Phillies 2023 Legacy Hinges On A Winner Take All Game 7: 5 Things To Know

PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Phillies have played 174 games since they took the field down in Arlington, Texas on Opening Day back on March 30. Seven months later, their entire season, perhaps the entire legacy of this generation of Philadelphia baseball, comes down to one game. And it turns out, they're playing for the right to return to Arlington.

The first Game 7 in the Phillies 141-year history is 8:07 p.m. Tuesday night in south Philadelphia on TBS. Here are five storylines to watch heading into the titanic clash.

Bookends

The Texas Rangers beat the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night. Texas owns the tiebreaker over both Philly and Arizona, so they'll host Game 1 at their home stadium in Arlington on Friday night.

The Phillies opened their season against the Rangers down in Arlington in late March. They were swept 3-0 in what was the beginning of a tumultuous start to the season. The reversal of that momentum in late June put the Phillies on the doorstep of returning to Texas for the World Series to close out the season where it began. Where last year ended and where "unfinished business" resides in the clubhouse of whatever team was destined to take up the banner of the American League this year.

Mythmaking

This raucous crowd of hard hitting and hard drinking Phillies has already cemented some sort of place in all time Philadelphia sports lore.

2022 had all the magic of an underdog run, a March Madness-style Cindarella story that no one save a few hardened Phanatics expected. There were moments that will echo in the halls of Citizens Bank Park for all time. But if 2022 was the hero emerging, 2023 has been its apotheosis, as the Phillies have flashed a style of play at turns so dominant and so jovial that it transcends baseball.

A win Tuesday night would mean their second consecutive National League pennant and second consecutive World Series appearance. They would affirm their place as a fledgling dynasty in the National League and as one of the greatest Phillies squads of all time, as much 1993 as they are 2008. Those 2008-2009 teams were the only Phillies teams to ever make back to back trips to the World Series.

This would be the Phillies ninth National League pennant, including 1915, 1950, 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008, 2009, and 2022.

The Phillies have the right man on the mound

Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are popularly considered the Phillies co-aces, but Ranger Suarez, the Game 7 starter Tuesday night, has made himself into one of the greatest pitchers in postseason baseball history.

In the past two playoffs, Suarez has tossed 28.2 innings but surrendered only 3 earned runs, leaving him with a microscopic postseason ERA of 0.94. Here's where that places him all time among pitchers who have made at least 5 starts in the playoffs:

1. Ranger Suarez, 0.94
2. Sandy Koufax, 0.95

Besides notching his name above a Hall of Fame legend, it's also worth noting that Suarez put up those numbers pitching against homer-happy high powered offenses like the Atlanta Braves (three times) and last year's Houston Astros and San Diego Padres.

During Suarez's start in Game 3 against the Diamondbacks, he knocked down a hard ground ball from Christian Walker right back up the middle. With plenty of time before Walker got down to first, Suarez slowly bent down to pick up the ball, examined it with such a prolonged nonchalance that Bryson Stott motioned him urgently towards first, and then casually fired the ball over to Bryce Harper's mitt for the out. As if it were a backyard whiffle ball game.

All hands on deck

A winner take all Game 7 is a different brand of baseball. Neither side will hold anything back, especially if the game is anywhere near close. That means that the surreal sight of Wheeler jogging across the outfield grass from the bullpen to throw an inning or two on short rest is distinctly possible (Phillies fans might remember Roy Oswalt entering late in Game 6 of 2010 NLCS). Such contingencies were actually somewhat common in the postseason in the 2010s: ACES like Madison Bumgarner on the 2012 and 2014 Giants, Stephen Strasburg on the 2019 Nationals, and Lance McCullers on the 2017 Astros all came in for lenghty relief stints on short rests en route to championships. There are plenty examples of unsuccessful attempts, too. Here's the Phillies chance to etch their name in history.

Game 7

This is the first time in the Phillies 141 year history that they will play in a Game 7.

They have played in three winner take all games before. They won one of the greatest NLCS battles of all time in 1980 against the Houston Astros, but the NLCS was a best of five series back then. The next year the lost Game 5 of the NLDS to the Montreal Expos, and, famously, lost Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS to the St. Louis Cardinals in a huge upset.

The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, have played in one Game 7 in their history: their infamous 2001 World Series championship in which Luis Gonzalez hit a walk-off single off Mariano Rivera.