New October, same Phillies: They again look like kings of the moment in Game 1 win

Was there a moment when the Marlins wondered why they even bothered showing up?

Was it when Zack Wheeler’s first sinker snapped like a tailpipe backfiring into J.T. Realmuto’s glove?

Maybe it was a few moments before that, when an injured Rhys Hoskins pulled a rally towel out of his back pocket and then threw a strike of a ceremonial first pitch amid the October din.

» READ MORE: Phillies ace Zack Wheeler rebounds from World Series fiasco, aces the Marlins in Game 1 win | Marcus Hayes

Or, perhaps, it was a few moments before that, when the visiting Marlins looked across the diamond and watched a bespectacled, suit-jacketed billionaire clap his hands to the beat of an EDM song while welcoming $250 million in hard-spent human capital back to the home dugout as the Phillies took their places for Game 1.

John Middleton sensed it, whether the Marlins did or not.

Citizens Bank Park is a different place in October. You could talk yourself blue in the face running down the list of reasons to worry about a three-game series against an upstart team like the Marlins. The lefty on the mound, the lefties in the ‘pen, the uneven performance of the Phillies’ own pitching staff, the disproportionate struggles they’ve had against the opponent they happened to draw. But at the end of the day, all of those factors paled in significance to the one that has differentiated these Phillies for more than a year now.

They are a different sort of team. This is a different sort of place. They are both uniquely suited to this different time of year.

The result? Same as it ever was.

Phillies 4. Marlins 1.

One win down, one more to go for a return trip to Atlanta.

“Man, I missed it,” right fielder Nick Castellanos said after the Phillies took a 1-0 lead in this best-of-three wild-card series. “It felt like a continuation of last year. It was amazing.”

They weren’t perfect. Far from it. They left enough meat on the bone in the first six innings that things got a bit dicey in the seventh. They squandered a run in the first inning when Dusty Wathan held up Kyle Schwarber on an Alec Bohm flyout with runners on second and third and no out. They squandered another one in the fourth, when Wathan tried to make amends by sending Castellanos into an out at home. Twice in those first four innings they had runners on second and third with nobody out, yet they managed a combined two runs between them.

In short, Wheeler deserved to be working with a lead much larger than 3-0 when he finally ran into trouble in the seventh. He’d been throwing lightning all night. The sinker was as crisp as it has been all season, the sweeper virtually unhittable. It was the kind of soul-sucking stuff that can leave an opposing lineup wondering what it has to live for. The Marlins finally put a run on the board in the seventh thanks to a series of unfortunate two-out events: Bryce Harper diving for ground ball that Bryson Stott easily gloved, Wheeler failing to cover first in time, Bryan De La Cruz following it up with a sharp ground ball at third base that Bohm smothered — but not cleanly enough to make a strong enough throw.

All of it was enough to make you wonder if the vibes had begun to turn. They are different this year. There’s no doubt about that. The pressure is on them. They are the home team. They are the favorite. They are the defending National League champs. Rob Thomson gave a nod to it in his pregame press conference.

“Last year was last year,” Phillies manager said. “It was a great run. We had a lot of fun. We’ve got to get back after it this year. It’s a different team. I believe it’s a better team, to be honest with you. But it’s a new year.”

That’s not an insignificant thing. It is a different energy, a different mentality. Last year, every tense moment was imbued with a sense of disbelief that had a lightening effect on the gravity of the situation. House money and all. The implications weren’t what they are now. Now, they are expected to win. Anything less would be a crushing disappointment.

Credit José Alvarado with restoring some balance to the Phillies’ universe.

Last seen allowing a mammoth back-breaker of a home run to Yordan Alvarez in Game 6 of the World Series, the veteran lefty returned to the playoffs with a vengeance. He did it against a ghost from last year, striking out former Astro and current Marlin Yuli Gurriel to strand runners on second and third in the seventh and then recording the first two outs of the eighth. Alvarado is one of the big wild cards of this postseason after an uneven regular season that included two trips to the injured list. In Game 1, the lefty looked every bit the weapon he was throughout last October. In terms of developments, there was none bigger in Game 1.

“I think that in this clubhouse, the only expectations we care about are the ones we give ourselves,” Castellanos said. “We really don’t pay attention that much to what other people say outside of these walls. I think, honestly, that’s our strength. We only think about what we think about ourselves and playing for each other.”

Castellanos has a point. The Phillies have already shown themselves to be in possession of the biggest X factor of them all. The fans, the park, the noise, the exuberant angst of 40,000-plus — the impact of it all cannot be overstated. Still, the place is only part of it. Setting means nothing without the right people populating it.

The Phillies real secret is the type of team that Middleton, Thomson, and Dave Dombrowski have managed to build. The clubhouse, the dugout, the team charter — they all pulse with the same energy that surrounds them in the stands on nights like Tuesday. It’s a wild thing, the sort that you can’t really predict or plan for. You put the right pieces in place and somehow together they become something even bigger. It’s a quality we saw last postseason.

It hasn’t gone away.