Ricky Bo postgame:

It’s a short clip, but in a vacuum, I don’t think the Phillies gave the Padres “all of the momentum of this series.”

Reason being, the Phils are going back home for three games after getting the split in San Diego. If you asked any normal fan prior to the NLCS, they would have been more than happy with 1-1 coming back home. They can win this thing at CBP without having to get on a plane back to California. That’s not likely to happen, but even making it a possibility provides momentum that trumps game 2 as a singular entity.

I think the nuance here, speaking to a larger point Ricky and others are making, is that it’s not that they lost, it’s about how they lost. You were up 4-0 with one of your two “aces” on the mound. We can split hairs over whether or not Aaron Nola is an ace, but he and Zack Wheeler are your two surest bets out there, so dropping a winnable game with either guy on the mound, and a four-run lead, feels a little deflating. That’s something I think everybody will agree on. It did give some vibes of Cliff Lee in the 2011 NLDS, game 2, when the offense spotted him a 4-0 lead and then he coughed up three in the fourth inning and the Cardinals went on to win 5-4. However, the Phils actually came back to win game 3 before ultimately losing the series, so even using 11 years ago as a reference point feels a bit funky. Plus, there’s a day off here, so is San Diego gonna get on a plane, fly to Philly, and then pick up where they left off 48 hours prior? I dunno.

I think there’s some subconscious thing going on here, where Phillies fans remember the 2011 NLDS in particular and know that opportunities are few and far between, especially with the drop off in starting pitching behind Wheeler and Nola. But this team is the lower seed on a Cinderella run, and if we’re looking at this thing rationally, 1-1 coming back home with three games at CBP is a perfectly fine situation to be in.