NLCS GAME TWO
After that wiiiiiiiild game, this has to be just about a must-win game for the Phillies. Like, yes, technically they could lose today and sweep from here on out but that would require winning 2 games in San Diego. It seems... unlikely. Don Henley (20-7, 2.36) goes against Vince Bachler (16-7, 1.91) today. It's a loooot warmer today and that wind is still blowing out to right field. Are we in for another barn-burner?
Top 1st: RF Ed O'Neill strikes out swinging on a 2-2 change. CF Phil McGraw grounds out to first base. 3B Dale Earnhardt strikes out swinging. Wow, a 1-2-3 inning. 0-0.
Bottom 1st: Don Henley opens up wild as he walks CF Bryant Tarala on 4 pitches to open things up. He only walked 68 batters in 259 IP in the regular season. SS Tony Shannon lays down a bunt and advances Tarala to 2nd base, 2-3. LF Alberto Juantorena belts a double down the left field line, scoring Bryant Tarala! 1-0, Phillies, and Juantorena is 6-6 for the series already! RF Greg Lake drops a bloop single up the middle, pushing Juantorena up 90 feet. 1B Ed Begley Jr. walks to load the bases with just one out - and the one out came on a sacrifice. C Nikolai Volkoff walks with the bases loaded! A rare wildness run against Henley! 2-0! Henley gets behind 3B Marco Villafana 2-0 before getting him to ground out sharply to SS for the inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. 2-0, Phillies.
Top 2nd: 2B Paul McCartney fouls out to 3rd base. 1B Carlos Palacios hits a soft liner right at the 2B for out #2. LF Ian Everett strikes out - Bachler's 3rd of the game - to retire the side. 2-0, Phillies.
Bottom 2nd: 2B Ivan Perez, playing in place of Bryant Gumbel, who still has DIAGNOSIS: MURDER happening, takes Henley to a full count before flying out to center. Vince Bachler, the opposing pitcher and holder of a .127 BA in '73, grounds out to shortstop. With 2 out, Tarala belts one deep to center. It gets behind Phil McGraw and Tarala steams into 2nd. Shannon whiffs to strand Tarala and end the frame. 2-0, Phillies.
Top 3rd: SS Joe Wicker strikes out. Man, that pitch selection of Bachler is working early, especially that wicked forkball. C Oliver Williams grounds out to 2nd. Don Henley is actually a good hitter for a pitcher with a .247 average this year (and .234 for his career). That said, he is Bachler's 5th strikeout victim. 2-0, Phillies.
Bottom 3rd: Juantorena tops one over to first and 1B Carlos Palacios takes it to the bag himself for the out. This is the first at-bat that "El Caballo" hasn't gotten a hit all series long. Lake also grounds out to first, unassisted. Begley Jr flies out to right. 2-0, Phillies.
Top 4th: O'Neill grounds out to 2nd. Dr. Phil hits a one-hopper just past SS Tony Shannon and on into center field for a base hit. That's the first man to reach base for San Diego all game. Dale Earnhardt makes it 2 hits in 2 at-bats as he takes an 0-2 pitch the other way for a double to right, McGraw holding up at 3rd. It's too early for crazy strategy so Bachler just pitches to Paul McCartney... and the singer/bass player pops out to 2nd base. Palacios also gets a chance to swing and all he can do is ground out 3-1. 2-0, Phillies.
Bottom 4th: Nikolai Volkoff flies out to center. Marco Villafana does the same. Ivan Perez goes down 4-3 to retire the side. 2-0, Phillies.
Top 5th: Everett hits it to deepish left but CF Bryant Tarala is able to get underneath it for out #1. Wicker flies out to left. Williams grounds out 3U. No Ks the 2nd time through the order - is Vince Bachler losing it? Or is this just 1973? 2-0, Phillies.
Bottom 5th: Bachler baaarely makes contact with a pitch and hits what turns into a 2-3 groundout. Tarala hits a high popup to the infield turf that SS Joe Wicker calls for and takes for the out. Shannon hits a tough liner to right-center that CF Phil McGraw juuuuust manages to get to in time for out #3. 2-0, Phillies.
Top 6th: Henley strikes out swinging on a big, breaking curveball. Ed O'Neill also take a big cut on 2-2 and goes down. Okay, maybe the Ks are back after all! Dr. Phil hits one to medium right field that RF Greg Lake only has to move a few steps over to take. 2-0, Phillies.
Bottom 6th: Juantorena flies out to left. Don Henley only has 1 K so far but he's really settled down after a rocky first inning. Lake pops out to 3rd. Begley lines out to 2nd. 2-0, Phillies.
Top 7th: Vince Bachler is sitting on 7 Ks and only 79 pitches thrown so far this game. He'll face the heart of this Padres order here. Dale Earnhardt hits one towards short that just plain jams up Tony Shannon and his throw to first is not in time! It's a leadoff infield hit. Bachler next throws a wild pitch. Always a battler, Bachler chooses to go after McCartney and he gets him to pop out to first base. The professional hitter Palacios works the count to 3-2 but eventually strikes out swinging at Bachler's high-80s fastball. Everett fails to collect the 2-out clutch RBI as he flies to center. 2-0, Phillies.
Bottom 7th: There's a very good chance this will be Henley's last inning, as he's due up in the 8th. Volkoff grounds out 4-3. Villafana singles past Paul McCartney at 2nd and into centerfield. Ivan Perez stays in to hit and is Henley's 2nd strikeout victim. I'm not about to pull Bachler while he's spinning a shutout so he'll come up to bat. He flies to center. 2-0, Phillies.
Top 8th: Wicker flies out to deep-ish right. Oliver Williams is Bachler's 9th strikeout victim, this time being fooled by a nice looking change of pace. Pinch-hitting for Henley is the wily veteran Elijah Johnson (.239, 0, 8), who has 1,949 career hits... also a .294 career on base percentage but let's not talk about that. He was 14-45 as a pinch hitter in the regular season. Well, he's strikeout #10 for Bachler. 2-0, Phillies.
Bottom 8th: Human piece of garbage Roy Moore (3-3, 2.30) enters the game. Did I call the back of this Padres' bullpen kind of meh? I was incorrect. Like everyone in here is good. Moore throws a low-90s fastball, a solid slider, and an occasional change-up. Tarala fights him and eventually wins with a 3-2 leadoff walk. Moore only walked 10 batters in 47 regular season innings. Shannon, 0-2 so far tonight, also walks. The last time Moore issued multiple walks in a game was on July 12, when he walked 2 Pirates batters in a 5-0 loss. He throws a wild pitch to Alberto Juantorena, which CONVENTIENTLY makes a place for him on the bases: El Caballo is intentionally walked to load the bases. Moore gets ahead of Greg Lake 1-2 and gets him to hit a line drive into right. It's caught by Ed O'Neill and when Bryant Tarala tries to score, he's cut down! The other runners do advance on the throw. Ed Begley Jr. grounds out 5-3 to retire the side. 2-0, Phillies.
Top 9th: The Phillies tried to add some insurance but couldn't but hey, Vince Bachler looks kind of lights-out right now, right? Right? O'Neill flies to left. Bachler's up at 114 pitches and is looking tired. McGraw strokes a single to center. Bachler walks Earnhardt on 4 pitches, his first walk this entire game. I can't spoil this shutout! You just need 2 more batters, Vince. He strikes out Paul McCartney, who was looking to take the lead on one pitch with his swing. Palacios gets a hold of the first pitch but skies it into left to end this one. 2-0, Phillies win!
This is a series of extremes, I'll say that much. The Padres go from 13 runs scored in the opener to a big old Chicago in game 2. Bachler incidentally set a new Phillies record for strikeouts in a playoff game. TO BE FAAAAAAAAIR Philadelphia hasn't seen too many of those: the previous record was 9 by Jon Salazar back in 1966, and Richard Starkey's 2 yesterday is actually the 8th highest total of all time.
We'll head to San Diego for Game 3 with the series knotted at a game apiece.
