By: Avery Eskin
Last Saturday, October 15th, the Phillies won their final game against the Braves, securing them a spot in the NLCS (The National League Championship Series). Likewise, the Padres won against the Dodgers, earning their chance to play against the Phillies in the NLCS.
The first game between the Padres and the Phillies took place on October 18th at Petco Park located in San Diego. The first few innings were full of fast and tricky pitches. The Phillies started off with Zack Wheeler as their pitcher. Wheeler was pitching to his best ability, striking out 8 players in total. Yu Darvish, the Padres’ pitcher, had a mostly successful game too, and proved his reputation of throwing incredibly fast pitches to be correct.
No team had acquired any runs until the top of the fourth inning. Bryce Harper from the Phillies hit a home run, being the first to put a number on the scoreboard. Then in the sixth inning, Kyle Schwarber of the Phillies made history. Not only did he break his own personal record, but he hit the longest ball of all time in Petco Park at a measurement of 488 feet. As well as that, it had a velocity of 119.7 mph, being the hardest-hit ball since Statcast began its tracking in 2015. This left fans shocked as well as his teammate Bryce Harper, who was shown with his jaw dropped in awe.
The only other notable part of the game took place in the last inning. Bottom of the ninth and Jose Alvarado was pitching for the Phillies. The Padres managed to get two men on base. Fans were sweating, it could have gone either way. Luckily for Phillies’ fans, Alvarado managed to get three outs, ending the game with a score of 2-0.
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