Phillies make history in World Series Game 1 comeback win

The Phillies made history in erasing a 5-0 World Series Game 1 deficit to win.

The Philadelphia Phillies played in their first World Series game since 2009. It sure was worth the wait. That said, it didn’t seem to be the Phillies’ night out of the gate.

The Houston Astros went up 5-0 thanks to two home runs off the bat of right fielder Kyle Tucker — a solo shot in the second and a three-run bomb in the third.

Astros starter and American League Cy Young favorite Justin Verlander retired the first 10 batters he faced.

But, the Phillies would finally get to him in the fourth — scoring three runs of their own. After Kyle Schwarber flew out to center, Rhys Hoskins laced a single to left center.

J.T. Realmuto followed with a liner to Verlander — who dropped it — and make the throw to get him at first. Hoskins moved up to second on the play. Bryce Harper followed with a hard base hit to right field, but Hoskins failed to score. Nick Castellanos then hit a soft liner to score Hoskins, and move Harper up to second.

Not to be outdone was Alec Bohm. All he did was line a double down the line to the left field wall — scoring both Harper and Castellanos to cut the Astros lead to two. Now at 5-3, Nola responded with a shutdown inning.

The Phillies continued to take it to Verlander. After a double down the left field line off the bat of Brandon Marsh, Schwarber walked to make it first and second. While Hoskins popped out to short, Realmuto mashed a double to deep left center — scoring both baserunners.

Just like that, the Phillies tied the game at 5. The hits just kept coming, as they have all postseason for the Phightins.

Once again, the Phils’ pitching responded with another shutdown inning. Nola got Jeremy Peña swinging, giving way to José Alvarado. He got Yordan Álvarez to pop out to third, and Alex Bregman to strike out swinging.

After a scoreless sixth for both sides, the top of the seventh saw the Phillies threatening with the bases loaded. Yet, former Phillie Héctor Neris got an anxious Nick Castellanos swinging on a pitch out of the zone to end the threat.

Both teams had a quiet eighth inning. The next chance for the Astros came in the bottom of the ninth. Seranthony Domínguez got the first batter swinging. Then, Marsh misjudged a fly ball off the bat of José Altuve — who would steal second on a very close play.

Up came Peña, who served a fly ball to right. But, Castellanos sent it to extras with one of his patented sliding catches:

And thank goodness he did.

This gave Realmuto the chance to lead off the 10th with a line-drive, opposite-field home run to give the Phillies a 6-5 lead. It was their first lead of the entire game.

The Phillies had a chance, but couldn’t pad the lead heading into the bottom of the 10th. With three outs to get for a Game 1 win, manager Rob Thomson turned to David Robertson. His task: face the middle of the Astros order. He’d get Alvarez swinging for the first out on a breaking ball in the dirt. Then, up came Bregman, who doubled off the left field wall. This put the tying run on second with Tucker coming up. Robertson got him chasing a ball in the dirt as well.

Next was Yuli Gurriel, who walked to put two runners on with Aledmys Díaz pinch-hitting. A wild pitch allowed both runners to move into scoring position. Díaz attempted to work his way on base by leaning into a pitch over the plate. However, the home plate umpire had none of that and called him back.

Robertson got Díaz to ground out to Edmundo Sosa, who replaced Bohm to end the game and secure a Game 1 win for the Phillies. The team’s effort was just the second-largest comeback win by a National League team in World Series history.

The Phillies wanted to steal one in Houston — and they did just that.