The Philadelphia Phillies hadn’t had much success for the best part of the entire outing against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card round on Friday, but they saved their best for the bitter end, blowing away their hosts to win 6-3. Down 2-0 heading into the ninth, the travelers plated six runs in the top of the frame through small ball and plain, old-fashioned resilience and grit.
Jean Segura drove in the two of those runs and then later scored as well, handing the Phillies a dream start as they hand the ball to Aaron Nola for Game 2 with a chance to close it out early on Saturday. In New York, the Mets endured an awful start to their series as the San Diego Padres took an early lead thanks to a pair of early homers from Josh Bell and Trent Grisham. That 3-0 lead proved to be just the start of the slide for the hosts as starter Max Scherzer would give up two more homers, a three-run blast from Jurickson Profar in the top of the fifth and a solo blast to Manny Machado, too, as they fell 7-1. After leading the NL East by 10 ½ games, the Big Apple club are now a game away from being ousted, so you’d have to think they will be pitching Jacob deGrom on Saturday since it is an elimination game.
