The Phillies are one win away from punching their ticket to the National League Division Series.
They defeated the Marlins 4-1 behind another incredible postseason outing from Zack Wheeler. He allowed only one run over 6 2/3 innings. He dazzled hitters with his sweeper and overpowered them with a juiced up fastball that maxed out at 99 mph.
“This guy’s been consistent all year,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after the game. “He’s been really good. I thought tonight his stuff was as good or better than any other start all year.”
In three career Game 1 postseason starts, Wheeler has allowed only one run through 20 innings. The baseball world expects dominance out of Wheeler every time he takes the mound in October.
“I think the story was Wheeler,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said after the game.
Wheeler was indeed the biggest story, but here are some other takeaways from Tuesday’s thrilling Game 1 victory.
Jesús Luzardo’s forgettable outing
So much for being afraid of Jesús Luzardo.
The Marlins’ most potent starting pitcher that’s not on the injured list got hitters to swing and miss at his signature slider, but he struggled with glove side command. Credit the Phillies’ hitters for their patience. They made him throw 24 pitches in the first, 16 pitches in the second, 23 pitches in the third and 27 in the fourth inning.
He gave up three runs on eight hits over four innings.
It’s something we all fall victim to every postseason. We look at the starting pitching matchup and try to project winners based on who has the advantage. Wheeler gave the Phillies an edge, but not by that much.
Luzardo was off tonight, but the Marlins bullpen was not.
Three Marlins relievers, A.J. Puk, George Soriano, and Huascar Brazoban, combined to allow only one hit through three innings to keep Miami in the game.
Steven Okert allowed an RBI double in the eighth off the bat of Nick Castellanos. You can thank Bryce Harper for that one. He disregarded Dusty Wathan’s stop sign at third and speeded his way around the bag to score a key insurance run for the Phillies.
No Deja Vu for Alvarado
With the Marlins bullpen looking as good as advertised, the Phillies back end arms needed to hold a tight lead to secure the victory.
Wheeler began to struggle with putting hitters away with two strikes in the seventh. With the lefty hitting Jesús Sánchez due up, Thomson walked to the mound to make a non-controversial pitching change. Wheeler for José Alvarado. Thomson knew that the Marlins were going to counter with a right-handed bat, but Thomson liked the matchup.
We’ve seen this go wrong before. Last year’s postseason began and ended with Alvarado squandering a Wheeler gem.
“What happened before is in the past,” Alvarado said through a team interpreter.
Alvarado struck out former Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel on four pitches, a sinker and three cutters, for the final out of the seventh.
Thomson had Alvarado return for the eighth. He retired the next two, but allowed a single to Luis Arraez. Jeff Hoffman was called upon to take over. The job was done, but Alvarado made sure he saluted the crowd of 45,667 with his signature wave goodbye.
“They’re always here for us,” Alvarado said. “They give us energy. We’ve got the best fans in the world.”
The Johan Rojas At-Bat
Nearly 15 years exactly to this day, the Phillies’ No. 9 hitter, pitcher Brett Myers, stepped up the plate. He was facing the Brewers’ CC Sabathia with two outs and two runners on. Myers fell behind 0-2 — and honestly should have been called for strike three on the next pitch. But history was on the Phillies’ side that day and Myers worked out an infamous nine-pitch at-bat that set up one of the greatest moments in Phillies history — a grand slam from Shane Victorino that gave the Phillies a 5-1 lead in Game 2 of the NLDS.
Fifteen years later, things look different. The playoff field has expanded to six teams, there’s a pitch timer and pitchers are no longer hitting.
Johan Rojas, who was an eight-year-old kid living in the Dominican Republic in 2008, now lives in the No. 9 spot for the Phillies. Nobody would have thought at the beginning of this year that he would make it onto the Phillies’ roster, let alone start in center field for Game 1 of the Wild Card Series.
But here he is. He led off the top of the third against Luzardo and was a nuisance.
Rojas took a borderline pitch for strike one, took three straight pitches out of the zone for a ball, and fouled off four consecutive pitches. He was on Luzardo’s changeup. The reward for his persistence was a hanging slider he drilled for a base hit to left field.
“I’ve only been impressed since he’s stepped into this clubhouse since day one about how young he is, how he carries himself, how he prepares and how he’s ready to go out there in those situations,” Kyle Schwarber said about Rojas.
The speedy Rojas advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an Alec Bohm double to put the Phillies ahead 1-0.
It’s not quite as memorable as the Victorino grand slam and the events leading up to it, but Rojas has turned into a player that the Flyin’ Hawaiian would be proud of.
“He’s a gamer,” Castellanos said. “I think that he’s shown that no moment is too big for him. He does a phenomenal job of competing every single pitch and not trying to do too much.”
When asked if he was nervous, Rojas replied in English, “Nahhh.”
“It’s funny because it was the first playoff game of my career,” Rojas said through a team interpreter. “I never played in a playoff game in the minor leagues. So I just said to myself, ‘You know what, go out there, step foot on the field and enjoy it. Have fun. Do what you know how to do.'”
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