As oftentimes is the case, it’s not that a team loses, it’s how they lose.

In this instance, the Philadelphia Phillies took a commanding 2-0 NLCS series lead, allowed an inferior Diamondbacks team to tie it up, and then reclaimed the lead only to implode at home with Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez on the mound. They couldn’t hit, showed pitiful plate discipline, and came up small on their home field when it mattered most.

Assign the blame how you will, but there is no disputing the fact that this team choked. They lost to an 84-win squad that hit singles and sacrifice flies and showed so much more resilience and determination. That’s why a team with little experience and Major League Baseball’s 10th-lowest payroll is now in the World Series as a 6 seed, while we’re putting the Dancing on my Own remix into a rocket ship and flying that motherfucker straight into an asteroid field.

It’s disappointing because this Phillies team provided so many memorable moments, but when the going got tough:

  • All-Star Nick Castellanos forgot how to hit, looked lost at the plate, and finished 1 for 21 in the series
  • Trea Turner finished 0-12 in Games 5, 6, and 7
  • Bryce Harper went 0-7 in Games 6 and 7 and couldn’t get the big hit when it was needed
  • All-Star Craig Kimbrel bottled it in Games 3 and 4 and really didn’t have it in the second half of the season
  • Aaron Nola faltered, battled, but didn’t have his best stuff in Game 6
  • Ranger Suarez wasn’t able to replicate his early postseason dominance, despite steadying the ship
  • Alec Bohm got the solo shot, but wasted too many playoff RISP opportunities
  • so on and so forth

Bryson Stott, J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, and Brandon Marsh all had their moments in Games 6 and 7, but also turned in some wildly uncompetitive at-bats as well. You can talk about Johan Rojas coming up to the plate with bases loaded and scrutinize Rob Thomson’s decision to leave Bohm in the cleanup spot. There’s a lot to re-examine, but ultimately the players play the game and should bear the brunt of the blame when they lose. They swung at balls out of the zone, got behind in counts, and finished Game 7 1-10 with runners in scoring position.


To me that’s the biggest story. Arizona was nicking singles and moving runners while the Phillies were swinging for the fences and mostly missing. It’s one of the things we saw from this team all season long, even early in the playoffs when solo home runs were perhaps papering over the figurative RISP cracks. Say what you will about Topper and his penchant for remaining loyal to his guys, but at the end of the day the manager is not out there on the field swinging at stuff that’s three feet out of the zone. At some point, guys making tens of millions of dollars gotta put the bat on the ball and get it in play.

You’ll sometimes hear people counter the “choke” take by saying something along the lines of “maybe Arizona was just better,” but in actuality, both of those things are true. The Diamondbacks played much better baseball from Game 3 through Game 7, but the Phillies simultaneously put both hands on their own esophagi and started squeezing. It’s not like these were blowouts. Arizona won 2-1, 6-5, 5-2, and 4-2, and there was a lot of late magic there, especially in Games 3 and 4. It’s not like the Phillies were getting shellacked. The starting pitching was good enough to win four games. Arizona was not trotting out the second coming of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Don’t let a scrappy Arizona performance cloud your mind, because the Phillies lost the series just as much as the D Backs won it. It’s not disrespectful to say that, nor is it a failure to give credit where is due. It’s not sour grapes, it’s the truth, which is hard for this region to comprehend because we have a default belief that all sporting trends are mutually exclusive.

But yeah, here we are. So many good memories in 2023, just like 2022. The Trea Turner ovation, the locker room celebrations, viral videos with Liam Castellanos and Garrett Stubbs. Rhys Hoskins throwing out the first pitch and random fans buying beers for the entire section. Security guy Gary crushing Bryan in the outfield. One-tooth guy from Northeast Philadelphia. The list goes on and on. Unfortunately those will be footnotes in the annals because Chapter 1 of the 2023 Phillies shit tome explains how they choked away NLCS series leads of 2-0 and 3-2 with home field advantage.

(And for what it’s worth, let it be known that the fans were locked in for Game 7 and stayed that way throughout. They did their part while the Phillies failed to uphold their end of the bargain, so there can be no narratives about tight sphincters or anything of the sort. Whatever we were feeling after people walked out of Game 6 went away with what we witnessed one night later).