The 2022 Philadelphia Phillies are three wins away from a World Championship.
None of this makes sense. This year, it was always about breaking the postseason drought and everything else was extra.
This wasn’t the Phillies team that was supposed to go on a run. Or maybe it was all along.
Maybe too much was being made of the Phillies starting out with a 22-29 record and the inconsistencies that are –for the most part — not as prevalent. Maybe we haven’t fully realized that the Phillies finished with the fourth-best record in the National League since June 3 and went on their best run of play immediately following the lowest point of the year.
Maybe the Phillies have been capable of this all along and we weren’t giving them enough credit.
A turbulent regular season has led to an outcome that even the most optimistic Phillies fans could not fathom. It’s led to plenty of memorable moments that fans will relive for years to come. We’ll all go back and watch highlights, but it’s hard to recapture how we all felt in the moment.
From my own perspective, there are a few moments from this postseason that I wish I can capture in a bottle and share with everyone. Some moments are shared — like Bryce Harper’s go-ahead home run in Game 5 of the NLCS — and some are more behind the curtain.
Here are a few of the best so far…
The eerie silence of the St. Louis crowd after Seranthony Domínguez’s eighth inning heroics
The atmosphere at Busch Stadium during the Wild Card series was awesome, but for reasons that are a bit different for why it’s been so great in Philadelphia.
Longtime Cardinals Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina are legends in St. Louis and are treated as such. As it was during his chase for 700, nobody sat down when Pujols was at the plate. There was excitement surrounding the beginning of the postseason for St. Louis because they were a good team with young talent and the No. 1 and 2 MVP candidates in the National League, but there was a sense that October was meant to be a curtain call for Pujols and Molina.
You can sense the tension that it was nearing the end before Game 2 and it reached a climax after Phillies postseason folk hero Seranthony Domínguez neutralized St. Louis’ pair of MVP candidates in the bottom of the eighth inning. He gave up a single to Pujols and the crowd was amped. Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado were due up and while they have struggled for weeks, there was still a chance that something special could happen for St. Louis.
That didn’t happen. Domínguez struck out both batters and it felt like all hope got up and left early to beat the traffic. A few moments before, fans were pounding on the roof of the press box. The next, it felt like 45,000 people began talking amongst themselves in whispers. It was jarring. Baseball heaven felt like a funeral.
It just made it all the more poetic that Cardinals reject Edmundo Sosa caught the final out while drifting slowly to the visiting dugout. Teammates embraced him as soon as the ball found his glove.
Foreboding silence was followed by absolute chaos.
Clubhouse sensory overload
If the Phillies win the World Series, they will be only the third team in postseason history to hold a record five booze-filled formal locker room celebrations. It’s fitting for a team like the Phillies, who know how to party.
This could be my own bias because I’ve come to the conclusion that the Wild Card Series in St. Louis was my favorite part of the playoff run so far, but I am of the opinion that the best Phillies locker room celebration was in the visiting clubhouse in St. Louis.
With media gathered near the center and players in the back by the showers, Rob Thomson emerged from the corner to be the center of attention — something he passionately despises.
His speech — which is interrupted by the constant sound of corks popping in the air, Alec Bohm growling for some reason and Rhys Hoskins screaming “nasty” — concludes with the intimidating sound of around 30 grown men screaming and spraying champagne on their beloved skipper.
A few moments later, a familiar song began to play. Garrett Stubbs has had this song on the “Phils Win” playlist for weeks, but this was the moment when the Phillies universe was introduced to “Dancing on My Own,” the unlikely catchy, gloomy, yet romantic pop anthem for a group of men who embody the ideal version of American masculinity. The 2021 Boston Red Sox, who were eliminated by the Astros in the ALCS, adopted this as their signature song, so my first thought was that this had Kyle Schwarber written all over it. Players who I never thought would know every lyric to this song were singing along.
Beer puddles formed and evaded my shoes, corks and Budweiser cans were everywhere and the air burned from all the champagne. Since the visiting locker room in St. Louis is a bit smaller than the home clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park that has hosted the last two celebrations, everything was condensed in a smaller space, thus enhancing the sensory experience of it all.
The best part of the St. Louis celebration was watching players wash away a burden they have carried for as long as a half decade. Players like Rhys Hoskins have been playing for years to bring Red October back to Philadelphia. Getting to the playoffs was the expectation and advancing to the Division Series to play at home was something many have dreamed about for years.
“All of the stuff that I heard about Red October — let’s go. Let’s bring it on,” Hoskins said that night.
The wall of sound
If you attended a Phillies playoff game at Citizens Bank Park, you know how loud it can get. The crowd released all the angst that built up over 11 years of losing baseball when Hoskins ambushed the first pitch against Spencer Strider for a three-run home run in Game 3 of the NLDS, the first Phillies home playoff game since 2011.
All of those moments — from Hoskins’ home runs to Jean Segura’s diving stops — are electric in their own way. Bryce Harper’s legacy defining shot to win the pennant wasn’t accompanied by the same aggressive crowd reaction as Hoskins’ home run. Or even Kyle Schwarber’s leadoff home run in Game 3. It was a moment of elation that can probably never be replicated again. Hoskins’ home run was great, but it did not lead to happy tears. Fans were jumping, hugging and waving rally towels all at once.
We’re all familiar with how it feels to be in a crowd during these moments, but it’s a completely different experience for the performers on the field. It’s easy to see why home field advantage is addicting for the Phillies.
It’s also easy to see why two of the best teams in the National League were terrible when they faced the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. The roar of the crowd from the field is like a tidal wave. When you’re in the crowd, the sound surrounds you, but when you’re on the field and 46,000 screaming fans encompass your surroundings, it knocks you down and swallows you up. It’s both beautiful and frightening.
Media was allowed on the field for the trophy presentation following the Phillies’ NLCS Game 5 win. As I made my way through the grass and to a spot on the drenched infield dirt by the stage, I paused to take in a 360 view of the crowd staying to celebrate the pennant-clinching victory. It’s one thing to be a part of the wave, but it’s something else when the wave sweeps you away.
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