Phillies Make MLB Postseason History With Stunning Ninth Inning

Phillies Make MLB Postseason History With Stunning Ninth Inning The Phillies opened their NL wild-card round matchup against the Cardinals with a bang Friday thanks to a historic showing in the ninth inning.

Subsequent to going scoreless through eight innings, Philadelphia dazed the NL Focal heroes with a six-run rally in the last edge to conquer a 2-0 shortage and guarantee a 6-3 Game 1 triumph in St. Louis.

The Phillies joined rare company following their unlikely win as they are now the first MLB team in postseason history to score six-plus runs in the ninth inning or later when entering the inning scoreless, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs. Philly is also just the 10th playoff team in history to achieve the feat.

Friday’s amazingly exhilarating completion started with the bases stacked as Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm got down to business. Confronting Cards nearer Ryan Helsley with one out, Bohm watched the principal pitch go by for a ball and recorded a foul ball on the subsequent pitch prior to getting the hit on the third.

The hit-by-pitch brought Elite player J.T. Realmuto home from third base as infielder Edmundo Sosa came into the game for a harmed Bohm. From that point, the Phillies bats started to warm up quite expeditiously as shortsop Jean Segura squashed a two-run single to drive in Scratch Castellanos and Bryce Harper from second and third, separately.

The barrage continued with the next batter in infielder Bryson Stott who grounded into fielder’s choice to bring Sosa home. Brandon Marsh then added a single to drive Segura in followed by Kyle Schwarber sac fly to center on the ensuing at-bat to bring Stott in. The inning finally ended after Rhys Hoskins struck out looking.

Phillies reliever Zach Eflein eventually salted the game after influencing two flyouts and striking out Cards great Yadier Molina while giving up one run.

After kicking off the series in emphatic fashion, the Phillies won’t have long to celebrate their historic accomplishment. The teams will meet for Game 2 on Saturday at 8:37 p.m. ET.

Major League Baseball’s postseason kicked off Friday with the brand-new Wild Card Series. MLB is using a 12-team playoff format for the first time in 2022, and eight teams are participating in the best-of-three Wild Card Series. The Guardians, Phillies, Mariners and Padres all took 1-0 series leads in the wild-card round on Friday. The Rays, Cardinals, Blue Jays and Mets will try to keep their seasons alive on Saturday.

The main two groups in each association (the Astros and Yankees in the American Association and the Dodgers and Conquers in the Public Association) get byes and will begin their postseason ventures in the LDS round the following week. When groups clear the Special case Series, the end of the season games will look like their conventional selves: a best-of-five Division Series and afterward best-of-seven Association Title Series before the best-of-seven Worldwide championship.