The 2022 Phillies are gone, but they will not soon be forgotten

HOUSTON — It ended loudly and suddenly and without any doubt: 12 outs remaining, two men on base, one devastating swing. The bat cracked and the ball jumped and all that was left was to watch. Twenty feet above the center field wall, a season disappeared.

It ended fittingly. With one team doing its thing. With the other team doing it better. With one superstar striking a blow. With another striking one harder.

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It ended as the improbable often does: with a fourth loss in the World Series.

Astros 4, Phillies 1.

Game, set, match.

Finality is a difficult thing to grasp. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is be present with it. You saw it as they stood there and watched the building explode, their shoulders slumped atop the dugout railing, their arms hanging limp, their gazes still fixed upon the field, as if turning away was what would make it over. Four innings after Yordan Alvarez’s mammoth three-run home run off Jose Alvarado gave the Astros control of Game 6 and propelled them to their second world title in five years, the Phillies were still not ready for the end to arrive.

The perspective will come. By the time they arrived in the visitors’ clubhouse, it had already begun to trickle in. They exchanged hugs and I-Love-Yous and cans of domestic light beer and they sat down together and began the long process of sorting it out.

The history books will remember 2022 as the year the Phillies lost the World Series, because that is how history works. We tell it with ourselves at the center. Deep down, though, they know that the victors deserved to write this one. The other team won it. The Astros were better.

“They beat us fair and square,” said Kyle Schwarber, whose home run in the top of the sixth inning gave the Phillies a fleeting 1-0 lead. “There’s nothing you can say. But we’re also very proud of what we accomplished throughout the year and how we got here and how we just kept fighting to the end. It was a complete group effort. Really cool.”

Alvarez’s home run was the decisive blow, but it will not be the defining one. Not for the Phillies. Not for the fan base they reinvigorated with one of the more improbable postseason runs in baseball history. We don’t write many songs about second-place finishers here in the city of Philadelphia. This team? It will be an exception.

They will also be back. Nine regulars remain under contract. Two aces. A third starter. Two shutdown relievers. They need help, of course. Depth was the difference in this World Series. Houston was a team built for the long haul. Hero ball can carry you only so far. It’s remarkable it carried the Phillies where it did.

“Just a good team,” said first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who will enter 2023 in the final year of his contract. “They beat us. Not often do we say that. But they beat us this time.”

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Whatever happens, this month full of moments will have a much longer shelf life than the three consecutive losses that brought it to an end. That impossible comeback in St. Louis, that magical home opener in the NLDS, that legendary home run off the bat of Bryce Harper that clinched the Phillies their first World Series berth in 13 years. Those were the moments that made them a team that surpassed anybody’s wildest expectations. The sliding catches by Nick Castellanos in right field, the impeccable defense by Alec Bohm at third base, the inside-the-park home run by J.T. Realmuto — those are the memories that will burn the brightest.

Whatever Hoskins’ future holds, the home runs will overshadow the groundouts. Same goes for Jean Segura’s go-ahead single and defensive wizardry. And Brandon Marsh’s double-robbing grab in center. And all those leadoff Schwarbombs.

The season was simply a few starts too long for Aaron Nola, two starts too long for Zack Wheeler. Alvarado came in from the bullpen as a shutdown reliever who came out of nowhere. Alvarez stepped to the plate as one of the most feared hitters in the American League. Nothing about what happened next should overshadow everything that preceded it.

They were up against a Goliath, one of the most perfectly constructed baseball teams in recent history. It’s why the Astros won 106 out of 162 in the regular season. It’s why they entered the postseason 11 wins away from a title. It’s why they needed just 13 games to get there. They were one of two teams in the expansion era to enter the postseason with seven pitchers who averaged at least 9.0 strikeouts per nine innings with an ERA under 3.00 (minimum: 40 innings). The Phillies had one such player: Zack Wheeler, who started Game 6 and gave everything he had. He probably gave more.

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As always, there were ifs. What if Edmundo Sosa’s second-inning fly ball to deep left-center had traveled the same distance but 15 feet to the left, where it would have landed eight rows deep for a three-run home run? What if Wheeler hadn’t developed a case of forearm tendinitis and missed much of September? What if that pitch hadn’t caught Maldonado’s elbow? What if Rob Thomson had ignored what his gut and the situation called for and left Wheeler in?

That they can even ask these questions is an accomplishment all its own.

“We didn’t get it done,” said Harper, who hit six home runs with an other-worldly 1.236 OPS in his first 16 games of the playoffs before going 0-for-8 in his last two. “We didn’t finish it. It doesn’t matter if you are an 87-win team or a 100-win team. It don’t matter. We didn’t get it done.”

But they had a chance. They were one swing away in Game 5. They held a lead with 12 outs to go in Game 6. They were here, and that’s still a remarkable thing given where they once were. From eight games under .500 to a newly minted wild-card spot to back-to-back wild-card wins on the road to seven wins in nine games to a two-games-to-one lead in the World freaking Series.

“It’s unfortunate,” Realmuto said, “but I don’t want that to take away from how proud I am of this group. How much we jelled together. How much fun we had playing together.”

The run may be over. The 2022 Phillies may be gone. But neither of them will soon be forgotten.