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. Wheeler sawed two bats in half during the first two innings, leaving the Diamondbacks with more pieces of busted lumber than hits through five.
José Alvarado got four big outs on 15 pitches and Craig Kimbrel worked a scoreless ninth for the save.
Arizona were stuck with their first loss of the postseason after ripping off five straight wins against the Brewers and Dodgers.
The Diamondbacks were 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 their 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 seats. There was some minor consternation that Schwarber – with 47 homers this season and 93 over the last two – had yet to go deep through six playoff games. How easy it was to forget that Schwarber didn’t hit any in the Wild Card Series or NLDS last season before he launched six in the NLCS and World Series.
Four pitches later, Harper homered – the first time in 127 postseason games Philadelphia went deep twice in the first inning.
When Castellanos lined his fifth homer of the playoffs – all in the past three games – it gave the Phillies 32 home runs in 13 postseason games at Citizens Bank Park over the last two years.
Texas Rangers 5-4 Houston Astros
Jonah Heim homered, Nathan Eovaldi pitched six effective innings and Texas beat Framber Valdez and the Houston Astros 5-4 for a 2-0 lead in the AL Championship Series.
The Rangers improved to 7-0 in the playoffs, including six wins on the road. They swept the Rays in the Wild Card Series and the Orioles in the Division Series, and then posted a 2-0 win at Houston in the ALCS opener.
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“It’s just baseball to us,” Texas third baseman Josh Jung said. “We’re jumping on teams early, and that helps us settle in. Our pitching has been outstanding. You can’t ask for anything more than what they’ve given us.”
Adolis García, Mitch Garver and Nathaniel Lowe each hit an RBI single during Texas’ four-run first inning against Valdez, and José Leclerc closed it out for the Rangers after Yordan Alvarez powered an Astros rally.
Eovaldi struck out nine, including two in a row after Houston loaded the bases with none out in the fifth. He was charged with three runs and five hits in his third win this postseason.
“You’re talking about one of the elite pitchers in the game,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “They have that ability to turn up a notch when they had to. We made an error, bases loaded, and it’s about picking each other up, and he picked us up there and made great pitches.”
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is on Wednesday night in Arlington.