All eyes in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon will be on a sun-soaked Citizens Bank Park as the Phillies and Braves resume their NL Division Series. The two clubs split the first two games in Atlanta, leaving the series as essentially a best-of-three with the next two games in Philadelphia.
The ballpark will be rocking, for sure.
"Electric," said skipper Rob Thomson when asked about what he expects it to be like on Friday. "And it can be intimidating at times. So I'm expecting that type of atmosphere. I really am. I think our fan base has been -- they've been off for a few years now on playoff baseball and I think they'll be raring to go."
Aaron Nola will start Game 3 for the Phillies. He was spectacular in his previous outing, tossing 6 2/3 scoreless innings on Saturday while whiffing six and allowing just four hits in the series-clinching win over St. Louis. It's a different situation now with the NL Division Series in the balance, but Thomson has faith in Nola.
"Stuff. Demeanor. Poise," Thomson said. "You name all those things, [Nola's] got it all. He's even-keeled every day. Doesn't matter whether he's pitching, not pitching, whether he's pitching well, not pitching well, doesn't matter. He goes about his business the same way every day. And with his talent and that type of makeup and all the intangibles he brings, that, to me, makes him a playoff type pitcher, big game pitcher."
The Braves will throw Spencer Strider in Game 3. He's pieced together an outstanding rookie campaign with an 11-5 record and 2.67 ERA, but has not thrown off a mound since he injured his left oblique muscle in a Sept. 18 start against Philadelphia.
Bullpen Update
Zach Eflin has seemingly fallen into the role of pitching in the ninth inning for the Phillies, but Thomson made it clear on Thursday that Eflin isn't neccessarily his closer.
"I've never really named a closer," Thomson said. "So I'm reading a bunch of stuff where Zach's the closer. And he's not the closer. We don't really have one. Just the seventh, eighth, ninth, it's all dependent on where we are in the lineup and whether we deploy [Jose] Alvarado or Seranthony [Dominguez] or Eflin or [Andrew] Bellatti or whomever, that's where we're going to go. It just so happened that the last couple of times Zach's finished a game; that was kind of his spot. And the other spots in the seventh and eighth came up where we wanted Seranthony and Alvarado on those guys."
Home At Last
The Phillies have not played a home game since Sept. 25, a span of 19 days. Per Elias, the last time 19 days separated two Phillies home games in the same season was 1981 (because of the strike) and before that in 1965.
"We're definitely excited to be back, said J.T. Realmuto. "It's been a long time on the road. We're just looking forward to this experience, looking forward to the Phillies fans this red October that we've all heard about that we haven't got to experience. It's been a long time coming. We know the fans are excited. And we're excited to be out there, play some quality baseball, and hopefully get a couple of wins while we're here."
Phillies Lineup
Schwarber 7
Hoskins 3
Realmuto 2
Harper DH
Castellanos 9
Bohm 5
Marsh 8
Segura 4
Stott 6
Nola RHP
