RECAP: Game 1 NLDS – Phillies waste Wheeler's latest epic October start

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hi, this is call Hamil's Welcome to the Philly Show.

00:00:16
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, Welcome to The Philly Show with Ruben Tomorrow, Junior, Jim Salisbury, toddsile like it is the morning after Game one of the twenty twenty four nlds.

00:00:29
Speaker 1: Are you prepared to get the disaster?

00:00:32
Speaker 2: Are you prepared to be depressed?

00:00:35
Speaker 1: We'll try to.

00:00:38
Speaker 2: That's a great way to put a Jim.

00:00:42
Speaker 3: You know, I think we all had some I mean I think everybody who's watched this season developed both here in Philadelphia and with the Mets, has had some trepidation going into this series. And you know, after Game one, if you're a little anxious about this series, how do you feel now?

00:01:06
Speaker 2: I was watching, I mean, we're all watching that game yesterday, and as the game is games going on, I'm like, man, Wheeler is unbelievable, but man, they're going to need another run. Man, They're gonna need another run. Man, They're gonna need another run.

00:01:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. Hey, I listen when he hit that home run, I thought, I actually thought to myself, this is kind of strange. They may not get another hit. And they almost didn't. Yeah, they almost did not What did they get five hits.

00:01:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, five hits, and four of them were on the eighth inning or later.

00:01:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I just I don't get it. Well, I guess I do, because here, here's my here's my sort of my summation of it. They have really really dangerous The Phillies have very dangerous hitters. They don't have great hitters. Right Bryce Harper might be the only great hitter. They don't have guys who grind out at bats. There's no grinders in the entire lineup. They can do damage. Each one of them can hit a home run, each of them can hit a double, each of them can drive the ball. But they don't grind out at bats. They don't have a Gene Segura type but Plasido Polanco type. They don't have that guy in the lineup that will grind out in the bats. They have slashers and hackers. And you know when you when you swing a lot and you swing out of the zone a lot, you can really be exploited. And that's what we've seen in the second half of the season. Is what we saw last year in the playoffs, is what we're seeing right now. And hopefully they can figure out and make an adjustment, so they know it, they know that they're swinging out of the zone and they're not having a whole lot of success with it.

00:02:47
Speaker 2: So this season, the Phillies chase rate, that's pitches that they swing at out of the strike zone, out of the game day strike zone, was thirty point three percent. Last year games three through seven of the NLS that was the disaster stretch, it was thirty six percent. And if I did the search correctly on Baseball Savant this morning, they were at thirty three percent yesterday in game one, So right in the middle of horrific nlcs finish to their season average, which is just to tick over thirty percent.

00:03:17
Speaker 3: So and let's not forget you know, the Mets were flailing at Zach Wheeler. Through through seven innings, they had thirty swing and misses, unbelievable against Zach Wheeler. It's just that, you know, sometimes in any sporting event, any game at the professional level, there's that one window where a team wins the game and a team loses the game. And the Mets went out won it with an inning that the Phillies are incapable of having. You know, they had walks, they had sacrifice flies, they had five singles.

00:03:50
Speaker 1: They didn't have to.

00:03:51
Speaker 3: Hit the ball over the wall to rally. They had tremendous grinding at bats. You know, five of their guys were oh two and they either produced a hit, walk, or a sacrifice fly. Phillies couldn't put them away. So and you know, after the game, you know, I poked my head into the interview room and listened to Nimo and Vanto's talk, and they both talked about, you know, you don't have to swing big, just you know, make something small happen. Put the bat on the ball, hand the baton off, grinding at bat, and and and their manager Carlos Mendozo talked about the same things that they've been doing that all year. And I just don't think think the Phillies. I mean, they can do it at times, but they they don't do it consistently. And it was it was glaring to watch the Mets have an ending like that and just say to yourself, this Phillies teams incapable of having that inning. And that's what cost them last year in the postseason. It's what cost them at times this season when they'd have those long offensive shutdowns, and it's it's what cost them in Game one. Here they were incapable of putting together any type of offense other than other than Schwarber's bomb in the first inning. That was that was electrifying and exciting. But that was about all that was other than Zach Wheeler, you know, to cheer about. They get a lead off walk in the fifth inning. Boom, boom, boom, top of the articles out one, two, three.

00:05:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Jim, I was gonna say, you know, Jim, you mentioned what the Mets were saying in the interview room. And then Harper postgame was asked about what happened, and the quote was, it's the same thing man, chasing balls in the dirt didn't work deep int accounts like we should have. We've got to understand what they're trying going to try to do to us and flip the switches and offense immediately. And then he was asked mac Elbastam, you know what do you think the Mets are trying to do to you? Well, they're going to try to bury stuff and try to get us as chase as much as possible. And they all talked about it after the game. You know, Bryce, Trey Turner, Nick Castianos.

00:05:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and why would you throw Harper a strike? I mean, they're not getting much He's not getting much protection when you got Castianos behind him, very prone to Chase in the middle of the order, not making much contact ahead of Harper, with Turner really prone to Chase, had one of those games. So it's like, you know, it's a real handicap in that lineup point when they're not, you know, having the type of games they're capable of, but they're very easy to pitch to and be exploited.

00:06:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. Nothing becomes more glaring about how you're supposed to play fundamental baseball than in the playoffs. Okay, the things that you need to do and have to do to be successful in the playoffs. That watch the Baltimore Kansas City series. They tried to bunt, they got big base hits, they pitched, they played unbelievable defense. All the things that are necessary to do in baseball, the fundamental things to do, making contact, having quality at bats, throwing strikes, all the things that you need to do to have success. Those are fundamental, basic things that have to happen in the game. They are not no longer taught all that much. But the Mets are doing it, and they have been doing it for a while now. They've been doing it from the time they became accountable to each other, from May twenty ninth on when they have that big meeting, and so they've committed to doing that now. The Phillies have out talented teams for a long long time. They've out talented them because they've really really talented, but they haven't out baseball teams. And that's what you need to do in the playoffs. The Mets had eight singles. That's it. Eight singles. Single counts, guys. It doesn't have to be a homer. It doesn't have to be a slug For the Phillies, it sort of does because they don't string those singles together, like Jim said, and they feast on mistakes by the pitchers. And when you're executing and you have a game plan and you're in the playoffs and the hitters aren't making the adjustment to do that, then you're in trouble in the playoffs. And it's not really just the situation where you're chasing like the two strike pitch. It's chasing the one o pitch, it's chasing the two o pitch. It's chasing the two to one pitch that's out of the zone and not waiting for the pitch to be in the zone to drive. Because they didn't even make good quarrel contact yesterday, I don't know. They only hit like one ball over one hundred miles an hour or two, and there were I think they were both. One was shore shore.

00:08:26
Speaker 2: Schober's home run obviously was crushed, and then they did not hit a ball over ninety five miles an hour until the eighth inning. I think it was maybe the Castillanos have a single in the eighth I think that might have been the next one.

00:08:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that Harper hit the ball down the right field line, that might that.

00:08:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, that was that was actually just under night, under ninety five. But my point being though that from Schwarbert until the eighth inning, they did not hit a single ball hard, So you couldn't even use that like we squared up a few balls hard. They just didn't fall in for hits. There was no solid contact, there was no barreling, there was nothing nothing like that.

00:09:01
Speaker 3: You mentioned the Mets been doing it for a while, and you mentioned the team meeting and the account accountability to each other. It's just one thing. It really strikes me. Since these two teams saw each other in London, and since they departed London, the Mets are twenty six games over five hundred, including last night's win. The Phillies are just two games over five hundred in that span.

00:09:30
Speaker 1: I think that's dramatic. It's pretty significant, there's no question about it. And the only other thing I will talk about, or the one other thing I'll talk about, is the fact that the bullpen. You start talking about some of that time off. I think the bullpen really struggled with that because these are guys. Guys in the bullpen, I think need to throw a lot. They have to keep themselves fresh and to keep themselves sharp. I think that they really struggle when they don't pitch a lot and it's been five days since they competed or six days since they've been competed, and they got into a situation where they just couldn't make their pitches when they needed to make pitches. Strom was over the plate far too much, which he does a lot, which is something that's a little dangerous. He doesn't expand the zone, and Hoffman like expanded too much because he wasn't real sharp with his breaking stuff, and I wasn't able to command that stuff. So you have that combination, and you know, you got to give the Mets credit. They took advantage of that.

00:10:31
Speaker 2: That was almost the inning for me. Where I'm going, Man, maybe this Maybe the Mets are the team of destiny because Jeff Hoffman and Matt strom pitching the same inning and neither of them can finish it.

00:10:43
Speaker 1: That's that happened. That's never happened.

00:10:45
Speaker 2: That's never that's never happened.

00:10:47
Speaker 3: And what does that do for it?

00:10:49
Speaker 4: And they were all ahead of the they were all ahead.

00:10:50
Speaker 2: They all got ahead. It's not like they were It's not like Hoffman was He's down three to zero and three to one and two to one. He was down oh one, or he was up all one oh two one, and then he kept hanging sliders, missing with his slider and stromp didn't put anybody away.

00:11:05
Speaker 3: What does that do for the Mets confidence? They took it to the Phillies' two best relievers. That has to you know, the confidence was high coming in. That just has to take it to another level.

00:11:17
Speaker 1: And they did it in different ways. So they got ahead in both those guys Okay and Lindor had a great at bat of staying in it. But some of those pitches when he got to two were non competitive pitches. I mean not even close. Those are pitches that were balls out of the hand. He ticked the one and I couldn't believe he made contact with That was good to bounce up there at about fifty feet and he made contact with it. But the rest of those pitches in that at bat were not even competitive. Now on the flip side, Stromp just kept pounding the zone and pounding the zone. He went. He went two on Nimo and two sliders that were and he made him look silly on a couple of sliders, the first one especially, and then he throws a fastball literally right down the middle of the plate. So they did it in different ways, and that's the kind of stuff that that really can't happen. And it also tells you that they weren't really sharp or they weren't really you know, focused on what they needed to do.

00:12:14
Speaker 3: So the way Nimo just laid the bat out there, yeah that was bat out there and filate it to left field, it was like, I'm not going to try to you know, hit a gapper here, I'm going to try to just make solid contact somewhere and boom right to left field.

00:12:28
Speaker 5: And I don't know when the switch came, but when I was with those guys in seventeen, excuse me, in eighteen and nineteen as a coach, their philosophy was totally different. That philosophy back then was lift and separate, hit the ball out of the ballpark.

00:12:43
Speaker 1: Swing out of your ass, and try to hit the ball out of the ballpark. It doesn't matter what count. It is. Well, look how different this is. Look how different the approach is right now. And it's not necessarily about hitting the ball out of the ballpark. It's about putting in and play. I don't know what you know. It was a totally different hitting coach and it was also also a totally different regime and hitting philosophy. But look how much success they have doing this as opposed to what they were doing before.

00:13:14
Speaker 3: Guys several on both sides, several players mentioned the shadows. How much of a fact do you think that was?

00:13:23
Speaker 2: Well, Nick Castiano said, he talked a little bit about it, and and here's the quote. I mean, yeah, so like when when Castiano's started talking about I was like, oh boy, I can just see Philly Spans are going, Oh they're blaming the shadows. They're blaming the shadows. But I mean Bientto's mentioned it, right, and then JD. Martinez, I use this quote in my story about Zach Wheeler said in terms of his dominance, he said, you could see it, especially with the shadows early on. It's just like, dude, this guy's throwing a paper airplanes up there, you know. So it was it was definitely a factor. And one thing I did not know this guys. Do you guys probably know this. The shadows apparently are the worst when the pitcher is completely in shadows and the background, the hitting background, it's lightly bright. Yeah yeah, yeah exactly. So I mean I did not know that. So my thing is, Okay, the shadows are going to be the same to day. I think it's supposed to be nice in Game two. Is supposed to be sunny in game two. So now you're the Phillies. You didn't have great at bats yesterday. Trade Turner spent a half hour after the game in the batting cage looking overs at bats, and everybody's frustrated, and you've been asked a million questions about Chase, and you're going, oh my gosh, the first seven innings, it's going to be more of the same. How are we going to put how are we going to put together good at bats?

00:14:46
Speaker 1: Guys, here, let me just say something to you. Okay, I have been in the shadows when I've played. I played against Pedro Martinez one time in the shadows. It was it was a nightmare. Honestly, it was really difficult, I bet, because basically what you're seeing is a sphere and you don't really see spin. You don't really see the baseball. You just see a sort of a gray sphere, and so it's difficult to make the adjustments. Obviously. Here's what I don't understand. In today's day and age, where they have amazing technology, they have glasses, they have sunglasses. I would at times wear sunglasses and I could see the ball a little bit better. I don't understand. If you look at the game, there was one player who wore glasses to hit. Guess what his name was, Kyle Schwarber. So I got to believe that you have to put either put glasses on. I know it's uncomfortable, you have to make some sort of adjustment, you know, drastic measures. I mean drastic times, drastic measures. If you can't see the baseball, then put some sunglasses on there. But there's so many different polar polarizations of the oak Ley's and all these other gargoyles and whatever. I don't even know what the names of the glasses are, but they have different shades to help like brighten up the ball or see the ball differently. I would absolutely, unequivocally try anything I possibly could. What what do you have to lose. I mean, if you can't see the baseball and you're not gonna make contact, then try something different. And so I mean kys Shwarmer had glasses on, you know, home runners versus bat and I know it was a fastball right down in the middle and he was lucky he got it, but he also got a base hit or you know later on. I mean, why not give it a shot. I mean, there's a reason why the guy's got glasses on. I gotta believe, and so maybe maybe he sees the ball a little bit better. Just a thought.

00:16:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good, it's a good thought. I just feel like this team has a lot weighing on its mind. On his shoulders from the you know, the star power and the nucleus and the big payroll in the last two postseasons and the expectations and they got to do it now and it's World Series or bust. And now all of a sudden, the chase and the swing and miss rears its head and the offense goes and that's just another thing weighing on their mind. And oh, by the way, uh, the shadows. It's just it's, you know, you've got to be so focused a hit and I just wonder if this team has a million things turned in its head and that just you know, you know, makes it very difficult to to perform at your best.

00:17:19
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe they're pushing, maybe it's maybe it's weighing on them. That said, not only that, but now they have this, you know, they're basically their season riding on this young man, Christopher Sanchez's shoulders, which was my concern from the very beginning that if they lost the first game, that it's not gonna be Nola, that it's gonna be Sanchez. And listen, I hope to God that for for the Philly's sake and for me as a fan, that this kid performs, and I know that Topper has a tremendous amount of confidence in this kid and needs come a long, long way. But this is a huge, huge game. I mean, this is not This young man will never unless he pitches the seventh game of a World Series or of a NLCS, or whatever the case may be, he may not pitch another big the biggest game, a bigger game in his career. And I really hope he steps forward. He's matured in an amazing way. I love him, I love everything about him. I love what's happened to his career. But boy, he's got a whole city resting on his shoulders right now and he's going to have to feel it a little bit.

00:18:22
Speaker 3: Ruben, I wanted to ask you, like, what type of pressure does this ball club feel? I mean, you're a Philadelphian who played for the team, work for the team. The pressure has to be enormous. After you know, the team has played seven or they've lost the game one of a postseason series seven times, and all those times they've gone on to lose the series. The pressure, what do you think they're feeling?

00:18:49
Speaker 1: They got to be feeling it, I mean, because they know that they have one goal, and that's to win the World Series. And right now they're in trouble getting knocked out. Listen, we lived in in ten and eleven, you know, in ten and eleven and nine, you know what, for us to get back and to and to play the Yankees in the World Series, that's pretty much that that's a win. Obviously not where you wanted to end up. But in ten and eleven, I mean, it was very clear that those teams they were better teams. They were they were more talented teams. They just couldn't get passed for the same sort of reason. They were exploited and couldn't get past you know, their respective teams when they were in the playoffs. So yeah, there's pressure, man, there's a ton of pressure. I was feeling pressure in the in the booth, I will tell you that. And uh and and right now there's there's gonna be some serious pressure on these guys and hopefully they can somehow relax enough to be able to get to Sebarino today and.

00:19:46
Speaker 2: And how and how about four hours of hell just not quite seeming like four hours of hell anymore. They've lost now three straight postseason games at Citizens Bank Park. The place you could not come in and win because the fans were so suffocating. Players would just crumble. But now the Diamondbacks did it game six and seven. The Mets have done it in Game one. And I've mentioned this before, guys. When we had Jeff frank koron, he talked about Game six and seven, you could tell the fans were tight and if they get down early, and so if they get down early today, they'll get that place is going to be quiet. It is that place is going to be quiet, So they need to get up. Really not good.

00:20:27
Speaker 3: Tight is not good. And they have that Mets team playing free and easy.

00:20:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean because now right if the Mets lose today, they still have home field advantage. I mean, not that they're going to go into this wanting to lose or you know, anything like that. But man, they must be feeling great about their situation.

00:20:46
Speaker 1: Guys. They're playing of house money right now. They're playing with house money. I mean, they came from way back. They played great baseball all year long. They've played like a baseball team, a really good baseball team where no one's really stepped forward people lines other than Lindor who had a phenomenal season, and he sort of backed up his words because he's stunk in the first you know few. I mean, when we saw him in the early part of the season, he was not horrendous and he sort of had that meeting, and I think maybe he did it to pump himself up because he's gone off since Sanna. He has an MVP type year. So but other than him, I mean, Biento's really stepped forward offensively. But there's nobody else who really stepped forward offensively. But they played well enough and pitched well enough to put themselves in his position. And uh, and like I said, man, they're playing free and easy and happened having fun and oh my god, and all that bs it's happening. It's happening, and it's working, and they are playing confident baseball teams. Good.

00:21:47
Speaker 3: I think the Phillies need a pumpkin or something, or maybe I got some butternuts squashed in the garden. I can bring him a butternut squash.

00:21:57
Speaker 2: Your publano crop has failed, No, I can bring.

00:22:01
Speaker 3: Him some poblanos. I have a bumper crop of poblanos, so you know.

00:22:05
Speaker 5: Just.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: Started hanging them in the dugout.

00:22:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, they do need to loosen up a little bit, because freeing easy is way better obviously. I mean, we talk about it all the time. I used to talk about it with Charlie Manual used to talk about it with Joe Madden. You have to have have fun when you're at the plate, and you have to enjoy yourself and have some rhythm and just enjoyment.

00:22:26
Speaker 2: As Chase Utley would say, get the rubber duck out of your ass, right, remember when he put the Then Charlie put those in the dugout before series in Tampa Bay.

00:22:36
Speaker 3: They got like thirty.

00:22:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bonnie Clark went and bought thirty rubber ducks and stuck them in everybody's locker because that was one of the chases chasing sayings in the dugout where you weren't going well, get the rubber duck out of your ass. So the Phillies absolutely need to do that, because I will leave you this depressing number. In all best of five postseason series, the team that wins Game one has in this series one hundred and nine out of one hundred and fifty two times. That's seventy two percent of the time. But you know, so it's not like it's ninety five percent. So you know, the and the Phillies have the talent to do it. They just they did. They've just got to they got to do something for right.

00:23:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're the most resilient. They are the most one of the most resilient teams. I mean that something getting we should punch that they've They've been punched in the face before and then miraculously have bounced back and done some really good things. These are the same guys, right, and they in some some cases even better guys. So the resilience of this team is really strong. The steadiness of Topper is really strong. The fact that they don't have those grinder hitters in that lineup is a detriment in this situation. But hopefully they can figure out a way to out of grind enough it bats out to make a hit enough the mistakes that they get today.

00:23:56
Speaker 2: Guys, we'll be back tomorrow morning to recay app game two. Maybe we'll be talking about something a lot different.

00:24:05
Speaker 1: Hopefully, hopefully I'll talk.

00:24:10
Speaker 3: Smiling lady boys.

00:24:11
Speaker 1: It's late, Jim.

00:24:18
Speaker 4: This is the Philly Show. If you haven't already, please subscribe to The Philly Show wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch us on our YouTube channel. If you like what we do, give us a review, Tell a friend. Catch Rubenjim and Me on Phillies Nation TV, presented by Valley Forge Tourism. New episodes air an hour before every Saturday Phillies game on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Replays air throughout the week, and on Philliesnation dot com. Get more of Reuben's analysis during before and after Phillies games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, on the Sports Radio ninety four, WIP Morning Show, and MLB Network. Rejim at the Allcity Network at allphl y dot com. Find more of me at m MLB dot com, the philliesb Newsletter, and occasionally on MLB Network

00:25:06
Speaker 1: Mm HM