On Saturday evening, the Philadelphia Phillies dropped to 0-1 in their NLDS series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 5-3 loss in front of their home fans. Philadelphia controlled this game for much of the way, but ultimately, a late home run from Teoscar Hernandez did them in and lost them home field advantage in the series.
Philadelphia has made a habit of coming up small in the biggest moments in October for a few years now, including last year's loss vs the New York Mets. Recently, Matt Strahm, who gave up the three-run home run to Teoscar Hernandez that gave them the victory, broke down his emotions in the aftermath of that failure.
“I feel like I got gut-punched on missing two pitches,” said Strahm, who also struggled in last year's series vs the Mets, per David Schoenfield of ESPN. “And one of the two got damaged.”
Meanwhile, David Robertson, who allowed the two runners on base that were eventually sent home by Hernandez, broke down why the Phillies are not panicking despite the setback.
“We're down one game. It's not a big deal. Play the best three out of five, so we've got plenty of time to make up some ground,” he said. “We need to come back. We have the off day tomorrow. Come back and win a ballgame at home and then get ready to go on the road.”
A familiar result for the Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies have lost playoff series in which they had home field advantage in each of the last two postseasons, and after Saturday's result vs the Dodgers, they are in danger of doing it a third straight time.
Philadelphia worked hard this year to earn their second consecutive NL East title, and they weren't exactly rewarded with their NLDS matchup against the reigning champion Dodgers.
The good news for Philadelphia is that it's first to three and not first to one, so the team will have at least two more chances to show their stuff against this talented Los Angeles team.
Game 2 of the series is set for Monday evening.
