Phillies won rare postseason duel of sticks with low offense

PHILADELPHIA — The San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies combined to score seven runs and put 11 runners on base in the first inning and total 16 runs and 19 hits in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, the Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, an abnormality for a postseason that has been characterized by extremely low offense.

starter Rhys Hoskins hit two home runs and drove in four runs, the all-star Bryce Harper dispatched two braces and pushed two, including the winner, and Kyle Schwarber Y JT Realmuto hit solo homers as the Phillies won 9-6 and moved within a win of advancing to their first World Series since 2009.

For the Fathers, the Dominicans Manny Machado Y John Soto hit home runs and Brandon Druri blew a double.

Game 5 is scheduled to take place on Sunday afternoon on the same stage. The Japanese Yu Darvish and the american Zack Wheeler They will repeat the duel of the first game, which Philadelphia won 2-0 on Tuesday at Petco Park in San Diego.

After he retired the first two batters with ease, the left-hander Bailey Falter he allowed four runs, a postseason record 51 games for the San Diego franchise. Machado hit a solo homer, Drury drove in two with a double, and the SS Ha Seong Kim he produced the latter with a single.

But the Phillies were not daunted and punished the starter mike clevinger with three runs and three hits to send him to the shower without being able to crystallize an out. Hoskins hit a two-run homer and Harper drove in the other with a double.

For the first time since Game 4 of the 1932 World Series, both starters in a playoff game didn’t make it past the first inning. On that occasion, Johnny Allen allowed four runs and got two outs for the New York Yankees, while Guy Bush only retired one batter and scored one run on him, for the Chicago Cubs.

Philadelphia tied the game 4-4 in the fourth, but Soto hit a two-run homer, his first of the postseason, off reliever Brad Hand in the fifth inning to give the Padres a 6-4 lead. Hoskins wasted no time, and in the closing of that inning, with a teammate on board, he hit his second home run of the night to tie it 6-6.

Harper’s second double of the game pushed the lead and Nick Castellanos added a single that drove in Harper. Schwarber took a ball to center field in the bottom of the sixth and Realmuto another to left field in the seventh to increase the home team’s lead.

San Diego’s bullpen, which had allowed two runs in its last 26 2/3 innings and had a 1.91 ERA in 10 games, came under fire for seven hits and seven runs in eight innings. It is the third time the franchise has allowed 10 or more runs in a playoff game.

The first inning, which lasted 49 minutes, and the entire game on Saturday in Philadelphia, are the exception of a postseason characterized by tremendous offensive anemia.

Including the Houston Astros’ 4-0 shutout of the Yankees to take a 3-0 lead in the AL Championship Series, major league hitters combine to hit .212 with a .281 OBP and .641 OPS in the postseason.

The Yankees, known as “The Bronx Bombers” for their historic power with the wood, are batting .161 with 94 strikeouts in eight games. In the final of the young circuit against the Astros, New York batters have 12 hits and 41 strikeouts and the team has only scored two earned runs.

Houston is 6-0 and one win away from playing in its fourth World Series since 2017, despite hitting .222 with 25 runs in 246 plate appearances. The Phillies are hitting .239 with 53 runs and 86 strikeouts in 11 games and the Padres are hitting .232 with 112 strikeouts in 11 games.

And while the dominance of pitching (3.42 ERA with 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings) in the postseason is amazing, it’s not far from what just happened in the regular series of the major leagues.

During the 2022 season, hitters had the lowest batting average (.243) since the mound fell in 1968 and the worst OBP (.312) since 1972 (.311). In addition, they received 40,812 strikeouts, the third most of all time.

Individually, Harper stands out among hitters with at least 20 postseason appearances this year. Harper is hitting .410 (.439 OBP and 1.311 OPS) with six doubles, four home runs, nine RBIs and eight runs scored in 39 at-bats.