PHILADELPHIA – In the seventh inning of the seventh game of the National League Championship Series in the seventh postseason at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies’ luck ran out. You did it to yourself.
For “God Bless America,” the Phillies welcomed a trio of horn players dressed as World War I soldiers. The group known as The Doughboy Foundation is best known for playing “Taps” every day at 5 p.m. in Washington
The end for the Phillies came at 11:21 p.m. ET on Tuesday when Jake Cave’s fly ball landed in the glove of Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks in right field. A year ago in Houston, Nick Castellanos also flew to right (in foul territory) to end the World Series. But at least these Phillies got it done.
This team was stronger and seemingly better – until they had to prove it. The Diamondbacks staged a bench raid and stole the NL pennant with a 4-2 win in Game 7. The guards in red pinstripes fell for all their tricks.
“We played a really good brand of baseball early in the series,” catcher JT Realmuto said. “Things just took a turn.”
The Phillies won Game 2 of the NLCS 10-0. It was the sixth straight home win to start the postseason. Last year they did the same thing, shutting out the Astros in Game 3 of the World Series. This team also seemed invincible, but never won again.
This year’s turn was indeed sharp, like a blind turn on a pleasant drive that sends the car careening down a rugged mountainside. The Phillies lost two of three games in the desert, and when they got home they were out of gas.
They scored three runs in two games and went 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position. They repeatedly pounced on throws from the attack zone and finally let the strong Diamondbacks put their running game into action. Arizona earned the right to celebrate on the Phillies’ field.
“They hit well, they played defense and they did a lot of things right,” said Kyle Schwarber, whose leadoff double in the fifth was the Phillies’ last hit of the season. “Obviously they won the series so they deserve credit – but it’s a disgusting feeling.”
JT Realmuto struck out to end the eighth inning. The Phillies’ bats fell silent with Game 7 on the line. (Eric Hartline/USA Today)
Philadelphia fans have felt it before. The franchise has won two World Series, 1980 and 2008, mirror-image numbers — 80 and 08 — that still stare at each other, waiting for a new champion to join them.
“We’ll be back,” promised Bryce Harper. “We have a great owner and president and GM who are going to give us the best chance to win and be here every year.”
Now, however, this group will face an enemy that has eclipsed so many of its predecessors: the skepticism of a fan base that cares so much that every defeat seems personal. We loved you and this is how you treat us?
“I know they’re feeling as bad as we are right now,” Harper said, “because when we lose, they lose, and when we win, they win, too.”
This seventh game now takes its place in the pantheon of the most devastating losses in franchise history. Just in time for Halloween, the countdown of horror begins here.
10. September 7, 2005: Astros 8, Phillies 6
It had been a dozen years since the Phillies reached the postseason, and this was the culmination of an insanely good, but not great, era. They hosted Houston — still in the NL — for a crucial September series, starting as the leaders in the wild-card race and finishing trailing the Astros after three games. In the finale, Billy Wagner delivered a two-out, three-run home run to former Astros teammate Craig Biggio in the ninth. Houston grabbed the wild card and went to the World Series.
9. Game 4, 2009 World Series: Yankees 7, Phillies 4
The Yankees scored three runs off Brad Lidge in the ninth to win Game 4 of the 2009 World Series. (David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
This was Phillies fandom in microcosm: a surprise that gets your hopes up, then a crash into reality. With four outs to lose and a three-to-one deficit in the World Series, the Phillies tied it in Game 4 with a home run from Pedro Feliz, their least impressive everyday player. But the Yankees roared back with vigor and unusual style, with three hits in the ninth, sparked by Johnny Damon, who stole two bases in one play, and Alex Rodriguez, who doubled the go-ahead run. The Phillies would lose the World Series in six games.
8. Game 6, 2022 World Series: Astros 4, Phillies 1
Zack Wheeler was on the brink of elimination last November, coming off a 1-0 lead in Game 6 in Houston. Then Martín Maldonado pushed his way to the plate to be hit by a pitch, and soon there was Yordan Alvarez, silent the entire series, hitting a mammoth three-run home run off José Alvarado. (Oh, and the Philadelphia Union lost the MLS Cup final that same night.)
7. Game 6, 2010 NLCS: Giants 3, Phillies 2
Juan Uribe’s late home run in Game 6 helped the Giants defeat the Phillies in 2010. (Rich Pilling/MLB via Getty Images)
At home but trailing in search of their third straight NL pennant, the Phillies scored twice in the first inning of Game 6. Then Bruce Bochy turned in perhaps his best performance as a manager, bringing in five relievers in the final seven innings to squeeze the life out of the Phillies’ vaunted offense. Juan Uribe tied the game with a home run off Ryan Madson in the eighth, and Brian Wilson struck out Ryan Howard in the ninth to end the game.
6. Game 4, 1993 World Series: Blue Jays 15, Phillies 14
On a foggy, spooky night at Vet, the Phillies had a chance to tie the Blue Jays at two games apiece, but lost the highest-scoring game in World Series history. Trailing 14-9 after seven innings, Toronto used four hits, two walks and an error to pound Larry Andersen and Mitch Williams for six runs in the eighth inning. How bizarre was this game? Blue Jays pitcher Al Leiter hit a double, but John Kruk, a career .300 hitter, went 0-for-5.
4. 1977 NLCS Game 3: Dodgers 6, Phillies 5
Two outs, empty bases, two outs in the ninth. With another elimination, the Phillies would have had a two-games-to-one lead in the series and their ace, Steve Carlton, was in line for a possible pennant winner the next day. (The LCS was a best-of-five format at the time.) Unfortunately, by the time Gene Garber struck out the last of the ninth, the Dodgers had rallied for three runs in the most excruciating fashion: a bunt single, a drive in front of Greg Luzinski’s glove on the left side, initially a questionable call, two more hits – and also two errors. Tommy John defeated Carlton in the rain the next day and the Dodgers won the pennant.
3. 2011 NLDS, Game 5: Cardinals 1, Phillies 0
Ryan Howard was injured in the final game of the 2011 NLDS, a particularly painful loss for the Phillies. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)
The Phillies set a franchise record with 102 regular-season wins in 2011 and fielded a dream rotation for the postseason: Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt. However, the pitching star turned out to be the Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter, who fired a three-hit shutout to outscore Halladay, his close friend, and score a stand-up run in the first inning. Howard tore his Achilles tendon while out at the end of the season and collapsed as the Cardinals celebrated – a painfully obvious metaphor for the end of the Phillies’ five-year playoff streak.
2. 1993 World Series Game 6: Blue Jays 8, Phillies 6
Joe Carter rampages through the bases after hitting a walk-off home run to win the World Series. (MLB via Getty Images)
For the Phillies, 1993 was so insanely crazy that it had to end on a memorable note – and it certainly did, with a Game 6 home run by Joe Carter, the second walk-off home run in World Series history after Pittsburgh’s Bill Mazeroski secured the championship in 1960. Williams announced his demise by walking the greatest leadoff hitter of all time, Rickey Henderson, on four pitches to start the bottom of the ninth. After Paul Molitor singled out, Williams used a slide step to keep Henderson close, stripping himself of his power and command on his final, fateful pitch.
1. The 10-game losing streak in September 1964
On September 21, 1964, the Phillies led the NL by 6 1/2 games with 12 remaining to play. In the era before divisional play, the World Series was all but assured. But in the sixth inning of a scoreless game against Cincinnati, a baserunner named Chico Ruiz danced way off third with the mighty Frank Robinson at the plate. From the upper deck of Connie Mack Stadium, a 9-year-old from Havertown, Pennsylvania, watched it all.
“I looked at my dad and said, ‘Dad, look how far this guy is from base – he’s going home!'” the boy recalled a few years ago before a Phillies spring training game in Clearwater. Florida. “ And the next pitch he went home. I mean, it was really obvious to me. He just had this extraordinary lead. We were devastated.”
That was the first of 10 straight losses that doomed the Phillies, put the Cardinals on top and left deep scars for generations of Philadelphia sports fans. At least the kid in the upper deck found a way to do something about it: He grew up to be the owner of the Phillies.
John Middleton, now 68, roamed the clubhouse late Tuesday night, consoling each player and trying to ease the pain of a defeat that will linger forever.
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(Top photo by Bryce Harper: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)