The Philadelphia Phillies were never supposed to play in the 2022 World Series. The sixth seed in the National League, in the first year the postseason has welcomed a sixth team into the October dance, the 87 win Phils won 14 fewer games than the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets.. from the same division. They took down the 93 win NL Central champion St. Louis Cardinals in the Wild Card round. They defeated the Braves, 3 games to 1, in the Division Series. They eased past the San Diego Padres in an electrifying Championship Series. It was a journey that started on October 7th and ended nearly one month later on November 5th. It included a string of moments that’ll live forever in the memory of Philadelphia sports fans, young and old, who saw playoff baseball return to the city for the first time since 2011, and undoubtably will lead in increased interest in the team heading into 2023 and beyond. Unquestionably, the season was a success.
And yet.
What if Rob Thomson didn’t prematurely remove his ace, Zach Wheeler, in game six?
What if Kyle Schwarber’s moonshot in game two didn’t leak six inches foul?
What if Chas McCormick didn’t turn into Willie Mays and rob a J.T Realmuto liner in game five?
Rewind to November 1. Phillies 7, Astros 0. A three games to two series lead. Two games still to come at Citizens Bank, where the Fightins’ were undefeated in the postseason. What ensued was a resounding thud.
Three games and four days later the series was over. The Phillies mustered just three runs in those games, two of which came courtesy of Schwarber home runs. They committed two basic errors. They struck out 38 (!) times. They were no hit (!!). It wasn’t so much a collapse as a total disappearance from the biggest stage in the game, from a position of genuine strength against the big, bad Houston Astros. Getting to that situation in the first place was an incredible achievement, a vindication of Thomson’s leadership and the roster building acumen of veteran executive Dave Dombrowski. However no roster is ever perfect, and more so than most Philadelphia had a number of flaws that, sooner or later, would rear their ugly head. The lineup had a lot of swing and miss in it, as evidenced by a World Series record number of K’s. Fielding was, to put it mildly, an adventure with DH-types playing both the infield and outfield corners. The pitching was good at the top, very good in fact, but it was shallow. Thomson’s most trusted arms, Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez, ran out of gas and their eventual demise came to pass at the most crucial junctures of the biggest games in their lives. Aaron Nola didn’t have it in his two World Series starts, getting shelled for eight runs in 8.1 innings, both team losses.
Despite all that, the Phillies still could have tilted the series in their favour if just a couple of key moments had gone their way. In game five they halved a two run deficit in the eighth inning on Jean Segura’s opposite field single, putting runners at the corners with one out. Brandon Marsh, the nine hitter, struck out on three pitches before Schwarber belted a laser right at first baseman Trey Mancini. Mancini stabbed the ball without flinching, the ball destined for his glove despite it leaving the bat at over 100 miles per hour. A foot either side and two runs would have scored, giving the Phillies a one run lead entering the ninth. The opportunity, fleeting as it was, had passed, and further agony would ensue in the bottom of the ninth when Realmuto’s drive to the right centre gap was chased down by McCormick with a level of anticipation and skill that just wasn’t on show when Philadelphia were in the field. When a play needed to be made the Astros made it, the Phillies did not and the series slipped painfully from their grasp.
It looked for a time in game six as though Wheeler might will the team to a game seven, carrying them on his back by firing a series of 98 and 99mph rockets. He mowed through the order twice, before hitting catcher Martìn Maldonado and giving up a softly hit single to eventual series MVP Jeremy Peña, putting runners on first and third. It was just the third hit Wheeler had allowed, which made it all the more jarring when Thomson emerged from the dugout and turned to Alvarado to face lefty Yordan Alvarez. I don’t need to repeat what happened next, it’ll be a long time before any Phillies fan wilfully rewatches that at bat, but the end result was Alvarado leaving the game with the score 4-1 to Houston and his postseason ERA inflated to 5.56. In four World Series appearances he hit two batsman, allowed four hits and also walked a hitter in just 3.1 innings. Wheeler was left to stew in the dugout after just 70 pitches, the game and series gone in one beautifully brutal swing of the bat.
All of this begs the question: was 2022 the ride of a lifetime for Phillies fans, or a missed opportunity ? It’s a nuanced question, of course, one that can’t accurately be answered until the dust has settled on the next era of Phillies baseball and the careers of the players and staff involved are firmly in the rear view mirror. The franchise has been playing since 1883 and has reached just eight World Series; for those wondering that’s one every 17 seasons. Should they not make it back to baseball’s showpiece event until 2039 then the pain of defeats in games four, five and six will linger. However, Bryce Harper and company will have an immediate chance to bounce right back with a roster that should be largely unchanged next year, although there will inevitably be alterations. Hoskins, for so long the face of an underachieving lineup, delivered a handful of memorable home run blasts in the Divisional and Championship rounds, but saw his bat go ice cold in the World Series in addition to misplaying numerous balls in the field. His fate is undetermined; Dombrowski could decide to shop Hoskins in the hope of bringing back a younger, cheaper hitter who possesses more ability with the glove, with the trade off being a loss of right handed power in a left leaning lineup.
One side effect of playing into November is the lack of time before the offseason kicks into gear, with players across the league making decisions on contract options already. Indeed, starter cum reliever Zach Eflin has already declined his $15 million player option and Dombrowski will have little time before he decides how he’ll address the starting rotation behind Aaron Nola, Wheeler and Ranger Suarez. The prospect pipeline looks promising, from a pitching perspective at least, and with a Major League leading $163 million already committed to the roster for 2023 the GM will have to quickly figure out where his priorities lie in terms of upgrading some of the problem spots that contributed to both a slow start and finish to the 2022 campaign. One player who isn’t going anywhere is right fielder/designated hitter Nick Castellanos, who has four years and $80 million remaining on the free agent contract he signed when the owners lockout ended in April. The slugger registered a career worst .694 OPS during the regular season and had just four extra base hits (all doubles) in 15 postseason contests. If the former Cincinnati Red doesn’t bounce back his contract will hang like dark cloud over the roster and Thomson will have to answer incessant questions about his place in the batting order.
The 2019 Washington Nationals might act as a cautionary tale to these Phillies, on windows of opportunity and fleeting visions of immortality. Those Nationals, like the 2022 Phillies, snuck into the postseason as a Wild Card, and like the Phillies started the season poorly. Yet they took their chances, defeated the vaunted Los Angeles Dodgers and Astros en route to a first title in franchise history. Three years later, their stars have left, the cupboard is bare and they’re coming off a Major League worst 107 loss season. Nothing is guaranteed in baseball and opportunities to win don’t come around very often. Nonetheless, whichever path the franchise takes over the coming days and months they’ll always have 2022. Hoskins’ bat spike. The swing of Harper’s life. The Segura Game. Seranthony’s six out save. All the Schwarbombs. And yet..
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Fred Stanley Sport 