‘This is shaping up to be a classic battle’ — Phillies react to wild NLDS win

‘This is shaping up to be a classic battle’ — Phillies react to wild NLDS win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Trea Turner’s played in 57 playoff games for four different teams in his career and has experienced his share of October craziness.

Bryson Stott’s played in 30, all with the Phillies, and been a part of plenty of important rallies, dramatic moments and late comebacks.

Yet for Turner, Stott and everyone else in the home clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park, Sunday was a topsy-turvy tilt that won’t soon be forgotten and might have changed the complexion of the NLDS against the Mets.

“This is shaping up to be a classic battle,” Rob Thomson said.

The Phillies beat the Mets, 7-6, on Sunday to even the NLDS at a game apiece. But it wasn’t even close to that simple.

The Mets were up three runs entering the bottom of the sixth when Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos tied the game with back-to-back jacks that reinvigorated a crowd that had entered panic mode.

The Mets took a lead in the seventh on Brandon Nimmo’s solo home run and the Phillies answered with three in the eighth, two of them on a Stott triple.

The Mets again responded with Mark Vientos’ two-run homer in the ninth, only for Nick Castellanos to walk the Phillies off in the bottom half.

“Back and forth,” Turner said. “At times, you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel and then stuff starts to happen, things go your way and the next thing you know you feel like you’re in the driver’s seat. Then it gets taken from you again.

“That’s what we expect of them. They’re a good team and they’ve shown already in the postseason that they’re gonna battle back. There’s no quit in there, there’s no quit in our dugout as well. Glad we came out on top.”

The Mets have been on a magical ride fueled by late comebacks, including four in the last six days. Finally, they were stopped in their tracks.

“Just felt like a seesaw all game,” Stott said. “I thought we did a good job of shrinking the strike zone and getting our swings off.

“Bryce and Nick getting us going like that and hitting those balls a long way jolted the team, I think, and it obviously jolted the crowd. They got loud. It was electric out there.”

The Phillies were only five outs away Sunday from heading to New York down 2-0 in the NLDS and needing three straight wins — two on the road — to advance.

Now, they know they can bring the NLDS back to Philadelphia by splitting at Citi Field. It won’t be easy against this hot Mets team, but both practically and mentally, 1-1 vs. 0-2 is a huge difference.

The Phils also might have assured themselves another Zack Wheeler game. He would start Game 5 on regular rest but could also potentially be in play on short rest for Game 4 if it’s do-or-die.

“Yeah, 0-2 is tough,” Thomson said. “But still, it’s one game at a time. It doesn’t matter what the score in the series is. We’ve seen it before where teams come back from a deficit.

“So just one pitch at a time. One game at a time. And just keep battling, because those guys over there, as you can see, they’re not going to quit.”

Stott’s comment about the lineup shrinking the strike zone during its three late rallies shouldn’t be ignored. Chasing pitches outside the zone was a huge issue for the Phillies in the 2023 NLCS, the second half of 2024, Saturday in Game 1 and Sunday for five innings.

But several hitters found something late in Game 2. Harper worked three patient plate appearances his final three times up, homering and walking twice. He’s struck out three times in the series but has done a good job of letting pitchers come to him.

It may have helped set a tone Sunday. The Phillies learned a lesson against the Diamondbacks last October but applying it in real time isn’t easy. They know that despite the stakes, they can’t veer back into over-aggressiveness.

“It’s a bunch of experienced guys,” Thomson said. “They’ve been through it before. They have a slow heartbeat and they understand situations and they just keep battling. It’s a very resilient club. And you can see the same thing with the Mets, they’re not going to quit either.

“There’s been a lot of talk, not only publicly but in our clubhouse, about getting back in the strike zone, controlling the strike zone on both sides of the ball. If you do that, you’re going to win games. And I think they’re making a conscious effort, for sure.”