PHILADELPHIA — For a brief moment, the city of Philadelphia was too stunned to boo.
As Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman rolled onto his back, holding his mitt skyward like a trophy, Citizens Bank Park held its breath. But safe in Freeman’s glove, somehow, was the final out of NLDS Game 2.
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Second baseman Tommy Edman, after vacuuming up a routine grounder, had babied the ball to first base, nearly throwing it — and the game — away. Had his toss eluded Freeman, Bryson Stott would’ve scrambled home to score the game-tying, season-saving run and send the Philly faithful into a well-deserved pandemonium.
Instead, Freeman’s acrobatic scoop gave Los Angeles a nail-biting, 4-3 win in a soul-crushing, gut-churning loss for the 45,653 home fans. The Dodgers, by surviving Philadelphia’s two-run, ninth-inning charge, secured themselves a commanding 2-0 series lead as this best-of-five NLDS heads to California.
As the Dodgers strolled onto the field for their celebratory handshake line, the crowd’s shock morphed into a chorus of boos. The adrenaline of a hopeful ninth inning dissipated in an instant, like water poured on a scalding-hot pan. In the place of excitement, that all-too-familiar, sinking feeling: A fan base realizing it almost surely faces another long winter of regret.
Mathematically, the Phillies’ season is not over, but that’s not how it felt around the ballpark as folks filed toward the exits. After the final out, one stadium worker on the second-level shouted, “They really made us believe!” to nobody in particular. Nearby, a frustrated fan emphatically dunked his red rally towel into a trash can. Down in the tunnel, security guards and stadium staff traded thank-yous, starting their sentences with, “Well, if I don’t see ya.”
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And there were, of course, many boos.
For the better part of an hour, in the late stages of this game, that’s really all there was. From Kiké Hernández’s broken-bat, RBI infield dribbler in the seventh that snapped a scoreless tie to Alec Bohm’s leadoff single in the ninth, an orchestra of groans, sighs, jeers and various other expressions of dissatisfaction came raining down. From the front row to the nosebleeds, Phillies fans let ‘em, nearly all of ‘em, hear it.
“The stadium is alive on both sides, right?” outfielder Nick Castellanos said afterward. “When the game is going good, it’s wind at our back. But when the game is not going good, it’s wind in our face. The environment can be with us, and the environment can be against us.”
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Here’s an incomplete list of the booed: Orion Kerkering, Matt Strahm, J.T. Realmuto, Castellanos and Stott. The umpires. Shohei Ohtani and Max Muncy. PitchCom and Javier Herrera, the Dodgers clubhouse attendant who came out to deliver a working PitchCom. Former president Joe Biden, who was in attendance.
A few even booed Kyle Schwarber, the club’s beloved, homer-clubbing, de facto captain, after he struck out in a crucial spot in the eighth inning. The next batter, franchise talisman Bryce Harper — hitless on the night and punchless in the series — popped out meekly to center field, earning a critical downpour of his own.
Next, they booed a light show, as closer Jhoan Duran jogged in to his elaborate entrance choreography with the team trailing by three. Duran’s flame- and spider-themed opener electrified Citizens Bank Park all summer but did not fit the moment on this night. And so they booed the bursts of fire erupting from beyond the center-field batter’s eye and the flashing strobes and the pulsating sounds of reggaeton.
They would have booed the father, son and holy ghost had the trio been called upon to warm up in the bullpen.
Each shout of frustration, given the circumstances, was entirely justified. Because for the first six innings, the Phillies were given a collective swirlie by Dodgers starter Blake Snell. The puffy-eyed southpaw didn’t surrender a hit until Edmundo Sosa doinked a broken-bat single into center field in the fifth. Along the way, Snell elicited 23 swing-and-misses from Philadelphia hitters, who at no point looked comfortable against his dastardly changeup.
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Even so, the game remained deadlocked at zero because Phillies starter Jesus Luzardo, making his first October start for the club that acquired him via trade last winter, matched Snell frame by frame. The former Marlin was brilliant, retiring 17 consecutive Dodgers after Mookie Betts laced a single as the second batter of the game. But Luzardo ran out of steam in the top of the seventh, allowing back-to-back hits to Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman. Thus began the bullpen carousel, which commenced with the flamethrower Kerkering.
With runners on second and third and nobody down, the 24-year-old secured a clutch strikeout of Tommy Edman before coaxing a weakly-hit nubber from Kiké Hernández. Shortstop Trea Turner gathered the squibber and threw home, but Teoscar Hernández slid in just ahead of J.T. Realmuto’s tag to put the Dodgers in front. Los Angeles tacked on three more in the frame, opening up what seemed to be a comfortable 4-0 lead.
But the Phillies scraped one across off starter-turned-reliever Emmet Sheehan in the eighth before pouncing all over veteran Blake Treinen to start the ninth. A Castellanos double to left drove in two, cutting the deficit to one. The crowd, which had been begging to release its tension all night long, exploded to life.
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Then came the play of the night.
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With Castellanos on second, Stott squared to bunt. And the Dodgers unleashed the “wheel play” to perfection, charging both corner infielders as Betts, at shortstop, raced to beat Castellanos to third. Third baseman Max Muncy gathered the ball and fired to Betts, who slapped a tag onto the slow-footed Castellanos for out No. 1. That moment didn’t singlehandedly end the threat — Philadelphia had runners on the corners with two out when Freeman’s scoop saved the day — but it changed the complexion of the inning, the game and the series.
Having Stott bunt in that situation was a questionable decision by Phillies manager Rob Thompson, given Castellanos’ well-below-average foot speed and poor baserunning instincts. Castellanos also warrants criticism for not shadowing Betts as he broke toward second base. That extra half-second or two turned out to be the difference. But above all, the Dodgers deserve credit for executing a very difficult play in a key spot.
It’s the kind of thing champions do.
There is a mural, in the tunnel that runs from the Phillies’ clubhouse to their dugout, that features all of the club’s most prominent players: Harper, Schwarber, Turner, the main characters of this four-year run of competitiveness. On the wall, many of these core pieces are pictured yelling, mouths open mid-roar. The scene, silent in its two-dimensionality, conveys a certain illusion of noise, the undeniable promise and addicting allure of deafening sound. It serves as a reminder of what really matters in this place: Red October, loud and proud.
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And for about 15 minutes in the ninth inning Monday, Citizens Bank Park was allowed to be that version of itself. Ultimately, though, it was no more than a final cruel gasp, a gesture toward what this era of Phillies baseball used to be. What it could have been and should have been. The Phillies are now 1-5 in their past six home playoff games, a sharp turn from the 10-2 record they posted over the first 12 home playoff games of this era. This environment is not impenetrable anymore, not even close. And barring a comeback for the ages, it’s all just memories now: the innocent joy of 2022, the dominance-turned-despondence of 2023, the utter embarrassment of 2024 and whatever the hell this has been.
This is a group of players, unfortunately, who might be remembered most for what they never accomplished.
That dynamic did not appear to overwhelm the Phillies as they nursed their devastating loss in the clubhouse afterward. The setting was less woeful and more hopeful than might be expected. Castellanos sat in front of his locker, playing Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” on his phone speaker. Schwarber unspooled his wrist tape and chucked it in the trash. A gaggle of pitchers huddled together in one corner of the room, sharing whiskey and nursing beers. But the gravity of it all was palpable.
“I walked into the locker room today, I had a smile from ear to ear, you know? Like we were up 1-0, just because I’m like, damn, this is a dangerous freaking group,” outfielder Brandon Marsh said. “I look at these guys, and I’m like, there’s some dogs, we got some dangerous, dangerous weapons on the team. Don’t put a dog in the corner — he’ll bite and fight his way out.”
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Maybe he’s right. Maybe the Phillies fight their way out, author a stunning comeback in Los Angeles and reignite this South Philadelphia powder keg in Game 5 and beyond. The unflappable Ranger Suárez and his 1.43 career postseason ERA will start Game 3 on Wednesday. The Dodgers’ bullpen is clearly a problem. Maybe escaping the pressure-cooker of Citizens Bank Park will loosen up the Phillies’ bats.
And perhaps it is premature to bury this core, one that just delivered 96 wins and an NL East title. Harper, Turner, Cristopher Sánchez, Luzardo and most of the supporting cast are under contract for next year. Reunions with one or both of Schwarber and Realmuto are strong possibilities. President of baseball operations Dan Dombrowski will be aggressive in free agency, as always. Zack Wheeler, sidelined since late August due to thoracic outlet syndrome, should return in some form.
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There are reasons to believe this isn’t over.
But Monday night showcased that there are also reasons to believe it is.
