Phillies drop Game 6, prepare for first Game 7 in franchise history

PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies have been around for 140 years, but Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, they will play their first Game 7 in postseason franchise history.

“It’s going to be all hands on deck,” said manager Rob Thomson.

They lost Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on Monday night to the D-backs, 5-1, putting themselves in a spot nobody expected them to be. The Phils easily handled Arizona in the first two games of the best-of-seven series. Then, after a pair of losses last week in Games 3 and 4 in Arizona, they won Game 5.

The Phillies had a chance to clinch the series on Monday night. They entered the contest 5-0 in clinching games under Thomson.

They had one of their best pitchers on the mound, too. Right-hander Aaron Nola had been nearly unhittable in his first three starts this postseason, but he allowed back-to-back home runs in the second inning to Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and he yielded four runs overall on six hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings.

“The second inning, the breaking ball to Pham, maybe a little bit of a hanger,” Thomson said. “The home run to Gurriel, they wanted it to go up a little bit higher, and he couldn’t get it there. Yeah, [he] didn’t execute some pitches, and he paid for it. But we didn’t score any runs.”

Philadelphia’s 3-0 deficit in the second was its largest of the postseason, silencing the famously boisterous Bank to a whisper.

Nola received polite applause as he left the field in the fifth. It could be the final start of his Phillies career, unless they win Game 7 and advance to the World Series, since he will be a free agent after the season.

Philly got nothing going against D-backs right-hander Merrill Kelly, who struck out eight and allowed one run in five innings. Thomson followed Nola with right-handers Michael Lorenzen, Orion Kerkering and Craig Kimbrel, who got booed as the Phillies lowered the lights and played his entrance music.

Kimbrel became the first Philly reliever in postseason history to lose consecutive postseason games when he surrendered decisive runs in Games 3 and 4. He pitched a clean eighth on Monday, but it meant little.

“I thought he was better,” Thomson said. “He moved his hands down to his belt. … I thought he had a little bit more rhythm, and he was powering the ball through the zone. Had a couple yanks, but I thought he was better.”