{"id":97822,"date":"2022-10-15T10:32:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-15T10:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-aaron-nola-rhys-hoskins-and-bryce-harper-emphatically-turned-the-page-in-game-3-win\/"},"modified":"2022-10-15T10:32:01","modified_gmt":"2022-10-15T10:32:01","slug":"how-aaron-nola-rhys-hoskins-and-bryce-harper-emphatically-turned-the-page-in-game-3-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-aaron-nola-rhys-hoskins-and-bryce-harper-emphatically-turned-the-page-in-game-3-win\/","title":{"rendered":"How Aaron Nola, Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper emphatically turned the page in Game 3 win"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love, but it could also be described as the City of Tough Love.  For the past decade, the Phillies have been desperately striving for approval, but earning only exasperation.  This being Philly, there was no sugarcoating: The fans were both mad <em>and<\/em> disappointed \u2014 until Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past five seasons or so, with results from a rebuild long overdue, the team had assumed the posture of a family in turmoil gritting its teeth through Thanksgiving dinner.  Sometimes, the tension spilled into plain sight.<\/p>\n<p>You know the story by now of how that cloud lifted.  Fairly or not, the 2022 club finally hit its long-awaited stride when the Phillies made a change at the head of the table, replacing famously high-strung manager Joe Girardi with the looser stylings of career bench coach Rob Thomson.<\/p>\n<p>The run to claim and cling to a postseason spot was a relief.  But Friday&#8217;s cathartic return to Citizens Bank Park saw the Phillies drop the baggage of the past decade \u2014 nay, spike it \u2014 in a 9-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves that tipped the NLDS strongly in their favor.<\/p>\n<p>Hoskins&#8217; emphatic reaction to his tone-setting home run off Braves rookie Spencer Strider spoke to the burden unloaded.  For Hoskins, Aaron Nola and Bryce Harper \u2014 stars drafted into the struggle and stars who chose it \u2014 this was the game that saw the void of unfulfilled expectations supplanted by highlights and deafening roars.<\/p>\n<p>Nola, the longest-tenured Phillie, has been fronting this rotation since 2015. He&#8217;s been one of baseball&#8217;s most productive starting pitchers, but had never been afforded the chance to strut his stuff under the spotlight of October.  Since Nola&#8217;s full emergence in 2017, only Gerrit Cole has thrown more innings.  Only nine starters have bested his park-adjusted ERA and \u2014 in a not-so-subtle nod toward how the Phillies have failed him \u2014 only four have bested his park-adjusted FIP, which estimates how well Nola pitched independent of the defense behind him .<\/p>\n<p><button class=\"link caas-button collapse-button\" aria-label=\"\" title=\"\" data-ylk=\"elm:readmore;slk:Story continues\">Story continues<\/button><\/p>\n<p>Now, he&#8217;s making up for lost time.  His last three starts have been masterpieces, and significant ones.  On Oct.  3, he flirted with a perfect game and ended up throwing 6 2\/3 scoreless frames to get the win that clinched a postseason berth.  On Saturday, he fired another 6 2\/3 scoreless innings to get the win that ended the wild-card series and eliminated the St.  Louis Cardinals.  And on Friday, he stymied the Braves for 6+ innings \u2014 allowing only an unearned run \u2014 to win a crucial Game 3 and put the Phillies on the cusp of a trip to the NLCS.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 640px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:67%;\"><noscript><img alt=\"Philadelphia Phillies'  Rhys Hoskins spikes his bat after hitting a two-run home run against the Atlanta Braves during Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park on October 14, 2022 in Philadelphia.  (Photo by Patrick Smith\/Getty Images)\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/lfJI5zdYM0DCh8T1CR4afw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2022-10\/b0e2d3f0-4c30-11ed-8ff7-d1ce1de453a9\" class=\"caas-img\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-wrapper caption-aligned-with-image\"><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\">Philadelphia Phillies&#8217; Rhys Hoskins spikes his bat after hitting a two-run home run against the Atlanta Braves during Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park on October 14, 2022 in Philadelphia.  (Photo by Patrick Smith\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Hoskins debuted in 2017, crushing 18 homers in a blistering 50 games to provide a rare bright spot, along with Nola, on a team that lost 96 games.  In the years since, his furious rallies and crushing slumps have made him an avatar of the franchise as a whole \u2014 which, as you may have gathered, was n&#8217;t often a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>On one hand, his numbers unmistakably belong to a Good Hitter.  He has been at least 11% better than the league average hitter in every season, by park-adjusted OPS.  He reliably hits 25+ homers per full season.  But his inconsistency \u2014 those overall good numbers are often an average of extreme hot and cold streaks \u2014 and defensive limitations burned under the microscope of an anxious fan base.<\/p>\n<p>And speaking of under the microscope, there&#8217;s Harper.  The superstar who devoted the rest of his career to the Phillies prior to 2019 \u2014 signing a 13-year, $330 million deal \u2014 must have started to worry that he was reliving an unsatisfying progression from his time with the Nationals.<\/p>\n<p>From the beginning, he has made outward efforts to endear himself to Philadelphia.  He could wear any bandana under his hat, but he wears the one that looks like the Philly Phanatic&#8217;s eyes.  Maybe it&#8217;s over the top, but it&#8217;s effort.  He has also been the excellent player that was promised, winning his second MVP award in 2021. He just hadn&#8217;t been able to carry his team to glory.  It&#8217;s an unrealistic expectation for any baseball player \u2014 Nola and Hoskins included \u2014 but it is an expectation nonetheless, perhaps more so for Harper than for anyone else.<\/p>\n<p>Limited by an elbow injury early in the season, then by a broken thumb late in the season, Harper hadn&#8217;t managed to pull a home run since returning from the thumb injury until the wild-card series.  On Friday, he demolished one deep into the stands in right-center, evoking <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1162189442234273792\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:some of his most memorable moments in Philadelphia\" class=\"link \">some of his most memorable moments in Philadelphia<\/a>and adding the multiplying effect of October.<\/p>\n<p>After an uncharacteristic splurge of small ball won them the St.  Louis series, this was the Phillies winning with the horses that got them here.  Big homers, big aces.  Demolishing the Braves in Game 3 doesn&#8217;t guarantee they will win the series and advance \u2014 far from it \u2014 but it brought a blueprint to life.<\/p>\n<p>Grievances, concerns, shortcomings.  One by one, the Phillies are discarding them.<\/p>\n<p>The defense that has so often failed them still isn&#8217;t great, but it&#8217;s manageable.  The major investments are stocking wins instead of anxiety.  JT Realmuto, the trade acquisition Harper fought to keep, scored on his homer.  Where Jake Arrieta floundered alongside Nola, Zack Wheeler has stepped in as an equally formidable ace.  Nick Castellanos&#8217; stumbles in the regular season have turned into a string of huge hits in the postseason.  The bullpen hasn&#8217;t come up yet, which is just about the best thing you can say about a bullpen.<\/p>\n<p>Eleven years after Ryan Howard tore his Achilles and the Jimmy Rollins\/Chase Utley era came to a crashing heck, Phillies fans have understandably built up some skepticism.<\/p>\n<p><em>this<\/em>the Game 3 performance seemed to say, <em>isn&#8217;t another pie-in-the-sky plan doomed to fail<\/em>.  These Phillies have something real to bring to the table, something that may even be worthy of a toast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love, but it could also be described as the City of Tough Love. For the past decade, the Phillies have been desperately striving for approval, but earning only exasperation. This being Philly, there was no sugarcoating: The fans were both mad and disappointed \u2014 until Friday. Over the past &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-aaron-nola-rhys-hoskins-and-bryce-harper-emphatically-turned-the-page-in-game-3-win\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How Aaron Nola, Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper emphatically turned the page in Game 3 win<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":105609,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/bryce-harper-phillies-big-bats-finally-deliver-in-nlcs-game-4-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":97822,"position":0},"title":"Bryce Harper, Phillies&#8217; big bats finally deliver in NLCS Game 4 win","date":"October 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Bryce Harper, who committed 13 years of his life to the Philadelphia Phillies, only to watch his former team win the World Series the year after he departed, believes the time is now. First baseman Rhys Hoskins, who watched this team lose 90 or more games three consecutive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":105850,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/phillies-win-nlcs-game-4-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":97822,"position":1},"title":"Phillies win NLCS Game 4 2022","date":"October 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA -- Something special is happening here. One more victory and the Phillies are going to the World Series. \u201cYou can't write it better for the guys in that room, for the staff, for everybody in this organization,\u201d Hoskins said. \u201cBut I think, most importantly, for the city. Yeah, you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":105363,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/rhys-hoskins-heads-phillies-power-surge-in-nlcs-game-4-win\/","url_meta":{"origin":97822,"position":2},"title":"Rhys Hoskins heads Phillies&#8217; power surge in NLCS Game 4 win","date":"October 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA -- In a sport that often defies logic, Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos had a simple explanation for the Phillies' comeback from a disastrous top of the first inning Saturday in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series: \"It's tough to play in the jungle, man.\"After the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":101418,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/nl-championship-series-top-plays-phillies-shutout-padres-in-game-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":97822,"position":3},"title":"NL Championship Series Top Plays: Phillies shutout Padres in Game 1","date":"October 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The National League Championship Series is underway, as the Philadelphia Phillies took down the host San Diego Padres in Game 1.Here are the top plays from Tuesday.Philadelphia Phillies 2, San Diego Padres 0Jake Cronenworth saves a runBryce Harper smacked a pitch to right-center field in the top of the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Bryce Harper put the Phillies up 1-0 ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/a57.foxsports.com\/static-media.fox.com\/ms\/stg1\/sports\/1600\/900\/play-5f9873230001124--snap-1666142036168.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":105798,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/phillies-were-built-for-nlcs-game-4-a-slugging-bash-that-has-them-1-win-from-world-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":97822,"position":4},"title":"Phillies were built for NLCS Game 4, a slugging bash that has them 1 win from World Series","date":"October 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Eight months ago, when MLB's owners locked out the players, Dave Dombrowski needed to collect his thoughts. The veteran executive anticipated a rush whenever business resumed. The most prepared organizations might have an advantage, so Dombrowski grabbed a spare legal pad that became his nucleus. He listed the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.theathletic.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/10\/23032533\/USATSI_19283975-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":101394,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/phillies-schwarber-hits-488-foot-home-run-in-nlcs-game-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":97822,"position":5},"title":"Phillies&#8217; Schwarber hits 488-foot home run in NLCS Game 1","date":"October 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Kyle Schwarber made sure that the National League Championship Series against the San Diego Padres started with a bang.literally.The nine-year veteran launched a 488-foot home run on a pitch from Yu Darvish in the top of the sixth inning.488 feet.Yes, you read that right.#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com\/zMsLckN7BK\u2014 Philadelphia\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/hyANIgHTIBpIffHC5vJFEQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2022-10\/b0e2d3f0-4c30-11ed-8ff7-d1ce1de453a9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}