Arizona Diamondbacks RHP Merrill Kelly unintentionally poked the bear before his start at Citizens Bank Park in Game 2 of the NLCS and things didn’t turn out well for him that evening. But game recognizes game, and Kelly, while explaining the bulletin-board material he provided Phillies fans with before Game 2, recently praised the postseason environment in Philadelphia.
Kelly met with the media before Game 1 of the NLCS at Citizens Bank Park. It’s customary in the postseason for a projected starter to talk the day before he pitches. When asked about the deafening crowds at the stadium, Kelly spoke about his experiences pitching both in the Korean Series and the World Baseball Classic.
Specifically, he wondered whether any crowd at Citizens Bank Park could be louder than loanDepot Park in Miami was when Trea Turner – then Kelly’s teammate on Team USA — hit a go-ahead grand slam in a quarterfinal matchup with Venezuela during the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
“Then going into the WBC game, yeah, I think that — I haven’t obviously heard this place on the field, but I would be very surprised if it trumped that Venezuela game down in Miami,” Kelly continued.
“When Trea hit that grand slam, I don’ think I’ve ever experienced — at least baseball-wise, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced an atmosphere like that so I hope that this isn’t louder than that.”
As you can imagine, in a post Orlando Arcia “ha-ha, atta-boy, Harper” world, this comment caught fire on social media. And even if Kelly wasn’t trying to dis Phillies fans, the comments were taken that way by those in attendance at Citizens Bank Park. Before Game 2, Turner joked that he would “wait and see what he says after the game,” referring to Kelly.
Turner ambushed a first-inning pitch from Kelly for a home run, and the Phillies crushed the Diamondbacks 10-0 to take what felt like a commanding 2-0 NLCS lead.
With the benefit of hindsight, Kelly recently reflected on his NLCS comments.
“I think that quote, unfortunately, got taken way out of context. I definitely poked the big bear of The Bank,” Kelly told Chris Rose on ‘Talkin’ Baseball.’
“I don’t know if it was louder, to be honest with you,” Kelly continued. “When Trea Turner hit that grand slam [in the World Baseball Classic], I’d be hard-pressed to find a situation that purely just volume wise is louder than that.”
Even if he still believes that the WBC game is the loudest he’s ever heard a stadium, Kelly acknowledged the electricity that pitching at Citizens Bank Park in the postseason comes with.
“And that’s kind of what I was getting at. It was never a knock at the Phillies fans. It wasn’t ever like, ‘This place [Citizens Bank Park] is quiet.’ I said it the whole series, I mean, I hand it to the Phillies fans. That place is different, man. It feels like you’re going to war, especially in a playoff setting like that. Some of those games honestly in Philly almost felt more like the World Series than the World Series games did.”
For as much as Kelly and the Diamondbacks struggled in the first two games of the NLCS, they, of course, got the last laugh. After falling down 2-0 in the series, Arizona won four of the final five games in the series — including Games 6 and 7 at Citizens Bank Park — to win the NL pennant. Kelly outpitched Aaron Nola in Game 6, striking out eight batters and allowing just one run over five innings.
Both teams fell short of their ultimate goal of winning a World Series, as the Diamondbacks were defeated by the Texas Rangers in five games. But Arizona added Eduardo Rodríguez, Eugenio Suárez and Joc Pederson this offseason, so there’s a very real chance the Phillies and Diamondbacks will meet in October again in 2024. Perhaps Kelly will find himself on the mound at Citizens Bank Park for the second year in a row, and the October environment at the stadium won’t be the only thing that’s “different” this time around.
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