Phillies’ title hopes sputter after bats quiet in Game 7

PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies celebrated “Bedlam at the Bank” last year, not only because it was an iconic moment from one of baseball’s greatest superstars, but because everything felt so unexpected and new last year in the postseason.

This year’s Phillies had loftier expectations. They didn’t just hope to make the postseason and see what happened. They planned to win a World Series. They committed a franchise-record payroll to build a roster that had stars throughout the lineup, a rotation that teams envied and a reimagined bullpen that no longer provided weekly heartbreak.

Everything seemed to be going to plan through the first two games of the National League Championship Series, but then Philadelphia sputtered, forcing the first Game 7 in franchise history on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, which ended with a 4-2 loss to the D-backs.

“It is disappointing, but it’s tough to get back to this position two years in a row,” said manager Rob Thomson. “It is. But they fought like hell to get here, and we came up short. That’s baseball sometimes.”

Everybody waited for another iconic Bryce Harper-like postseason moment, but it never came. They came close in the seventh inning, when pinch-hitter Cristian Pache and Kyle Schwarber walked with one out to bring the go-ahead run to the plate. Trea Turner flew out to center field for the second out.

Harper stepped into the batter’s box. Maybe he could come through again.

But Harper flew out to center field to end the inning. The crowd quieted. At that moment, everybody seemed to know the Phillies would not come back.

“[The D-backs] pitched those guys really well, and that’s the ebbs and flows of offense,” Thomson said. “People aren’t going to hit every single day of the season. It’s just not going to happen. Other guys got to pick it up. Other guys got to get it done, and you have to pass the baton and move people up and get people on base and put pressure on people.

“We had some people on base tonight. We couldn’t get the big hit.”

The Phils were supposed to be unbeatable at home. They had the firepower. They had the crowd. But the offense sputtered at the Bank, while the D-backs came through with the clutch hits needed to send them to the World Series.

The only question now is this: how do the Phillies pick up the pieces and move forward?