Phillies excited to return home as World Series shifts to Philly: ‘There’s nothing like it’

HOUSTON — Bryson Stott turned his PitchCom receiver — the earpieces pitchers and infielders began to wear this season to hear the information they previously used hand signals to communicate — to a Level 12 on Saturday night to combat the crowd noise that bellowed inside Minute Maid Park during Game 2 of the World Series.

Stott said he’ll bump that volume to a Level 20 when the Phillies return home Monday to Citizens Bank Park for Game 3. And that’s one way to compare the crowd noises between South Philly and Houston.

“It doesn’t,” Stott said when asked how the noise of the first two games of the series compared with what the Phillies heard during their five home games this postseason. “Even though it’s a dome. It was loud, but Philadelphia is second to none.”

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The Phillies were able to flip home-field advantage by splitting the first two games of the World Series. They dropped Game 2, 5-2, but still left Houston feeling good as they stood their ground on the road against the American League champs, who won 106 regular-season games and had yet to lose a postseason game.

But the Phils won’t have any of their top three starters — Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, or Ranger Suárez — on the mound for Game 3. So they hope the home crowd, which was raucous during the last two postseason rounds, can provide an advantage.

“I think Philly is coming,” Nick Castellanos said. “I think we’re coming. I think the whole city is coming with us. The World Series is back at Citizens Bank. What more could anyone want?”

“There’s nothing like it,” Bryce Harper said. “We’re excited to get back.”

The Phillies will likely lean heavily on their bullpen Monday as Noah Syndergaard, who logged three innings in his one postseason start, pitches before Suárez returns for Game 4. It will be the first World Series game in South Philadelphia since 2009.

“They’ve been unbelievable every time we’ve been at home,” Kyle Schwarber said of the fans. “We feel like it’s another element that a visiting team is going to have to go through. They’ve been great through this whole postseason. We’re excited to get back and can’t wait to get out there on the line for the intros and see the fans.”

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The Phillies have won all five of their home games this month and the Philly crowd seemed to have an effect on Atlanta and San Diego. It was a sea of red rally towels as the fans, many of whom stood during the entire game, never seemed to let up. But the Astros could be difficult to crack.

They won two games last week at Yankee Stadium and they’re used to playing in tense environments. They’ve been treated like villains in every ballpark they’ve traveled to since their sign-stealing scandal was exposed after the 2019 season. This will be Philly’s first chance to greet the Astros since that story broke.

“They’ve surprised me every other time. I don’t see why that’s going to stop in the World Series,” Hoskins said. “It’s about the crowd, right? You’ve seen in some of these games, we get a big hit and then it just snowballs from there. As the home team, you can lean on that.

“If stuff’s not going our way throughout a game, the energy has still been there. The noise has still been there. That’s another thing we can lean on. But in terms of their arms, yeah of course, they’re good. They’re here for a reason. We are confident in the guys that we are throwing, too. We’ve been able to swing the bats pretty well at home, too. We’ll see how that goes.”

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The Phillies won Game 1 and dropped Game 2 of both the NLDS and NLCS before closing out both series at home. They’ll have a chance to do that again this week. The Phillies boarded a bus Saturday night to the airport and flew back to Philadelphia ahead of Sunday’s off-day. On Monday they’ll be back home, where they expect the fans to bring the noise. And the Phils will have to turn the volume up.

“I think it will be up another notch or two,” Stott said. “We’re excited to get back.”