FanSided

3 reasons the Phillies will clinch the NLDS tonight

The Phillies have one shot to clinch the NLDS at home and need to take advantage.

By Michael Fisher |
Division Series - Atlanta Braves v Philadelphia Phillies - Game Three
Division Series - Atlanta Braves v Philadelphia Phillies - Game Three / Tim Nwachukwu/GettyImages
2 of 2
Next

As Game 4 of the NLDS draws near, most fans probably aren't even over the excitement of a wild Game 3 win that put the Philadelphia Phillies up 2-1 over the Atlanta Braves.

Now, the Phillies have a chance to punch their ticket to the NL Championship Series for the second straight year. Winning elimination games is always more challenging, no matter what the sport and the Phillies are in for a tough battle tonight against the best the Braves have to offer.

With Spencer Strider taking the hill for the visitors, the Phillies look to be the underdog despite plenty of factors in their favor.

Here are three reasons we think the Phillies will clinch the NLDS tonight.

Citizens Bank Park

There's home-field advantage, and then there's Citizens Bank Park home-field advantage.

At this point, it almost goes without saying. Citizens Bank Park, or rather the throngs of rabid Phillies fans who fill the stands, gives the home team a huge advantage. With a 25-11 postseason record at The Bank, the Phillies continue to build on their best all-time postseason winning percentage (min. 20 games played) which is now up to .694.

The home-field advantage was more than evident on Wednesday night when all 45,798 Phanatics in attendance blew the figurative roof off the ballpark as soon as the ball left Bryce Harper's bat in the third inning.

From that point on, the joint was jumping as the Phillies bats piled on and erased all memories of their Game 2 collapse.

It would be foolish to expect anything less from the Citizens Bank Park crowd for tonight's crucial Game 4 matchup.

Bryce Harper is, well, Bryce Harper

You may have heard a thing or two about Bryce Harper over the past 24 hours. After his epic Game 3 performance, you would've had to have your head under a rock to not see all the headlines he made both during and following the game.

Playoff Harper is a thing, a very real thing.

With a .282 batting average, a 1.010 OPS, 14 home runs and 28 RBI in 41 career playoff games, he knows how to bring it at the most critical times, even without getting any extra motivation from opposing players. Now that the Braves have woken him up, Harper is focused more than ever on his mission to get that elusive World Series ring and bring a championship to Philadelphia.

But first things first, he'll have to help his team get past the 104-win Braves.

Spencer Strider is on short rest

On the surface, having Spencer Strider on the mound for the Braves looks daunting. After all, he did strike out 281 batters this year, and put out a solid effort in a losing cause in Game 1. In that affair, he went seven innings, allowing two runs, only one of which was earned, and struck out eight Phillies.

But what also happened that game?

Harper (yes, that guy again) hit the hardest ball ever off of the Braves starter, crushing a 115.3 mph home run.

There's also the fact that Strider will take the ball tonight on short rest. Why is that a big deal? Well, as Dan Roche of NBC Sports Philadelphia made it known, Strider hasn't been as Strider-y on short rest this season.

In eight games on short rest, the 24-year-old has a 5.56 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and a .744 OPS against. On regular rest, he pitched to a 3.33 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP and a .597 OPS.

And finally, we dive back in time to a year ago in the NLDS when Strider made his lone playoff start at Citizens Bank Park. If you don't remember what happened, the Phillies lit him up in the third inning, a frame he never made it out of.

They ended up scoring six in the inning, five on three hits off of Strider, including a monster home run off the bat of Rhys Hoskins.

Here's hoping that history repeats itself.

Next
Home / Phillies News