HOUSTON — There are plenty of reasons why, when presented with the choice of facing the Mets or the St. Louis Cardinals, the Phillies would choose the Cardinals. The Mets were just swept in three games in Atlanta, but have won 14 of 19 games played against the Phillies this season. The Phillies have faced the Cardinals fewer times — only seven games this season — but have gone 4-3 over that span.
The Cardinals have two NL MVP candidate on their roster, in Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, but both are righties. As a whole, the Cardinals have struggled more against right-handed pitching than left-handed pitching, posting a .730 on-base percentage against righties and a .810 mark against lefties. With right-handed pitchers Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola taking Game 1 and Game 2, respectively, those matchups should play to the Phillies’ advantage.
There is also, of course, the revenge factor. The last playoff game the Phillies played was on Oct. 7 against the Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park. Chris Carpenter pitched a complete game and allowed three hits. Roy Halladay also threw a gem, giving the Phillies eight innings of work and allowing six hits, one run and one walk, but wasn’t as a dominant as Carpenter was.
As every fan knows, it took the Phillies eleven years to return to the postseason. So it would feel somewhat fitting for them to face the Cardinals, in St. Louis, eleven years to the day after their last playoff appearance.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, they’re going to have to wait a bit longer to find out where they are headed on Friday. It comes down to seeding. The Phillies are currently in the No. 6 seed and the Padres are in the No. 5 seed. In order to move up in seeding, and face the No. 4 Mets, the Phillies would have to finish their season with the same record as the Padres, because they currently have the tiebreaker against the Padres. A Padres win on Tuesday night and a Phillies loss would guarantee that the Phillies are staying in the No. 6 seed and will fly to St. Louis on Wednesday night for a Thursday workout and Friday Game 1.
The Phillies lost — resoundingly — to the Astros on Tuesday night, 10-0, in what was almost a combined no-hitter. The Padres-Giants game began at 9:40 p.m. Eastern Time and has yet to finish. If the Padres lose to the Giants on Tuesday, the Phillies’ first-round opponent will be decided in game 162 on Wednesday.
Suárez struggles (but no one is terribly concerned)
Twenty-four hours after a postseason game in which the Phillies played some of their best baseball of the season, Ranger Suárez gave up six runs to the Houston Astros in his first two innings of work on Tuesday night, but no one seemed terribly concerned.
At this point, the games don’t really matter. The Phillies are playing for seeding, if they’re playing for anything. So, Thomson sat his regulars on Tuesday afternoon, with the exception of Bryce Harper, Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm. Suárez went into outing with the goal of reaching 65 pitches.
And he did that, even if it was a bumpy road to get there. Suárez threw too many pitches to the middle of the plate, and the vaunted Astros’ lineup feasted on them. He finished his outing at three innings pitched, allowing seven hits, six earned runs, two walks and three home runs with two strikeouts. He was at 67 pitches when he walked off the mound.
“I’m glad we won last night,” joked president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who joined the Phillies TV broadcast early in the game.
What was more important was keeping Suárez’s arm sharp for a potential Game 3 of the NL Wild Card series, which the left-handed pitcher is slated to start, should the best of three-series go to the full three games.
Offense struggles against Verlander (and everyone else)
Facing Justin Verlander, who is having a career season at age 39, was never going to be easy for the Phillies’ regulars, let alone a lineup full of back-ups. Verlander could very well win the AL Cy Young Award this year, for the third time in his career. He entered the game with a career-low 1.80 ERA through 27 games started.
Verlander no-hit the Phillies through five innings pitched with one walk and 10 strikeouts. The Phillies didn’t fare better against the Astros bullpen. They were held hitless until the ninth inning, when the Phillies hit three singles off of Astros reliever Will Smith. Ironically, it was former Astros backup catcher, and current Phillie, Garrett Stubbs who broke up the combined no-hitter.
Before you start to panic, remember that the Mets were no-hit by then-Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer on Oct. 3, 2015. The Mets went on to win the pennant.
