November 1, 2022

World Series 3: Phillies 7, Astros 0

Astros   - 000 000 000 - 0  5  0
Phillies - 220 030 00x - 7 7 0
The Astros had five singles. . . . The Phillies had five home runs.

The Phillies took a 2-1 lead in the World Series on Tuesday night with a 7-0 rout of the Astros. They still have a chance to win the World Series on their home turf, where they are 22-9 (.710) in the postseason, the best home postseason record of any team in any park (min. 20 games).

Bryce Harper hit a two-run shot in the first, Alex Bohm led off the second with a solo blast and Brandon Marsh followed two outs later with his own dinger. In the fifth, Kyle Schwarber (with a man on) and Rhys Hoskins went back-to-back. All five homers were hit off Lance McCullers (4.1-6-7-1-5, 78), who is now the only pitcher to allow five homers in a World Series game.

The Phillies are the first team to hit five home runs in the first five innings of a World Series game. . . . They are also the first team to hit three homers in the first two innings of a World Series game. . . . The five homers also ties a record for the most dongs in a WS game (1928 Yankees, Game 4; 1989 Athletics, Game 3).

The Phillies went 0-for-3 with RATS:

Most Runs In Postseason Game, No Hits With RATS
8 - 1977 Yankees, World Series Game 6
7 - 2022 Phillies, World Series Game 3
7 - 2004 Cardinals, NLCS Game 1
7 - 1928 Yankees, World Series Game 4
Ranger Suárez (5-3-0-1-4, 76) had very little trouble with the Astros. He gave up two singles with two outs in the second, but fanned Chas McCormick to end the threat. In the fourth, he allowed a walk and a single with two outs, but got Jose Altuve to foul out to first. A quartet of relievers went the rest of the way.

Factoid: "This is the first time the Astros have been shut out 7-0 or worse in a road game since July 26, 2017. That game was played at ... Philadelphia!" And: "Oddly enough, they had been shut out 7-0 or worse *at home* 7 times in that span, including twice in the postseason. But not on the road ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "

Work took me away from watching this one, so no grumping about the announcers or umpires. However, I remembered something I forgot to mention after Game 1. One of the Sportsnet clowns was discussing the Astros lineup and he noted that Houston was without "probably their best player" (or maybe he said "most complete player"; I really hope (for his sake) he said "probably"). He was talking about . . . (drum roll pls) . . . Michael Brantley.

Yeah. I don't think even Michael Brantley's mother believes he's the best hitter on the Astros.

Some basic stats:
                  AVG  OBP  SLG   OPS 
Yordan Alvarez   .306/.406/.613/1.019  37 HR  288 TB
Jose Altuve    .300/.387/.533/ .921  28 HR 281 TB
Alex Bregman  .259/.366/.454/ .820  23 HR  249 TB
Kyle Tucker   .257/.330/.478/ .808  30 HR  260 TB
Michael Brantley .288/.370/.416/ .785  5 HR  101 TB
It should be noted that Brantley played in only 64 games this season. But his 125 OPS+ ranked fifth on the team.

In 2021, he played in 121 games and his OPS+ was again fifth on the team; he was 8th on the team in WAR.

It's like saying Andrew Benintendi (4th in OPS+) was the best hitter on the 2018 Red Sox.

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