Street. Louis – Jean SeguraHis career spanned 11 seasons and 1,328 games before finally hitting the post-season, the longest active streak in the major leagues. On the morning of his first playoff game, the second Philadelphia Phillies captain didn’t sleep. I woke up at 7 a.m. “and the adrenaline was in my body.” Worn on Friday, that edge never left.
“I was mentally focused on every game and every stadium,” Segura said. “I came today ready to play a game, to be able to be here – just thank God that everything was on my side.”
With the Phillies down, bases loaded, one at the top of the ninth and St. Louis Cardinals scrambling to replace the injured closest, Segura snuck past slightly towed ground, painted two tracks and pushed the Phillies to an improbable 6-3 win in the opening game of the Better Wild Card series. Among the three, which puts them on the cusp of progression in the National League Championship Series.
The Cardinals are backed by excellent performance from Jose Quintana Homer electrified by Juan Ypez, led 2-0 before the final half and had every reason to believe that they were heading towards winning the first game. They were at home, with the crowd at Busch Stadium in a frenzy, their lights closer, Ryan HillsleyIt was on the hill.
What followed tense naivety.
The Cardinals were 93-0 in post-season history when they were leading several runs entering the ninth inning. Meanwhile, Velez was 0-54 during the regular season in the same situation. They ended up scoring six goals – the most with a team behind in ninth place in post-season history. None of their runs came on hard contact. Alec Boom It was covered with loaded bases, Brandon March Collided with a helicopter that wore off a glove Nolan ArenadoAnd the Kyle Schwarber Produce fly by fly and Bryson Stott Brought in running after Paul Goldschmidt He did a diving play on his surgeon but was thrown home too late.
The biggest runs came from Segura’s racket, which rushed toward and away from a low slide Andre Balant And hit four hopper on the right side who slipped through the sprawling tommy addiction, who was playing around a bit to calculate Segura’s speed. The Cardinals had a pitcher against the hitter and had a hammer that could produce a double at the end of the game – but it was hit too far on the right.
“That’s just kind of the way the run went,” Arenado said. “She wasn’t going our way.”
And it all seemed to stem from Helsley’s right middle finger, the finger that froze while collecting himself for a field game in the penultimate game of the regular season. Helsley threw some pitches from the hill during Thursday’s practice, and although he admitted his finger is feeling a little stiff, he told the Cardinals he would be willing to close matches in the post-season.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol turned one-and-one Helsley into eighth and watched him do quick work for Marsh and Schwarber. Shortly after the ninth inning started, Marmol said Helsley was “starting to lose a little sense of his playing field.”
Helsley, who this season has emerged as one of the sport’s most dominant players, started to miss the strike zone and eventually threw just nine of his 23 pitches into the ninth net. JT Realmoto Contribute a single, then Bryce Harper And the Nick Castellanos He plotted successive walks, the latter on pitches that were either up, in, down, or out. At this point, the Cardinals had Palanti and Jack Flaherty Warming in bulls. Boom would be Helsley’s last hitter – and Helsley hits him on the left shoulder with a 101 mph fastball.
After throwing the warm-up court nicely outside, Helsley walked out, then left Busch Stadium to shoot his pesky finger.
It may be lost for the sake of the series.
“We’ve had guys going up all year,” Marmol said. “If it goes down, someone else has to come up and do the job, so it’s part of it. Nobody will feel sorry for us, I’ll tell you.”
Friday’s Day 9 top marks the only half inning in baseball this season in which the team allowed at least six winning runs with three or fewer hits, with no additional base hits allowed, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. There have now been five games in post-season history in which the team led twice or more after the eighth inning has lost two or more times – and the Cardinal was involved in three of those. It was the first time Phillies had scored six or more runs on any postseason tour.
They chose the perfect time.
“It was special,” he said. Zach Wheelerwho threw 6 innings without goals against the Cardinals, and got out of the three strikes before Jose Alvarado She gave up the two-race Homer to Yepez.
“This was probably the most exciting run I’ve ever been a part of,” Realmuto said of the top of the ninth. “And it didn’t even take a big tour at home. The momentum was there for us and several players got on when they needed to.”
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