PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Trea Turner had the moment that could have pushed the Phillies toward the World Series waiting for him. The Phillies — with an electric offense grounded by strikeouts and puny at bats — put the tying runs on base against Arizona’s bullpen in the seventh inning.
Here it was, Game 7, the first one in 141 years of Phillies history, and Turner simply needed to keep the rally going in a 4-2 game.
The $300 million shortstop — whose middling season was rejuvenated by a manufactured standing ovation in August — flew out to center against reliever Kevin Ginkel.
No worries. Bryce Harper was up.
You know Bryce Harper, the master of the postseason stage?
The two-time NL MVP who sent the Phillies to the World Series a year ago with a game-winning home run was in position to try and repeat the feat against Ginkel. The righty-against-lefty matchup seemed to favor Harper, who had two homers already in the NLCS, among his other assorted collection of clutch postseason hits. Harper, though, lined a 2-1 fastball to center to end the scoring threat, the inning — and Philadelphia's last, best chance to return to the World Series.
Turner and Harper never got going once the NL Championship Series returned to Philadelphia, where raucous crowds had given the Phillies an air of invincibility. Nick Castellanos finished hitless in his last 23 NLCS at bats. The home run hitters stopped hitting home runs. The Diamondbacks are instead headed to the World Series after knocking out the Phillies 4-2 on Tuesday night and the team from the desert celebrated a Game 7 victory on Philadelphia's own turf.
This one will sting in Philly.
Blame the offense? Sure. Johan Rojas was perhaps the biggest of all the Game 7 rally-killers.
Pin the collapse on the bullpen? Absolutely. The Diamondbacks used a walk-off Game 3 single and a tying two-run homer late in a Game 4 win that wiped out an 0-2 NLCS hole.
Can't let Philly Rob off the hook either. Rob Thomson, the popular can-do-no-wrong manager in his first two seasons, made a series of questionable decisions that played a role in the loss. He stuck to his gut and kept inconsistent Alec Bohm in the cleanup role in Game 7 and was repaid with a solo homer in the second inning.
Other calls backfired.
The Phillies led 2-1 in the fourth — their last lead of the season — and had runners on the corners with one out. Castellanos struck out — one of 11 in the NLCS — and, after a walk to Brandon Marsh, Thomson let the light-hitting Rojas take his cuts. Rojas struck out.
The Phillies eventually turned to ace Zack Wheeler for the first MLB relief appearance of his career, but it meant little. It might have meant more had Thomson turned to Wheeler in the fifth inning rather than let starter Ranger Suárez try and push through one more inning. Suárez instead gave up two runs in the fifth that put the Diamondbacks ahead 3-2, and they never looked back.
The Phillies will have plenty of time to look back at how series leads of 2-0 and 3-2 veered so off course and left them headed into the offseason with plenty of questions about the fate of the homer-heavy lineup.
The Phillies have not won a World Series since 2008.
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