Categories: 2023 Postgame Recaps

Nola shaky, Phillies’ offense silent as Diamondbacks force NLCS Game 7

Aaron Nola did not have his best stuff in Game 6 of the NLCS. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire)

There was a conceivable version of the NLCS where the Phillies take a 2-0 lead at Citizens Bank Park, then press the pedal to the metal even harder and finish the Diamondbacks off in five — maybe even four.

The real version looks a lot different. The Phillies’ hopes for a second straight National League pennant will come down to Tuesday night: Game 7, Citizens Bank Park, winner-take-all.

They’ll need a much better starting pitching performance from Ranger Suárez than they got from Aaron Nola in Game 6 — in what could suddenly wind up as Nola’s final start in a Phillies uniform. Nola, who was off to a scalding start to his 2023 postseason, ran into a wall in the NLCS for the second straight year (albeit his second start of the series this time around).

The home-run bug that plagued him during the regular season reared its ugly head in Game 6, with onetime trade deadline target Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. opening the second inning with back-to-back homers. The Diamondbacks tacked on a third run in the inning before Nola recorded an out, with Alek Thomas walking and Evan Longoria doubling him in.

Nola’s opposition, Merrill Kelly, ran into trouble earlier than Nola did, walking Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper to put two on with one out in the first. But Kelly caught an ice-cold Alec Bohm looking and retired Bryson Stott to avoid trouble.

The theme would persist. The Phillies went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position in Game 6, leaving seven on base. The lone knock was a Brandon Marsh RBI single two batters after J.T. Realmuto led off the second with a double.

Kelly induced 12 whiffs on 90 pitches and lived on the corners all night, but his outing came to an abrupt halt after the fifth when Torey Lovullo went to his bullpen — a decision Kelly, understandably, met with disgust.

But the D-backs’ bullpen brightened his spirits. Ryan Thompson, Andrew Saalfrank, Kevin Ginkel and Paul Sewald shut the Phillies down from there on out, allowing just three baserunners. There was no real threat posed against them; no Phillie reached second against the Arizona bullpen — or against anyone after the third inning, for that matter.

The Phillies, operating with less urgency than the Diamondbacks due to their early deficit in the game and 3-2 lead in the series, stayed away from their highest-leverage relievers after Nola departed. Michael Lorenzen stranded a one-out Nola runner on third to finish the fifth before throwing a scoreless sixth. Orion Kerkering allowed a run in the seventh, before Craig Kimbrel — relegated, at least temporarily, to a low-leverage role after his struggles in Phoenix — walked one in a scoreless eighth. Gregory Soto threw a scoreless ninth.

Lovullo had said before the game that his team, which entered and advanced in the playoffs due to its capacity for wreaking havoc on the basepaths, would run more in Game 6 than they had in the first five. They made good on his word: Christian Walker, Geraldo Perdomo, Ketel Marte and Alek Thomas each stole a bag on Monday, with no unsuccessful attempts.

And so the stage is set. Monday fell short of meeting the Oct. 23 standard set exactly one year ago by Bedlam at the Bank, and instead, “bedlam” gave way to the Diamondbacks’ rallying cry of sorts: “chaos.”

Any Bedlam, should it occur, will take place Tuesday with everything on the line.

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