Phillies Shat Off Early 4-0 Lead To The Padres And Head Back To Philly With The Series Tied 1-1

Well that was certainly an opportunity squandared. A Cliff Lee 2011 NLDS sad reminder of shart, if you will. Up 4-0 early with Nola seemingly cooking an Juan Soto being melted by the sun only for back to back Padre dingers to cut the score in half. And then...the 5th. Nola starts off shaky with a single to Kim, a player who hasn't even really sniffed the ball close to the plate thus far these playoffs, and then his brother Aaron causes all the existential internal family crises possible: 

Follow that up with Juan Soto finally making an appearance this postseason, Nola getting yanked (after a HUGE step up K to Machado, mind you), and then Croneworth/Drury essentially ending it all. People are calling for Brad Hand's nuts on a plate. Granted, he wasn't great like, you know, he was in the NLDS vs. the Braves on multiple occasions (the short term memory of the Philly faithful, myself included, needs to be diagnosed as something clinical). Hand needed to do his job, of course, but so did Nola. Look, it happens. Aaron Nola just had 3 straight scoreless games in the biggest starts of his life. Sure, it was a beyond inexcusable 5th inning with multiple 0-2 mistakes to his brother and then to Soto. Can't happen. But he's going to come back strong in Game 6 (if needed). If not, the Phillies don't really have a chance in hell to win it all, anyways. 

And for those giving Philly Rob shit for pulling Nola in favor of Brad Hand: 

Can you name a single other significant moment in which Topper made a wrong call with this team? Like, seriously? The dude is magically batting 1.000 managing this team. You gotta trust him to make the right move, even tho it didn't work out - and it was CLOSE to working out. Hand had Croneworth, the guy who he was brought in to get out, 2-2 before a pitch clearly slipped. Again, it's tough, but shit sometimes does in fact happen. Also, this lineup scored 4 runs in the 2nd…and that's it. We step on throats throughout the game and knock Snell out earlier and who knows? Rhys added a solo but come on, men. You know what you gotta do. 

Oh well. Remember last week when the Almighty Braves dominated the Phillies in a 3-hit shut out to essentially win the NLDS? Yeah. Exactly. It's 1-1 going back to Philly. Sure, 2-0 would've been amazing, but isn't a damn show. It's a damn fight. Now let's finish these contract kings and fake fans in South Philly. 

For real. Can't lose the Pennant to this. Won't. 

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