Bryce Harper smashed the first pitch he saw on his 31st birthday into the seats, Kyle Schwarber hit his first homer of the postseason and Nick Castellanos also went deep again to power the Philadelphia Phillies past the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3 in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series on Monday night.
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 as he crossed the plate. Harper, who also walked, scored twice and knocked in two runs, hit his 10th homer 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 of the last two postseasons.
The Diamondbacks were simply the latest team to unravel under the red storm of 45,396 towel-waving, deliriously-cheering fans at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies never gave fans a reason to stop — or a chance for Arizona to catch its breath until it was too late. Four pitches later, Harper homered — the first time in 127 postseason games Philadelphia went deep twice in the first inning.
Gallen, a South Jersey native, had his name derisively drawn out to "Galll-ennnn" by Phillies fans each time the 17-game winner got into a jam. Too many times, for Arizona. Seranthony Domínguez opened the door in the seventh for the Diamondbacks when his throwing error on a comebacker led to an unearned run. Alvarado retired pinch-hitter Emmanuel Rivera on a groundout to keep it 5-3 and tossed a scoreless eighth.The Diamondbacks, who at 84-78 squeezed into the playoffs as the final NL wild card, were held to four hits.Schwarber's fourth leadoff homer in the postseason moved him past Jimmy Rollins and Derek Jeter for most in baseball history.
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