‘WE’RE AN ASSURED BUNCH’: THESE RESILIENT PHILLIES PULL OFF ANY OTHER SHOCKER IN GAME 1 WIN

The Philadelphia Phillies didn’t lose and seemed clueless Friday night in a confrontation with future Houston Astros Hall of Fame pitcher Justin Verlander.

Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins openly declared that sometimes, to play this game, you need to allow yourself to be a little overwhelmed, not to give up the opportunity to go crazy on the field of play.

The Phillies have been the most energetic players all year, but this time they reached a historic level, winning 6-5, 10 innings over the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the World Series.

It was once only the sixth time in World Series history that a team had at least 5 runs and won, and the first time in Phillies history that they got an extra inning in a World Series game.

The Phillies, the best team to qualify for the postseason, are now threatening to stage arguably the biggest loss in the World Series, given the fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers shocked the Oakland A’s in 1988, aided by Kirk Gibson’s homer in Game 1.

This time, 24 years later, it was Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto with heroics, hitting the winning homer in the tenth inning, turning into the first catcher thanks to Carlton Fisk hits a homer in the 1975 World Series extra-inning game.

Realmuto was pleased with this and said that it was great to see how this team plays.

The Phillies lost 5-0 to Verlander, the likely winner of the American League to Cy Young, who seemed invincible. He retired the first 10 batters he faced in the game, pitching just 36 innings in the first three innings.

It started in the fourth inning when Hoskins struck out first, and once he came close to doubling as a result of a hit from the foul line at the end of the inning with the help of Realmuto, solely for Verlander to throw the ball away. However, he threw in time to get Realmuto first, but Hoskins safely moved to 2nd base. Three batters later, the Phillies scored three goals.

“It changed everything,” Hoskins said. “After that, we gained a lot of faith in ourselves. We discussed all kinds of issues on the bench.’

Jeremy Pena made a smooth leap in the right direction with two outs in the ninth round, and Jose Altuve scored 0.33 points and was ready to announce the winner of the game, but at the last moment Castellanos, who is now not recognized for his skill as a defender, inflicted fantastic damage on the field. I ran up, grabbed my glove, and caught the ball as it dived to the ground.

Once the Phillies survived, they felt like they were the band of the future and would win, simply because they had spent this entire postseason. They are just the fourth team to have two comebacks of at least 4 runs in one postseason, and in all three previous tournaments, these groups have won the World Series: the 1996 New York Yankees, the 2002 Angels, and the 2005 Chicago White Sox.

The Phillies were outsiders in every game of this postseason, but they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in the wild-card round, beat Atlanta in 4 video games in the division series, the San Diego Padres in 5 video games in the National League Championship Series, and now in 1 World Series game.

“I’m not saying anyone treats us lightly anymore,” Hoskins said, “but I believe we have the potential to beat every single person on any given day.”

The Phillies were the only team to beat them, winning a playoff berth on October third against the Astros in Houston.

The winner of Game 1 got 10 of the final 12 games of the World Series due to 2010, however, again, the Astros were one of those groups when they lost Game 1 in 2017 and got here below the back to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games.

Hoskins said it needed the help of the baseball gods.

Main Sources: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2022/10/29/phillies-resilient-start-world-series-off-bang-vs-astros/10634501002/