Bryce Harper connected on the first pitch he received on his 31st birthday in the stands and Kyle Schwarber fired his first home run of the postseason.
Nick Castellanos also connected for another to lead the Philadelphia Phillies past the Arizona Rattlers 5-3 in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. League Championship Series on Monday night.
Phillies Continue Winning Streak
Crossing the plate, Harper held up three fingers on his left hand and one on his right and pretended to blow them out like candles on a cake. The player, who also received a passport, scored twice, drove in two runs and hit his 10th home run in two postseasons with the Phillies.
Zack Wheeler struck out eight in six innings to help the defending National League champions win their seventh Game 1 in the last two postseasons.
Wheeler split two bats in the first and second innings, leaving the Rattlers with more pieces of broken wood than hits until the fifth.
Jose Alvarado got four important outs on 15 pitches and Craig Kimbrel worked a scoreless ninth inning for the save.
Arizona suffered its first loss of the postseason after reeling off five straight wins against the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Rattlers were just the latest team to crumble under the red storm of 45,396 towel-waving, deliriously cheering fans at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies never gave the fans a reason to stop, nor a chance for Arizona to catch its breath until it was too late.
Schwarber started the home run derby when he launched Zac Gallen's first pitch 420 feet into the right field bleachers.
There was some consternation that Schwarber, with 47 home runs this season and 93 in the last two, had not connected on one in the first six games of the postseason.
Easily forgotten, Schwarber didn't connect on any in the Wild Card Series or Divisional Series last season before firing six in the National League Championship Series and World Series.
Four pitches later, Harper fired a home run, the first time in 127 postseason games that Philadelphia connected for two homers in the first inning.
When Castellanos fired his fifth home run of the postseason in the third, all in the last three games, the Phillies had 32 home runs in 13 postseason games at Citizens Bank Park in the last two years.
Gallen, a South Jersey native, heard his name drawn disparagingly as "Galll-ennnn" by Philadelphia fans every time the 17-game winner got in trouble. Too many times for Arizona.
#ForIfYouMissedIt: 🔔 The chimes continued in the National League Championship Series opener! 🔔
🗣️ @FerAlvarez and @Plakata
📺 @mlbnetwork#SuenaLaCampana | #Postseason pic.twitter.com/AFffSz64dtF- Philadelphia Phillies (@losphillies) October 17, 2023
The Phillies Remained Strong
Trea Turner connected on a double in the third inning, leaving first base free. Gallen threw to Harper instead of giving him the base on balls and was punished with a tow single for a 4-0 lead.
J.T. Realmuto added a run-scoring single in the fifth. Those runs proved crucial for the Phillies. Geraldo Perdomo connected on a two-run home run off Wheeler in the sixth to make it 5-2.
Seranthony Dominguez opened the door in the seventh for the Rattlers when his throwing error on a grounder to the mound led to an unearned run. Alvarado retired Emmanuel Rivera on a grounder to keep the score 5-3 and pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
Arizona, which with an 84-78 record snuck into the playoffs as the last National League wild card, was limited to four hits.
Schwarber's fourth home run as a first baseman in the postseason moved him past Jimmy Rollins and Derek Jeter in history.
