To be completely honest with you, I have not been this excited about an NLCS matchup in a long time.
The fact that we have not one, but two 80-win baseball teams as the last two teams standing in the National League is bonkers. It just goes to show you why the MLB postseason is the absolute best playoffs in all the major league sports. All you have to do is get in and you have a chance at winning the title.
This year's National League pennant winner will either be the Phillies or the Padres. Both these teams have taken on the underdog mentality and ran with it. It is pretty wild to think that we are sitting here right now saying the 80-win Padres and Phillies took down a 111-win baseball team and the defending world champs.
The best part about this clash between these two teams is all the storylines that go along with it besides the underdog story.
The first guy you got to talk about is Bryce Harper. Harper has never gotten to this point in his career. The win on Saturday was the first-ever NLDS series win of his entire career.
It will always gloom over Bryce Harper's shoulder that he left the Nationals the year the Nationals won the World Series. This is finally Harper's chance to prove it. So who is going to stop him?
How about Juan Soto? The guy who became the new Superman to Nationals fans after Harper left is back in the NLCS to spoil the party. Ironically, these two are playing against each other on new teams after these guys were considered franchise heroes for the Nationals prior to joining the new team. Soto is looking to win his second ring and essentially step on the neck of Bryce Harper yet again.
Let us not forget either, this is the matchup of the Nola brothers. Their poor parents. Aaron and Austin Nola have to face one another in a seven-game series for a chance to go to the World Series. Thanksgiving is going to be awkward.
Not only is the NLCS the Nationals and Nola Bowl, but it is also the battle of 2018-19 Free Agency. Let us take a step back into the early months of 2019 and recollect those weird times.
Back in 2019, if you were a baseball fan, all you heard about was Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. The two of them were arguably the greatest one-two punch to ever hit the open market, and everyone wanted to try and get a piece of the pie.
That free agency period was a long, grueling time where neither guy wanted to sign with a team. It took so long for them to decide on a contract, we were leaking pictures of Manny Machados' White Sox colored glove to make judgements on where they were going.
When the two finally decided on their teams respectively, everyone got so excited and expectations sky-rocketed for both the Padres and Phillies. Up till this point, those teams have done nothing but disappoint.
Now here we are, 3.5 years later and both teams are one step away from their final destination. Needless to say, both teams have fought adversity throughout this entire campaign. It was not always sunny in Philadelphia or classy in San Diego this season.
For the Phillies, after getting off to a hot start the Phillies suddenly hit a brick wall, and figured it was time to fire manager Joe Girardi. After the departure of Girardi, interim manager Rob Thompson took over and lit a fire under their ass to rattle off a lot of wins off all a sudden.
After a lot of winning, the Phillies then became one of the most streaky teams in baseball, but it did not help that Bryce Harper broke his thumb and had to be sidelined. He eventually returned to the lineup, held their ground and they crawled into the playoffs.
As every baseball fan says, once you are in the dance, all chips are off the table. The Phillies managed to pull off a pretty stunning upset, sweeping the 3 seeded Cardinals and setting themselves up for a date with the defending world champs.
Against the Braves, their offense was completely in-sync from Scwarber all the way down to Stott, everyone was doing their job. This team also gave us one of the coolest postseason moments I think I have ever seen, the bat slam.
The Phillies offense managed to torch the Braves and win the series 3-1 to advance to the NLCS.
For the Padres, it is more of the same when it comes to embracing that underdog mentality. The face of the Padres going into this season was Fernando Tatis Jr. . When you thought Padres, you thought about this guy because he was considered the future face of baseball.
Well in Spring Training, Tatis broke his wrist in a motorcycle accident, and the Padres star player went down for a long time. It was disappointing considering it was a non-baseball injury, but everyone was excited for him to eventually return for the later part of the season.
The Padres managed to stay afloat all season but could never catch up to the Dodgers. That is when Padres general manager, AJ Preller decided it was time to get even better. They traded essentially every future asset and brought in one of the best players in baseball, Juan Soto.
It was crazy to think about that lineup when Tatis would eventually come back, but that is when everything got turned on its head. Tatis tested positive for PEDs and everyone began to look at the Padres negatively. There is no way they could do much without their star shortstop, right?
Wrong. The Padres managed to slide into the playoffs and take on the New York Mets. They stunned the Mets and took two out of three games over them to move on to a date with their "best friends", the Dodgers.
The Padres managed to win three out of four thrilling games, and move onto the NLCS. It is incredibly bad look for the Dodgers after winning so many games. The Padres just got hits in the biggest situations and make Dave Roberts bullpen work.
This is so exciting. Both teams are living up to their true potential and are making the game of baseball so much better to watch as a fan.
There is star power on every single side of the field. Harper, Machado, Soto, Wheeler, Darvish, Hader. Stars are everywhere and it is going to make this series so much fun to watch.
Plus these fans at the Philly and San Diego games are having the time of their lives. Each fanbase has waited so long for this moment and they are going to make as much of this as they possibly can.
I am not even going to pick a winner for this series, because it would feel wrong to pick against either of these underdogs. All I can tell you is I am rooting for great baseball to be played and a lot of home runs. This series truly has the feeling of something special in the making. Here is to hoping that the Phillies and Padres can fulfill that.
Comments