Phillies-Mets NLDS Game 2 was an October classic with so many memorable moments

PHILADELPHIA — An October classic was unfolding around them. And they knew it when they saw it. They felt it as they lived it.

So maybe you were wondering: What’s it like to play in a game like this — Phillies 7, Mets 6, on a rollicking must-win Sunday in Philly? After a game that evened this National League Division Series at a win apiece, I asked a bunch of Phillies that very question. Now I’ll just get out of the way for a few paragraphs and let the men in the middle of it describe it.

“Both teams went punch for punch,” said Bryce Harper, who launched a sixth-inning home run off the batter’s eye that seemed to change everything about this game and this series. “Rocky would have been proud, that never-die mentality. Just a great game.”

“That’s one of the best games I’ve ever played in,” said Kyle Schwarber. “That’s the beautiful thing about this game, and that’s why this game is awesome.”

“It’s unbelievable (to be part of a game like that),” said Matt Strahm, his heart still thumping even after serving up Matt Vientos’ game-tying home run in the ninth. “Every kid in Philly tomorrow is going to pretend to be Bryce Harper or Nick Castellanos, batting in the bottom of the ninth.”

“I mean, it’s hard to put it into words what happened tonight,” said outfielder Brandon Marsh. “We fought through a lot. There was a lot of back and forth. It was intense. But this is why I started playing baseball when I was 3 — for today, for stuff like this. It means the world to us as players, to be able to play in these games and experience moments like this.”

There were so many moments, Marsh said. So I held up a sheet of paper on which I’d written down just the most memorable moments — almost all from the last three and a half innings. He didn’t need to read my list to know what he’d just lived through.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “I mean, we’ve been talking about six, seven different moments from tonight. But that’s why we play — for moments like tonight.”

So what’s the best way to review those moments? Let’s just turn them over to our Weird and Wild Department and put them in perspective as best we can.

The walk-off

He’d been hooted at so loudly after a rough fourth-inning at-bat that I actually jotted the word, “boo,” in his square on my scorecard. But five innings later, Nick Castellanos had lived another October dream.

He is still trying to squash the memory of his 0-for-23 funk to end last year’s postseason. So here’s a cool way to do that: Crush a game-tying home run in the sixth inning. Then finish off an electrifying day at the yard with a walk-off single in the ninth. Yeah, that’ll work.

“That,” said his manager, Rob Thomson, “was a big night for him tonight.”

So where does it fit in the annals of Phillies postseason walk-offs?

• It was their first walk-off hit in any postseason game since The Jimmy Rollins Game. Game 4, 2009 NLCS. A series that was one out away from being tied, and forcing the Phillies to get back on a plane to L.A. Instead, with two outs in the ninth, Rollins lasered a game-ending double up the right-center-field gap off Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton. It was the first walk-off extra-base hit that turned a loss into a postseason win since … Kirk Gibson.

• But Castellanos also authored only the second postseason walk-off in franchise history that saved the day after the Phillies had blown a lead in the ninth inning. The other: A Kim Batiste walk-off double in the 10th inning of Game 1 of the 1993 NLCS, an inning after he’d made a throwing error that led to a Mitch Williams blown save with two outs in the ninth.

• And this was just the fifth walk-off in Phillies postseason history, which dates back to 1915. The other Phillies to deliver one of those walk-off hits besides Rollins and Batiste: Carlos Ruiz, in Game 3 of the 2008 World Series, and George Vukovich in Game 4 of the 1981 NLDS.

The back-to-backers

It was the bottom of the sixth inning, and the folks in the seats of Citizens Bank Park were not having the time of their lives. There were two outs and nobody on. And of the 19 Phillies who had dug into the batter’s box, only three had gotten a hit.

These people had seen this movie before, in Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS last October against the Diamondbacks. And this was one sequel they didn’t want.

But the beauty of these baseball games, as the October shadows fall, is that one swing can turn everything upside-down. And when the Phillies have searched for one of those swings over these last three postseasons, they’ve always known just where to turn.

Yep. It’s That Guy. Again. After a Trea Turner single, Bryce Harper splattered a breathtaking two-run home run off the center of the ivy-covered batter’s eye in center field. And nothing about this game was the same again.

Two pitches later, Castellanos fired off a majestic home run of his own. This game was tied. The ballpark rattled the Richter Scale in the Eastern Time Zone. And suddenly, it felt like this day had a chance to become something special.

Before we get to the Weird and Wild part, here’s an exchange with Matt Strahm about what makes Citizens Bank Park different from just about everywhere else when moments like this unfold.

THE ATHLETIC: “You said you wanted to come here so you could play in games like this. So when Bryce hits his home run and then Nick hits the second home run, how conscious were you of how the entire energy in the ballpark changed?”

STRAHM: “You can’t miss it. You feel it. You feel the energy of all 45,000 people behind you. It’s an electric place to play. And there are no words to describe it. I can’t explain it. You’ve got to feel it. You’ve got to buy a ticket and come see it, because you’ve got to feel it.”

All right. Ready for the Weird and Wild part?

• These were the sixth back-to-back homers in Phillies postseason history — but … it was the first time they’d gone back-to-back to tie a game or give themselves a lead. So that alone separates these homers from all the other back-to-backers. But one more thing …

• It was the first time the Phillies had even hit two home runs in the same inning (not necessarily back-to-back) that tied a game and/or gave them the lead in the sixth or later since …

Game 4 of the 2008 NLCS at Dodger Stadium, when Shane Victorino whomped a shocking, game-tying two-run homer into the right-field bullpen in the eighth inning and then, three batters later, Matt Stairs pinch hit for the pitcher and did this.

The Bryce is right

And now a word about that Bryce Harper guy:

Historic.

That one applies. When this man steps onto the October stage, it feels as if you always get to see some sights. Every time he wriggles into the box and tap-tap-taps home plate, he might be about to do something you’ll tell your neighbors, your friends and the dude in line at Wawa about.

Like tattooing a mammoth home run off a brick wall covered with ivy, which sits 431 feet from that batter’s box he’s standing in. Which, as we’ve mentioned, he did Sunday.

So here’s some stuff you should know about Bryce Harper, Philadelphia’s Mr. October.

• He has now hit 12 postseason home runs as a Phillie, all since 2022. That’s more than anyone else in baseball.

• His team has now won the last 12 straight postseason games in which he’s made a home-run trot. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, via MLB.com’s wondrous Sarah Langs, that’s the longest postseason streak in history.

• And in his 32 postseason games with the Phillies, Harper has now rolled up a .327 batting average, a .727 slugging percentage and a 1.170 OPS. Does that seem good? Here’s how good:

In the history of baseball, only one man has ever topped that slugging percentage and OPS in his first 32 games with any team. That would be Lou Gehrig, who slugged .756 and had a 1.262 OPS in his first 32 postseason games as a Yankee. Yes, really.

But in other news …

There was so much more!

• There was Bryson Stott, who fired a dramatic two-run triple in the eighth — off Edwin Díaz — to give the Phillies their first lead of the day. It was the first go-ahead triple by a Phillie in a postseason game since a tie-breaking two-run triple by Manny Trillo in the eighth inning of the classic Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS in Houston.

• There was the Mets’ Mark Vientos, who had himself a day: a go-ahead two-run homer in the third inning and a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth inning (not to mention a first-inning double). He was just the third Met in history to hit two home runs in the same postseason game that either tied the score or put the Mets ahead. The others: Edgardo Alfonzo, in Game 1 of the 1999 NLCS (two tie-breaking homers) and Carlos Delgado, in Game 2 of the 2006 NLCS (also two tie-breakers).

• And there was Pete Alonso, who hit yet another big home run to right field in this game. If you’re paying attention, you know that means Alonso has now hit two opposite-field home runs in a row in this postseason. Which is not a thing any living baseball writer has ever typed before.

Did you know Alonso has hit 226 regular-season homers as a Met … but he has never hit two in a row to straightaway right field before? How wild (and also weird) is that?

That fun tidbit eventually turned into just another amazing subplot in this game. But it’s one more reminder that when you walk into a ballpark in October, you never know what to expect from the great sport of …

Baseball!