PHILADELPHIA – The end sounded like a bang, followed by a few thumps. Again and again. The Phillies clapped hands and hugged in a clubhouse prepared for celebration after the first Game 7 in 140 years of Phillies baseball. The never-unrolled plastic wrap to protect the lockers hung over the room. The end of Tuesday’s itinerary, which listed all pregame practice and meeting times, ended with a promise: “TOMORROW (Texas trip): Report 12 p.m.”
There will be no flight to the World Series.
“It will never feel right,” Kyle Schwarber said. “It never does. It never will.
The end looked like Alec Bohm, his jersey pulled over his head and hunched over his chair. It was Johan Rojas, holding back tears and staring into his locker. It was Rhys Hoskins, returning from Florida on Tuesday hoping for another chance to play for the only team he had ever known. He walked around the room to say a hushed goodbye.
The ending was avoidable and the Phillies will spend months figuring out why it happened. Some of this will be too painful to go through again. The Phillies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first two games of this National League Championship Series, but dropped four of the next five games. They had late leads in Games 3 and 4. They led Game 7, a 4-2 loss, with a run in the fifth inning.
The ending went like this: The last 17 Phillies to come to the plate failed to score. It was shocking. The Phillies built a mythical home at Citizens Bank Park in October of that year, then fell into disrepair as the upstart Diamondbacks dismantled it all, piece by piece. Every Phillies batter hit and missed at least one pitch from the strike zone in Game 7. The moment became too big for a team that prided itself on controlling the postseason.
The ending will have an impact for a long time.
“Everyone just wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves, right?” Hoskins said. “And this team was clearly that. It’s a group of people that I think should be great. And that was us. We just came up short tonight.”
Kyle Schwarber celebrates after his double in the fifth inning. It was the Phillies’ last hit of the night. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
About 30 minutes after Schwarber finished the season in the on-deck circle, the sounds in the losers’ clubhouse grew louder. This was the last time everyone would be together in this room. Bottles were opened. Chairs were arranged in a circle. The season had begun 250 days earlier with the first practice in Clearwater, Florida, and there would be a memorial service to commemorate it.
But that wasn’t the same as when it all ended in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series. This was to be a sensation that motivated the Phillies never to experience it again.
The? That was a nice thing that the Phillies wasted. And in the clubhouse they felt it.
“I think just because the potential of this team is so much greater than going home before the World Series,” Nick Castellanos said. “Last year when we lost Game 6, we were obviously disappointed because we didn’t win the whole game. But a lot of people said, ‘We’ve got here.’ We can build on that now.’ So knowing what we think of this team, we fell short of what we achieved last year. To be honest, it’s a disgusting feeling.”
“It sucks,” Trea Turner said. “That definitely hurts. We had it right in front of us and didn’t execute it. It’ll take a while, that’s for sure.”
“Everyone has an uneasy feeling in their stomach,” said Schwarber.
Bryce Harper packed his locker and then walked to the middle of the room to talk to a group of reporters. He had the game on his bat in the seventh inning when the crucial runs came on base. “He threw me the pitch I wanted,” Harper said. It was a 2-1 fastball up the middle from Kevin Ginkel. Harper reached a speed of 107.6 miles per hour and a launch angle of 44 degrees. It went 331 feet and was an easy third out.
“So,” Harper said, “he probably beat my run by a tenth of a second.”
And now the turning point of his life was just a distant memory.
“I…man, just not being able to get through this moment leaves me personally devastated,” Harper said. “I feel like I let down my team and also the city of Philadelphia. This is a moment where I feel like I have to push through and…yeah.”
Bryce Harper reacts after flying out to left field in the fifth. (Bill Streicher/USA Today)
Now it was 45 minutes after the Phillies lost Game 7, and a crowd was forming near Schwarber’s locker. Castellanos, who went 0-for-23 with 11 strikeouts in the series after hitting a home run in Game 1, was sprawled on the ground. Brandon Marsh too. Schwarber, Hoskins, Bryson Stott and Garrett Stubbs sat in their chairs. They spoke.
Hoskins, who will be a free agent, may not be back. Aaron Nola will enter the market as the dream starter. There will be changes – just like there were after the Phillies fell two wins short of a championship in 2022.
“The city obviously tried everything they could with this team and supported us from the bottom of their hearts,” Hoskins said. “You can feel that on the field and in the dugout. Yes, just watching something grow is an incredible thing. It’s just being proud to be a part of it in some way.”
But across the room, Craig Kimbrel was having a drink with Matt Strahm and it hurt. Kimbrel will forever be remembered in this city for stumbling in the desert on consecutive days.
“I mean,” Kimbrel said, “I really can’t describe the disappointment I have in myself.”
How long will it take to overcome these feelings?
“It definitely won’t be something I’ll ever forget,” Kimbrel said. “I mean, as a human being we should grow from the things that are offered to us in life. Would I have imagined it the way it worked out? Absolutely not. Can I learn from this? Can this make me better? I think so. If I keep playing this game, this is the only option I can have.
“They always say that as a helper you should have a short memory. But that doesn’t mean you ever forget it. You remember the times you were beaten. You remember what it feels like. You remember what you did wrong and try to get better from it. That’s really the only thing I can do, as bad as it is – as much as I feel like I’m letting everyone down.”
Rob Thomson takes the ball from Ranger Suárez in the fifth inning. (Bill Streicher/USA Today)
Actually, they were all to blame. There were missteps everywhere in Game 7. The Phillies allowed Ranger Suárez, who had not pitched five strong innings, to face Corbin Carroll for a third time. Carroll hit a single; It was the first time in his career that Suárez allowed three hits to a lefty hitter in a single game. Jeff Hoffman, who was so unexpectedly good in 2023, couldn’t make it 0-2 against Gabriel Moreno. Arizona jumped ahead – for good.
Castellanos struggled in the fourth inning with runners on the corners and one out. A fly ball would have put the Phillies up by two runs. They picked up speed.
He struck out on four pitches.
“I had a terrible hit,” Castellanos said. “I wanted the runner too much to come in instead of just seeing what the pitcher would give me first. And that’s my fault.”
Bohm hit a home run in the second inning and walked before Stott’s run-scoring double in the fourth inning, but he struck out in the eighth inning and smashed his bat. He held on to what was left of the stick and smashed it twice more on the dugout steps. He threw it against the bat rack. He carried the frustration of that collapse with him.
Alec Bohm smashes his racket after striking out in the eighth. (Bill Streicher/USA Today)
Turner finished the series with a score of 0:18. He attempted to hit a ball with a runner in scoring position in the fifth inning against left-hander Joe Mantiply. It was inexplicable and perhaps a sign of how lost Turner was at the plate.
“I just thought it was a good time to do it,” Turner said. “They were back. I tried to go for more of a base hit bunt. I think there are ways in the game to get another runner on base and keep the momentum going. I was fine. I’ve seen Mantiply quite a bit. I just try to play baseball more than anything.”
The Diamondbacks played baseball. They were aggressive, confident and balanced. The Phillies collapsed under the weight of it all. It’s messy. It will raise difficult questions.
As the Phillies gathered around Schwarber’s locker, a door opened and Liam Castellanos poked his head into the room. He saw his father lying on the ground and ran towards him. Liam jumped into Nick’s arms and hugged him.
There were life lessons to learn for everyone.
“I love them all,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “I really do. So it’s disappointing, but it’s difficult to go back to this position two years in a row. It is. They fought like hell to get here and we didn’t make it. That’s baseball sometimes.”
Maybe so, but these aren’t the Phillies. Not this team. This should have ended with a pennant, a party and a flight to Texas. It was so easy for anyone to imagine the ending and it didn’t look like it at all.
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(Top photo of Brandon Marsh and Kyle Schwarber after the Phillies lost Game 7: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)