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  • Phillies Top NLDS Moments – Philadelphia Sports Nation

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    Oct 2, 2025

    Philadelphia Phillies fans wave their rally towels during Game 3 of the World Series against the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022.

    Over the last two nights the Los Angeles Dodgers handled the Cincinnati Reds with ease to set up a date with the Phillies. The National League Division series starts on Saturday in South Philly. Let’s take a look at some of the top NLDS moments in Phillies history

    1981 First Ever NLDS vs Montreal Expos

    Did you know the Phillies played in the first NLDS ever? They fell to the Montreal Expos (3-2) in 1981. However, George Vukovich hit a walk-off homer run in the 10th inning of game 4 to send it to a game 5.

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    Liam Mahoney

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  • Turner wins NL batting title, Schwarber leads league in HRs, RBIs as Phillies beat Twins in finale

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    Trea Turner won his second career NL batting title, Kyle Schwarber led the league with 56 homes and 132 RBIs and Nick Castellanos capped Philadelphia’s 96-win season with a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning as the Phillies beat the Minnesota Twins 2-1 on Sunday.

    Turner and Schwarber have a few days to enjoy the spoils of their outstanding individual seasons before the NL East champion Phillies play again. The Phillies are set to host Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Saturday.

    The Phillies will try to stay sharp during the layoff with an intrasquad scrimmage on Wednesday night.

    The Phillies finished at 96-66 and are looking to win their first World Series title since 2008. Loaded with All-Stars and an opening day payroll that reached almost $284 million, the Phillies have struggled in the postseason the last three seasons, losing in the 2022 World Series, the 2023 NLCS and last year to the New York Mets in the division series.

    Turner returned from a three-week layoff due to a hamstring injury and went 0 for 2, yet still finished a league-best .304 this season. Turner also won a batting title in 2021, when he led the major leagues at .328 for Washington and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’s the first Phillies’ first batting champion since Richie Ashburn in 1958.

    Schwarber, eligible for free agency in the offseason, finished one homer ahead of Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani to lead the National League and four behind major league leader Cal Raleigh of Seattle, who hit 60.

    Schwarber fell two homers shy of matching Ryan Howard for the franchise record of 58 set in 2006. He closed out the regular season No. 3 in walks at 107.

    Cristopher Sánchez struck out eight and tossed two-hit ball over 5 1/3 innings — and tipped his cap to a roaring, appreciative crowd — in his final start before he takes the mound in Game 1 of the NLDS.

    Key moment

    Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers hit an RBI double off reliever Lou Trivino in the sixth, and Max Kepler tied the game 1-1 with a solo homer in the eighth. Castellanos drove in the automatic runner off Cody Laweryson.

    Key stat

    The Twins finished 70-92 and must decide if Rocco Baldelli will return as manager when they open the 2026 season March 26 in Baltimore.

    Up next

    The Phillies await their postseason opponent and the winner of the Dodgers-Reds first-round series.

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    CBS Minnesota

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  • Number 50 – Philadelphia Sports Nation

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    He has done it. On Monday September 10th, 2025 Kyle Schwarber hit his 50th home run of the season for the Phillies. A 3-1 cutter with no cut was sent 437 feet into center field. A classic Schwarber shot to break the game open. 

    History Made

    As we all know Schwarber became the second Phillie ever to reach the 50 home run milestone. The other, of course, is Ryan Howard in 2006 with 58 home runs.  Not sure I see Kyle catching him but he’s got a legit shot.

    The Phillies DH also became the 34th player to hit 50 homers in a season. An insane milestone when you think about it. All the years of baseball in this country and only 33 other people reached this mark. Truly amazing accomplishment from Schwarber and it was a privilege to be able to watch him this season. He joined a very impressive list of players. Multiple guys on there reached the 50 mark more than once. Something I can see Schwarber doing in the future. He joined:

    Babe Ruth(x4), Hack Wilson, Jimmie Foxx(x2), Hank Greenberg, Johnny Mize, Ralph Kiner(x2), Willie Mays(x2), Mickey Mantle(x2), Roger Maris, George Foster, Cecil Fielder, Albert Belle, Brady Anderson, Mark McGuire(x4), Ken Griffey Jr.(x2), Greg Vaughn, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriquez(x3), Luis Gonzalez, Barry Bonds, Jim Thome, Andruw Jones, Ryan Howard, David Ortiz, Prince Fielder, Jose Bautista, Chris Davis, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge(x3), Pete Alonso, Matt Olson, Shohei Ohtani, Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber

    Schwarber has 16 games left to catch Howard for the single season franchise record. Recently he has hit a home run nearly every series. With 5 series to play that would put him at 55 home runs. He certainly has the at bats to reach 58 and all of Philadelphia will be on standby every time he comes up to the plate. 

    What This Means for the Future

    Now, Schwarber will be hitting free agency fresh off a career year. Simply put the Phillies need to pay him. He is arguably the most valuable member of the team. Bryce probably takes the number one spot, but no one else impacts the locker room like Schwarber. On top of that he produces on the field and is still getting better. He turned himself into more of a contact hitter (by his standards at least) and has added great base running, with 10 stolen bases (tying a career high). Schwarber has done everything in his power to earn the biggest payday possible.

    We are reaching blank check status. Pay the man what he wants. He is crucial to the success of this ball club. both on and off the field. Imagine this lineup without Schwarber this season. He has saved them on numerous occasions. Being only a DH will potentially help the Phillies, but the AAV is still going to be high. Ohtani currently has the highest “DH” salary, but he is a special case. Next up is Yordan Alvarez at $19.16 million a season. I don’t see any reason for Schwarber not to hit that mark. In fact, I fully expect him to be $20 million and over for his AAV. 

    Whichever way this season ends, John Middleton needs to start the off-season with re-signing Kyle Schwarber. If he walks you seriously have to ask questions about their desire to win. Few athletes have come into the city and made an impact like he has. He is a perfect fit for this town and this team. Congrats on your 50 homer season, can’t wait to see you in pinstripes next season.   

    Photo Credit: Elizabeth Robertson/Philadelphia Inquirer

    Photo Credit: Dennis Lee/Imagn Images

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    Liam Mahoney

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  • Harper, Phillies tie World Series mark with 5 HR, top Astros

    Harper, Phillies tie World Series mark with 5 HR, top Astros

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    PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper bashed a home run on the first World Series pitch he saw in Philadelphia, and then figured out how the Phillies could hit a few more.

    The $330 million star offered quiet advice to Alec Bohm — and then it got really loud in Philadelphia.

    As for those whispers in May that the Phillies were finished? Forget about ’em. The secret has long been out: these Phillies are for real.

    Now, they’re two wins away from their first World Series championship since 2008.

    Harper hammered his sixth postseason home run, whispered an assist to Bohm before his solo shot and the Phillies tied a World Series record with five homers to rout the Houston Astros 7-0 Tuesday night and take a 2-1 Series lead.

    Brandon Marsh also homered, and Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins hit back-to-back shots in the fifth inning to chase Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. Philadelphia used the long ball to end the long wait for its first World Series home win since Game 5 of the 2009 World Series.

    Those Phillies couldn’t finish the job.

    Ranger Suárez tossed three-hit ball over five shutout innings and inched this year’s team closer to getting it done.

    Harper, Bohm, Marsh and the rest of the Phillies on the last team to qualify for the playoffs are two wins away from ending the season as the last team standing. With a sparkling 6-0 record at Citizens Bank Park this postseason, the Phillies just may not return to Texas.

    “It’s our fan base. I mean, plain and simple.” Harper said. “They keep us going, keep us fired up.”

    Another red, raucous, resolute crowd of 45,712 let the Astros have it from the first pitch with chants of “Cheater! Cheater!” for Jose Altuve and “Check the Bat! Check the Bat!” for Martin Maldonado.

    The fans — already amped from the jump after another sliding catch by right fielder Nick Castellanos in the first — didn’t wait long to go wild for the home run barrage.

    With leadoff hitter Schwarber on first base, Harper repeated his flair for playoff power when he ripped a two-run shot off McCullers into the right field seats for the fast lead. That made Harper 2 for 2 on home run swings in Philly — he sent the Phillies to the World Series with a two-run drive in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series to beat San Diego.

    Harper crossed the plate and again exclaimed “This is my house!” before he ripped off his helmet, exposed his Phillie Phanatic headband and was mobbed by teammates in the dugout.

    Harper’s homers shake the stadium to the point they should be measured on the Richter scale rather than in feet — and they seem as automatic these days as a Phillie Phanatic spin on his ATV. Harper has hit four postseason homers that gave the Phillies the lead and showed that, yes, Bryce Bombs do go off in November, the first time more World Series games will be played in this month than October.

    Oh, and Harper might have a second career as a homer whisperer.

    Harper beckoned Bohm from the on-deck circle and back to the dugout for a quick word of advice.

    Maybe Harper saw McCullers tipping his pitches?

    “I think that’s just general conversation,” Harper said. “Trying to get as much information as we can from each other. We just tried to have the best at-bats we could.”

    Whatever the quiet counseling was, it worked, and Bohm lined his first postseason homer leading off the second inning and the 1,000th in World Series history into the left field seats for 3-0 lead.

    So c’mon, Alec, fess up, what did Bryce tell you?

    “That’s between us,” Bohm said on TV with a shrug and a big smile.

    Marsh took the baton on the long-ball relay and knocked one into the right field seats that was dropped by a young kid from Delaware. The home run stood after a brief review — as it seems nothing can interfere with Philadelphia’s playoff push — and it was 4-0.

    With that, McCullers had allowed four homers to his first nine batters. The right-hander who got his left triceps inked with nods to Houston got absolutely tattooed by the Phillies.

    Schwarber, the NL home run champion, again dumped a two-run shot into a thicket of English ivy, Arborvitae and Holly beyond center field, and Hoskins connected on solo shot for a 7-0 lead that ended McCullers’ night.

    McCullers became the first pitcher to give up five home runs in a World Series game.

    “I don’t really get hit around like that, so I was a little bit in disbelief,” McCullers said.

    Suárez, the scheduled Game 4 starter before Game 3 was postponed a day by rain, delivered with the performance of his career and shut down the big bats in the AL champs’ lineup.

    He needed only two pitches to get the first two outs of the game and struck out Yordan Alvarez to end the first. The few jams he got into, Suárez worked his way out, notably in the second when he whiffed Chas McCormick and left two runners stranded. He retired Altuve to end the fifth on a soft foul pop with two runners on base.

    Four relievers each tossed a scoreless inning to finish the five-hitter.

    THE CHAMPS ARE HERE

    Philly sports champions Mike Schmidt, Julius Erving, Brandon Graham and Bernie Parent threw first pitches to 2008 World Series champions Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino. Country music star Tim McGraw, son of the late Phillies reliever Tug McGraw, received a huge ovation and wore his dad’s No. 45 McGraw jersey. McGraw closed the 1980 World Series with a strikeout.

    UP NEXT

    The Phillies send RHP Aaron Nola (2-1, 4.57 ERA in the postseason) to the mound against Houston RHP Christian Javier (1-0, 1.35 ERA) in Game 4. Nola was done after 4 1/3 innings in Game 1 of the World Series, though he retired the final six batters he faced and left in a tie game after the Phillies rallied from an early 5-0 deficit — and won 6-5.

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    More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • World Series teed up: Harper, Phillies go deep, face Astros

    World Series teed up: Harper, Phillies go deep, face Astros

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    Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber breaking the Bank in Philly. Yordan Alvarez launching moonshots in H-Town.

    Dusty Baker trying for a most elusive win. Justin Verlander, too. A fired-up Harper and All-Stars J.T. Realmuto and Zack Wheeler, stepping onto baseball’s biggest platform for the first time.

    Yo! The Philadelphia Phillies, of all teams, are headed to the World Series. Against those back-for-more Houston Astros, y’all.

    A pretty tasty matchup starting Friday night at Minute Maid Park, a Fall Classic full of vibrant sights, scents and sounds.

    Think cheesesteaks, hoagies and water ice vs. BBQ brisket, Tex-Mex and Blue Bell ice cream.

    The Phanatic and Phils fans need a late rally at Citizens Bank Park? Dial up something from “Rocky.” Want to party in Houston? Sing and clap along with mascot Orbit to Moe Bandy’s bouncy “Deep in the Heart of Texas” during the seventh-inning stretch.

    Harper already has hit five home runs this postseason. In the signature swing of his career, his eighth-inning drive against San Diego on Sunday in Game 5 sent the Phillies into the World Series for the first time since 2009 and earned him the NL Championship Series MVP.

    The Astros are 7-0 this postseason after finishing off a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series. Alex Bregman’s go-ahead single keyed a 6-5 win Sunday night.

    After losing the World Series last year, Houston opened as a solid favorite to win the title this year, according to FanDuel.

    Odds are, crowd might witness a Schwar-bomb or the Chas Chomp along the way.

    But no possibility of seeing a sibling rivalry. Astros reliever Phil Maton broke a finger on his pitching hand when he punched his locker after a shaky performance in the regular-season finale, an outing that included giving up a hit to his younger brother, Phils utilityman Nick Maton.

    City of Brotherly Love, not so much. But a nice treat for fans in both cities: The Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL’s only unbeaten team, visit the Houston Texans on the travel day between Games 5 and 6, if those are needed.

    Weather won’t be an issue with the retractable roof in Houston. No telling what the elements will be with the open air in Philly.

    With the likes of Jose Altuve, ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña, Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm, this World Series is a best-of-seven matchup representing some of the game’s best present and future. Plus a good piece of the past — remember, these teams have played each other nearly 600 times.

    There was the thrilling 1980 NL Championship Series, when Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Steve Carlton and the Fightin’ Phils outlasted Nolan Ryan at the Astrodome on the way to their first World Series title.

    Years later, closers Brad Lidge, Billy Wagner, Mitch Williams and Ken Giles spent time with both clubs. So did future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Robin Roberts.

    And this neat piece of history — the Phillies were the first team to ever beat Houston, back in 1962 when the expansion Colt .45s lost at Connie Mack Stadium.

    Funny, the Phillies are also the most recent team to beat the Astros. Way back on Oct. 3, Philadelphia opened the final series of the regular season with a 3-0 win at Houston, with Schwarber homering twice as Aaron Nola outpitched Lance McCullers Jr.

    The Astros then closed out an AL-best 106-56 record by winning the next two behind Verlander and Framber Valdez — Philadelphia still leads 297-283 in their head-to-head matchups, mostly all before Houston moved from the National League to the American League in 2013.

    Houston then swept Seattle in the AL Division Series and the Yankees in the ALCS featuring its winning formula of imposing starting pitching, a dominant bullpen and a lineup full of home run hitters such as Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.

    This marks the Astros’ fourth trip to the World Series in six years and their only title in 2017 was tainted by an illegal sign-stealing scandal. Last season, they lost to Freddie Freeman and the underdog Atlanta Braves in six games.

    At 73 and in his 25th season as a manager, Baker is looking for a crown to cap his ample resume.

    “I mean, victories drive me. And I’ll get it,” he said during the ALCS. “You can’t rush it before it gets here because it ain’t here yet. So you just got to put yourself in a position to do it.”

    Verlander, the likely AL Cy Young Award winner after bouncing back from Tommy John surgery, is hoping to improve his 0-6 mark in seven career World Series starts.

    The Phillies, meanwhile, looked like a big zero this year before getting to this point in October.

    Stuck at 21-29 going into June, they fired manager Joe Girardi a few days later and put the interim tag on bench coach Rob Thomson. Then suddenly, the Phillies took off.

    They overcame Harper’s broken thumb, sidelining the two-time NL MVP for two months, beat out Milwaukee for the final playoff spot in going 87-75, and quickly topped NL Central champion St. Louis in the wild-card round. Philadelphia eliminated defending World Series champ Atlanta in the NLDS and topped San Diego in the NLCS.

    Now, with Thomson having been rewarded with a two-year contract, the Phillies are the first third-place team in baseball history to reach the World Series.

    Philadelphia lost to the Yankees in its last trip this far. A year earlier in 2008, Lidge capped off his remarkable year of going 48 for 48 in save chances to close out the Phillies’ second title as a team led by Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard beat Tampa Bay in five games.

    Spurred by their rollicking home crowd, Harper and this bunch of Phils hope to add another banner.

    Thomson is trying to join Jack McKeon (Marlins, 2003) and Bob Lemon (Yankees, 1978) as the only managers hired in midseason to win the title. To the 59-year-old Thomson, it’s not such a surprise his team is in this position.

    “Coming out of spring training … we knew we had a good ballclub. We knew our bullpen was good, rotation was good, we had great offense,” he said earlier in the playoffs. “We just got off to a little bit of a slow start and kind of spiraled.”

    “And we had ups and downs during the season, just like any other club does. But they knew that they were going to come out of it at some point and start winning again. And we did,” he said.

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    More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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