The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the San Diego Padres and the Houston Astros beat the New York Yankees on Sunday to advance to the 2022 World Series.
The Phillies have won two World Series in their 139-year history. They locked up both of them in their home ballpark, Veterans Stadium, where Tug McGraw jumped for joy in 1980, and Citizens Bank Park, where Brad Lidge fell to his knees and looked heavenward in 2008.
If the Phils are going to win their third World Series in franchise history, they'll have to do it on the road.
And they'll also have to get some hits because they didn't get any in Game 4 on Wednesday night.
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SIGN UP HERE The day after smacking five home runs in Game 3, the Phillies were no-hit by four Houston Astros pitchers in Game 4.
The Phils lost the game, 5-0. The series is tied at two games apiece. Game 5, the final game of the season at Citizens Bank Park, will be played Thursday night. Noah Syndergaard will start for the Phillies against Justin Verlander.
Friday is an off day. Game 6 will be played in Houston on Saturday night and Game 7, if necessary, will be played Sunday night in Houston.
The Astros won Game 4 in convincing fashion, tagging two of the Phillies' best, starter Aaron Nola and reliever Jose Alvarado, for five runs in the fifth inning.
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That was plenty of run support for right-hander Cristian Javier, who held the Phillies hitless for six innings. Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly completed the no-hitter, just the second in World Series history.
Phillies hitters struck out 14 times and walked three times. Javier, throwing predominantly four-seam fastballs, struck out nine.
The Phillies' Nos. 3 through 6 hitters, J.T. Realmuto, Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos and Alec Bohm, were a combined 0 for 12 with 11 strikeouts and a walk.
Even a crowd of 45,693 couldn't get the Phillies going. The loss was the team's first in seven games at Citizens Bank Park this postseason. The Phils are 1-7 all-time in Game 4s of the World Series, their only win coming against Tampa Bay in 2008.
Nola beat these same Astros with 6⅔ shutout innings on October 3 to put the Phillies in the postseason for the first time in 11 years.
He then beat St. Louis and Atlanta in the first two rounds of the playoffs, allowing just an unearned run in 12⅔ innings. But it's been a struggle for Nola in his last three. He was lit up for six runs in 4⅔ innings by San Diego in Game 2 of the NLCS. Now, in two World Series starts against Houston, he's given up eight runs in 8⅓ innings.
Nola kept the Astros at bay for the first four innings Wednesday night. He featured a biting curveball and used it to pitch out of trouble in the second.
In the fifth, the Astros strung together three singles to load the bases with no outs. With lefty slugger Yordan Alvarez due up, manager Rob Thomson went to his best bullpen lefty, Jose Alvarado, but the strategy did not work. Alvarado hit Alvarez with the first pitch to send home the game's first run. Alex Bregman then smacked a 101-mph, 0-2 sinker to right for a two-run double and the Astros were on their way.
Before being no-hit, the Phillies' offense had been outstanding, posting a .977 OPS and averaging seven runs per game in the six previous home games this postseason.
The offense will look to rebound against Verlander in Game 5.
Verlander led the majors with a 1.75 ERA this season and will likely win his third American League Cy Young Award later this month. His Hall of Fame resume is golden, but one thing it lacks is World Series success. He is 0-6 with a 6.07 ERA in eight career starts in the Fall Classic. Verlander let a 5-0 lead slip away in Game 1 of this series and the Phillies came back to win on J.T. Realmuto's home run in the 10th.
Syndergaard started and won Game 3 of the 2015 World Series for the New York Mets.
Seven years later, he finds himself starting Game 5 for the Phillies.
Syndergaard gets the start by default. The Phils are without a dependable fourth starter. They have plugged the spot throughout the postseason with either Syndergaard or Bailey Falter. The outings have been short with the bullpen picking up much of the load. Syndergaard has pitched just 1⅓ innings and thrown just 17 pitches in the last 18 days, so the Phils figure to take a similar route Thursday night.
"I feel like I could go for as long as they will allow me to," Syndergaard said. "Now is the time to empty the tanks."