Phillies, Mets argue shadows played major factor in NLDS Game 1
Philadelphia Phillies via X
“It’s the same thing, man,” Bryce Harper said after the Phillies’ Game 1 loss to the Mets. “Chasing balls in the dirt.”
The Phils’ season ended last year with bad at-bats and horrible plate discipline. You saw a lot of that in their 6-2 loss on Saturday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.
But both teams struggled to get base hits. There were only three hits in the game through seven innings. Both teams had just one hit after Kodai Senga‘s third pitch of the game, which Kyle Schwarber hit 115 mph into the second deck in right field.
It was a 4:08 p.m. ET first pitch in front of a sold-out, 45,751 crowd in South Philadelphia. Of course, there are going to be shadows in play. As soon as my dad and I got to our seats in section 244, the first thing I noticed were the roles the shadows were going to play.
Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner spoke on it postgame.
“I feel like from the first inning to the seventh inning, it was really hard to see the baseball,” Castellanos said. “I think on both sides… And then I think both teams, after the sun was behind the stadium, put together better at-bats.”
“Yeah, I mean, you could see [how hard it is],” Turner said. “It’s a part of the game.”
Is it what Phillies fans are going to want to hear? No. Of course not. I do not blame them. The Phillies had two hits before garbage time in the eighth inning down 6-1. And the two guys you are hearing this from, Castellanos and Turner, went a combined 1-for-8. The one hit came from Castellanos in the eighth, where he recorded his first postseason hit since his first at-bat of the 2023 NLCS on October 16.
The Mets were parroting the same message on the shade.
“I mean, it was hard to see the baseball, for sure,” Mets third baseman Mark Vientos said postgame. “But both teams were dealing with it.
“I couldn’t see it out of [Zack Wheeler‘s] hand, and then once you did pick it up it was just a black ball,” Brandon Nimmo said. “I couldn’t see anything.”
And once the shade went away and Wheeler exited the game, the Mets exploded in the eighth, getting five runs off of the Phillies’ best arms out of the bullpen — Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm, and Orion Kerkering.
When you look at the start times for this series, all the games start at either 4:08 p.m. ET or 5:08 p.m. ET. The Phils and Mets will both have to deal with it and adapt.
“It’s gonna be a grind,” Castellanos said. “We’re gonna have to find a way to deal with it and put together good at-bats and score more runs than them.”
“It’s not gonna be something that we’re gonna be like ‘man, we can’t see,’ and toss our bats to the side,” Vientos said. “It’s just something we gotta deal with.”
Turner went for an extra batting practice session in the cage after the loss.
Game 2 starts at the same time on Sunday and with the same weather conditions as Saturday. The shade will be intense. Cristopher Sanchez will get the ball for the Phillies as they look to bounce back, and Luis Severino will start for the Mets who look to go up 2-0.
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Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin has been covering Philly Sports for Philly Sports Reports since 2017. He is a podcaster, writer, and founder of Philly Sports Reports. Benjamin is also an intern at the WBCB Sports Network on 1490AM. Through Philly Sports Reports, Benjamin has gotten the opportunity to meet Phillies owner John Middleton in his suite and be honored as the Philadelphia sports fan of the week for KYW News Radio. He hopes to be reporting on Philly sports as a full-time job in the future.
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