Mets.

The Braves is obvious. They’ve now won the division 6 years in a row. But the Mets were definitely the favorite. All the giant additions they made really got the world talking. Thankfully this post isn’t about the Mets implosion.

The Phillies are destined to win it all this year.

I’ll probably be horribly wrong as I have been all year. They’ll probably choke and not even win this NLCS. But let me tell you the story of the most entertaining baseball team since the 2016 Chicago Cubs.

Let’s start with last year’s team. The 2022 Phillies were quite the story.

After finishing third in their division, they were stacked up against an incredible St Louis Cardinals team that had just won the NL Central. They swept them immediately. They then were matched up against a 101 win Braves team, the team who won their division. They won that series three games to one, creating a beautiful and intense rivalry. (More on that in a minute)

Now they Phillies are matched up with the Padres. The “reverse-moneyball” team. The Padres were an extremely heavy favorite to win the NLCS, as they had added Manny Machado the year before, gained a superstar in Fernando Tatis Jr., and stolen away the future of baseball in Juan Soto. If the Phillies are David, this is most certainly Goliath.

The series was definitely interesting. The Phillies took care of business though, winning four games to one. They famously celebrated to Calum Scott’s “Dancing On My Own” remix while pouring champagne and beer all over each other, a video which went viral instantly and even garnered attention from the British singer himself.

Then the World Series. As of today, the Astros have been to four of the last six World Series, winning two. The Phillies versus Astros series was a wild one, but ultimately the Astros would come out on top.

Many, (including me) thought that was the end of the Phillies story. They signed arguably the best shortstop in baseball in Trea Turner in the offseason. Exciting as it was, the Braves and Mets were too flashy and competitive.

Trea’s arrival in Philly was extremely rough. He had just come off the World Baseball Classic where he was a national hero and the most clutch player ever. Everyone expected him to bring that intensity and those clutch at-bats to Philadelphia. He did not.

Trea started his 2023 season hitting just .247 through July. Not nearly good enough for the highest paid shortstop in all of baseball.

Philadelphia sports fans are notoriously ruthless, even to their own players. They turned on Trea quickly, booing him when he came up to bat frequently. This made Trea play all the worse. By now the Phillies were certainly not winning the division. The Braves had basically clinched it by the halfway mark of the season. What’s more is the Miami Marlins started to play really great baseball. Some were uncertain if the Phillies could even make the postseason.

Then, a twitter user and Phillies fan named “The Philly Captain” changed everything. He took to his twitter account to urge Phillies fans to give a massive standing ovation to Trea Turner in his next at-bat, rather than booing him for his poor play.

Phillies fans listened, and when Trea walked up to the box they went crazy. Since that standing O, Trea Turner was an entirely different player. He went from hitting .247 to .315 through the end of the year.

Trea bought around half a dozen billboards around Philadelphia that read “Thank You, Philly” to thank the Philly faithful for saving his season.

The Phillies really kicked their game up a notch, and handedly took the first NL Wild Card spot. They would play the Miami Marlins and sweep them quickly.

The Braves were waiting for them. After the Phillies took a huge game 1 in Atlanta, they found themselves down 1 run in the top of the 9th in game 2.

Bryce Harper was on first, and Nick Castellanos was up to bat.

Nick hit a ball that looked like a homer off the bat, and Harper took off rounding second base on his way to third. Braves’ center-fielder Michael Harris made an incredible leaping catch for the second out of the inning, and Harper was stuck on the wrong side of second.

Harper sort of slipped for a second before sprinting back to first to tag up. Two incredible throws from Harris and third baseman Austin Riley beat him there, and the Braves won game two.

This was a blunder on Harper’s end. But it would be far outweighed by the comments Braves’ SS Orlando Arcia would make in the clubhouse after.

“Atta Boy Bryce” became a headline everywhere in the baseball world. Arcia chose to mock Harper, therefore cursing himself into being the man who poked the bear.

The Phillies were ready to shut up their division rivals with their on-field play. Not only were they upset, but the Philly fans were upset. And game 3 was in Philly!

“Atta Boy Arcia” signs were all over Philly, and the crowd was as ready as ever. As controversial as Philadelphia sports fans are, it is impossible to deny the advantage they give their baseball team in the postseason. It is hard to think of a better baseball crowd than the one seen here in game 3.

The Phillies destroyed the Braves.

Harper hit possibly the loudest homerun in recent baseball history, then stared down Arcia as he rounded second base. Castellanos hit two homeruns. Harper came up once again in the fifth and hit another shot to dead center field. This time his eyes were locked on Arcia as he rounded second base. Some have called this the greatest baseball photo of the 21st century.

Then game four. The Phillies weren’t going to lose the series clinching game at home. They took care of business and clinched.

Welcome back to present day. Once again, the Phillies are headed back to the NLCS and once again, they celebrated with a locker room consisting of a blaring remix of “Dancing On My Own”, champagne, beer, and of course, heading out to the bars alongside their fans. Plus, reliever Orion Kerkering wore a shirt with “Atta Boy Harper” printed across the front.

The Phillies will play the Arizona Diamondbacks for Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday and they have all the momentum. Neither team was supposed to make it this far. The Dbacks are another amazing story and much more of a cinderella tale. However, their journey is only starting.

The Dbacks have serious potential to win the series but their rotation pales in comparison to Nola, Wheeler, and Suarez in my opinion. Plus, the Phillies lineup has a slight edge on Arizona. Philly will have home field advantage in this series, and that is a massive piece to this matchup.

I was lucky enough to be at the other NLDS game 3, when Arizona swept the Dodgers and clinched an NLCS berth. That environment was wild too although mostly fueled by a Dodgers hatred and a fanbase that literally doesn’t exist apart from when their team makes the postseason once every five years.

That isn’t meant to be a slight to Dbacks fans, I live in Phoenix and this is a really exciting year. It’s just the truth. I attended over ten Dbacks games this year and I am almost certain that Chase Field had less than 25,000 fans at all of them.

There are fan bases that have been through hell and watched their team lose year after year. Those fans deserve to see their team win. Those fans make their team more dangerous in October. The Philly fan base is one of them. The Diamondbacks fan base isn’t. The actual Diamondbacks team is an awesome story. It would be incredible to see them win this pennant. But the fans in Phoenix are unfortunately fairweather.

This isn’t an indicator of who the winning team will be in a given series. But if there were ever a time for baseball’s romantic side to come out, it’d be for this Phillies team next week.

They have all the momentum, and I don’t see the Diamondbacks stopping them. Here’s hoping we see a World Series rematch and the Phillies’ revenge. Either way, thank you Lord for the Elimination of the Braves, and an NL champion who doesn’t literally worship satan. (@Dodgers)