After Game 3 Loss To The Mets, Phillies Face Questions Yankees Hope To Avoid

Within about a half hour after Kody Clemens made the final out to put the Philadelphia Phillies on the verge of elimination in the Division Series following two lengthy postseason runs, the clubhouse was a quiet place and four of their key players said their piece about facing the prospect of a season ending well short of expectations.

Basically it is the kind of thing that could be facing the Yankees late Wednesday night if they lost the third game in Kansas City. It would mark the second straight time in the Division Series they fell behind two games to one but like two years ago and due to the off day in between the first two games, the Yankees can use Gerrit Cole for a second time.

The Phillies will not get such a luxury in using Aaron Nola for a second time since he pitched Wednesday when his hitters produced five hits, scored both runs in the eighth inning, fell behind 0-2 in 12 of their 35 plate appearances in the 7-2 loss to the Mets Tuesday.

Nick Castellanos was the first to speak in front of the “Red October” name plate each Philadelphia locker has and was the most provocative, giving this viral line in his statement about what lies ahead in 24 hours.

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“As a group this is the closest to death as we're ever gonna get,” Castellanos said. “So in a way, we should feel the most alive. We're only promised tomorrow and this is what we've worked since spring training for, to have this opportunity. It's just one more time to show out and leave everything on the field and however the dice is gonna land.

"Instead of just flushing it and forgetting it, right now it's really important to embrace what the situation is. If we lose, we're going home, baseball is over for us. It's a great opportunity because if we're able to come out and scrape out a win here, I know that they do not want to go back to Philly for a game five."

Then came Bryce Harper, speaking to the same group containing four television cameras among the roughly 25 media members, he lamented about not coming through in some early at-bats against Sean Manaea, whom he had been 3-for-10 against.

“We had some situations - me personally as well - where we didn't come through," Harper said in summing up his at-bat in the sixth and summarizing a day when 12 of Philadelphia’s 35 plate appearances got to an 0-2 count. "He made some good pitches. First pitch change up was a really good pitch to hit and then he threw me two banger sliders."

Nola was next and brief, lamenting some of the pitches to go awry, notably the ones Pete Alonso and Jesse Winker sent into the right field seats while also talking up Game 4 starter Ranger Suarez.

“He’s a bulldog and a competitor,” Nola said. “Yeah, he had some up-and-down games after the All-Star break, but he’s healthy right now and he likes pitching in the postseason. He’s going to come out and compete for us.”

And finally Kyle Schwarber was the finale as he spoke about 24 hours after Salvador Perez buried a slider from Carlos Rodon for a homer that started Kansas City’s four-run fourth and put the pressure back onto the Yankees.

"Our biggest thing is that we have confidence in ourselves and we have confidence in this group that this is a very talented club. We've been through a lot of different things and this is just another challenge right? For us to come together and find a way to win a game and get back to Philadelphia."

The Yankees would like to avoid talking about going back to New York in terms of their series but can only achieve by winning each of the next two nights in a city hosting postseason games for the first time in nine years.

On Monday, the loss certainly frustrated Yankees and perhaps the notable of the comments were Jazz Chisholm Jr. saying the Royals “got lucky” as part of his response to the relatively innocuous question of “how different does this series feel now after Game 2 compared to Game 1 but since viral quotes tend to pull words out of full statements, this is Chisholm’s remarks.

“It still feels the same — that we're going to win. I don't feel like anybody feels any different. We’re gonna go out there and do our thing. We still don't feel like any team is better than us. We had a lot of missed opportunities tonight, so they just got lucky.”

The Yankees had way more missed opportunities than the Phillies, wasting 13 walks and 19 at-bats with runners in scoring position and even with those missed chances, the hitting seems better than two years ago when they eked by Cleveland after falling behind through three games and meekly hit .162 in getting swept by the Houston Astros in the ALCS.

The end part of Chisholm’s candid remark may seem like a big deal because of the era, but plenty would say similar things even with using different phrasing like the Phillies did Tuesday or the Yankees did really late on Monday night.

“Some guys are hitting the ball hard,” Aaron Judge said. “[Alex Verdugo] hit some good balls to rightfield. Jon [Berti] lined out a couple times. Big G [Giancarlo Stanton], he’s always hitting the ball hard. So, a couple of those fall through, a couple of those fall in, it’s a different ballgame. But it didn't happen.”

Like the Yankees, the Phillies hit the ball hard but just to the wrong spot and now they face being on the wrong end of a playoff series with questions about their window coming with one more loss.