‘Clutch Jean’ Segura redeems himself in Game 3 for the Phillies in the NLCS

It was the best of Jean. It was the worst of Jean. It was everything you’ve come to expect from Jean Segura.

He had the biggest hit, the two best defensive plays, and he made the worst error, and delivered the foulest brain fart on the base paths. He had, in all, a helluva night. A clutch night. Again.

“He’s got that clutch gene,” said Kyle Schwarber, who led off Game 3 with his second homer of the series.

» READ MORE: Rob Thomson’s aggressive bullpen usage, Segura’s big hit lead Phillies to 4-2 victory, 2-1 lead in NLCS

Wait.

Clutch gene, or Clutch Jean?

“Well,” Schwarbs said, “now that you mention it, I guess it’s both. ‘Clutch Jean.’ I like it.”

Yeah, he does.

Segura poked a two-out, two-strike single to right field that gave the Phillies the lead for good in the fourth inning of their 4-2 win in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Friday. It was a carbon copy of the ninth-inning single that put the Phillies ahead in Game 1 of the wild-card series in St. Louis, when they scored six runs en route to sweeping the best-of-three. Both of the pitches he hit were running away from him like scared rabbits, but he somehow got a bat on them.

“I played a lot of bitilla growing up,” he explained. That’s a game played in his native Dominican Republic with a sawed-off broomstick and caps from orange juice containers. The pitcher whizzes the cap at the hitter, who tries to hit them with a stick one inch in diameter.

It’s like whiffle ball on steroids. After bitilla, catching a piece of Joe Musgrove’s slider was like child’s play. Literally.

They now lead the Padres, 2-1, after what should have been a 4-0 win, but Segura dropped a double-play relay in the top of the fourth that gave the Padres their first run, and Rhys Hoskins botched a ground ball at first base that gave them their second, in the fifth.

But, really, would you have it any other way? Would the Night of Jean Segura be complete without a little bit of all of it? Segura is the epitome of the 2022 Phillies. They’re like hound dogs: likable, and fun, but so, so dumb.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Hoskins said.

“It wasn’t perfect,” Schwarber added. “But with us, it’s never gonna be perfect.”

When it was over, the good outweighed the bad with Segura, as it almost always does, and so it was in the pivotal Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. Pivotal? Sure.

Almost 70% of the teams which win Game 3 of a best-of-seven series tied at a game apiece proceed to win the series. The moment could hardly have been bigger.

Segura rose to the moment. Again. And again. And again.

He’s Clutch Jean. You better recognize.

“Absolutely. The way I handle pressure since I was a little kid, I love it,” he said. “I’m from the Dominican.”

He recalled farmers coming to watch with the machetes they’d used that day in the field still in their hands.

“It’s just the way we handle the pressure in Dominican Republic. Even when we play winter ball, we’ve got guys in the stands, saying, ‘Hey, if you get out, we’re going to kill you. We’re going to do something bad to you!’ ” he said, joking, we hope. “I think the pressure [here], when you come from DR, it’s nothing.”

This is nothing new for Segura — he has eight walk-off hits in his career, including one Sept. 6 against Miami that ended a three-game skid — even if playing in the playoffs is. At 1,328, he led all active players in games played without reaching the playoffs.

He was disappointed that his error led to the Padres’ first run, but he recalled what Schwarber said in a team meeting that preceded the playoffs:

“If something happens in a negative fashion, it ends right there.”

“That’s why I didn’t let that error affect my next two, three at-bats,” Segura said. “I’m going to go there and continue enjoying the ride. I wait 11 years for the opportunity.”

Those have been turbulent years, especially the last few in Philly

Segura is the hero today, but he was guy who dogged it to first base and caused the rundown that blew out Andrew McCutchen’s knee in 2019.

» READ MORE: Li’l Papi? Bryce Harper’s fast playoff start for Phillies recalls David ‘Big Papi’ Ortiz and the 2004 Red Sox.

Friday, he was the guy who got picked off first base after he drove in the two go-ahead runs.

Segura’s the guy who tried to hot-dog a routine out into a double play last season and got nothing — nothing, that is, besides a dressing down in the dugout by former manager Joe Girardi.

Friday, he was the guy who dropped a perfect, soft relay. The crowd groaned. It booed. It waited.

Segura rewarded them a few minutes later with the big hit.

» READ MORE: Domínguez records a GOAT-caliber save, and other thoughts from a wild win

He’d thrilled them an inning before, diving, popping up, and nailing Trent Grisham to start the third inning. He thrilled them later, too, diving again, to his left, popping up, and firing to get Ha-Seong Kim and end the seventh.

Each time, Segura — a 5-foot-10, 220-pound, mini-Hulk of a fellow — flexed and hollered, channeling the main character from the animated show, Dragon Ball.

“It’s like Goku, the little Goku,” Segura said.

His teammates reveled with him.

He missed two months with a broken finger — he broke it, of course, using poor bunting technique — and he was missed. His teammates love him in the clubhouse even if the fans don’t always love him in the stands.

In the end, it was Segura on Friday who did the most to reward Ranger Suárez, who gave up two runs in five innings but should have given up none; Hoskins’ error cost him a run in the fifth.

It was a raggedy, raucous win; flawed, but, somehow, perfect. Perfect for this team.

And just perfect for “Clutch Jean” Segura.