Two wins away, two losses away. This Phillies-Astros World Series is now a best-of-three.
It was never going to be easy. But the Phillies are used to doing things the hard way this season.
The wrong side of history feels like any other loss. The only zero that mattered in Game 4 of the World Series was the one under the letter R. It could have been a one or a two or a three or a four. The only significance is it wasn’t enough.
Things happen quick this time of year. Too quick for pride. Too quick to bristle at the inevitable questions. Destiny and mortality are bigger concerns when you are two wins away from the ultimate victory and two losses away from the ultimate defeat.
The challenge now shifts from ignoring the one to ignoring the other. On Wednesday night, the Phillies became the second team in World Series history to get no-hit in a game. Maybe they’ll become the first team to render such a thing moot.
“Tomorrow,” Nick Castellanos said after four Astros pitchers combined to hold them hitless in a 5-0 loss in Game 4, “the game starts 0-0.”
It felt bigger than that. Make no mistake. Up two games to one with their healthiest ace on the mound and a bullpen game on deck, the Phillies had a chance to strike a decisive blow. Now, the series is even. Best-of-seven is now best-of-three. This wasn’t a must-win. But, man, it felt big.
They all do, though. Don’t they? That’s how it works when October turns into November. It felt that way when they had Zack Wheeler on the mound with a chance to go up, 2-0. It felt that way when they went up, 2-1. And it feels that way now.
It will be at least three games until the full implications are known. That’s how it works with destiny. Until a team actually achieves it, all you can do is guess. One thing that’s for sure? It’s rarely easy. These Phillies are not the team you’d pick to be the exception.
Sure enough, here they are. They’ll fall back on the knowledge that they’ve been here before. Eight games under in May. Five runs down in Game 1. Identities are revealed when backs are against the wall.
“It’s what we’ve done all year,” third baseman Alec Bohm said. “We get kicked, and we come back the next day and fight.”
They got kicked hard in Game 4. The most valuable currency in postseason baseball is a fastball that can’t be hit. The Astros had one. It speaks volumes about their depth that they held Cristian Javier until Game 4.
Even before the Astros exploded for five runs against Aaron Nola and José Alvarado in the fifth inning, it was clear to all in the building that something was amiss. A 25-year-old right-hander with a fastball that plays much faster than its velocity suggests, Javier entered the night having allowed more than three runs in only five of his 45 career starts. His six hitless innings were a case study in why.
The issue Wednesday night wasn’t the swings and misses, though were plenty of those. The bigger problem was that the non-misses didn’t matter. They made plenty of contact against Javier’s fastball. It just didn’t go anywhere.
“Twenty-two inches of vertical drop,” said center fielder Brandon Marsh, who was the one Phillie to have faced Javier before Game 4. “Best in the league, probably.”
Not only did Javier suck the life out of the Phillies’ bats, he sucked it out of the building. Well before the Astros chased Nola, it was apparent that the Phillies’ best hope was matching him pitch-for-pitch. Once that hope died, all the bigger ones went with it.
» READ MORE: The Phillies’ Game 4 loss to the Astros has put them in a pitching pickle in this World Series
There would be no 3-1 series lead. There would be no home clinch. There will be a presumptive Cy Young Award winner awaiting them in Game 5, followed by a starter who shut them down in Game 2.
Things change fast. But the Phillies have a knack of changing them back. If they are going to win it, they are going to do it the way they’ve most often had to.
That’s the silver lining: the opportunity that awaits them. They will need to be the team that captured this city’s belief. With Noah Syndergaard starting a bullpen game on Thursday. With a fatigued Wheeler summoning his strength for Game 6. They had a chance to do it the easy way. Now, they will have to do it the way they have done it all season.
“We’ve done it before,” said Bryce Harper, who has spent the entire postseason pulling the rest of them up. “I think we’ve done it all year.”
They’ve never made it look easy. Why start now?