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Did you happen to catch one of the best baseball games ever played?
The Major League Baseball season may be too long with 162 games from late March to the end of September, but it yields the best 12 teams for the playoffs.
This year has happened again with all the teams that made it, but the New York Mets have put on the best show so far on their way to the best-of-5 second round in the National League playoffs.
The Amazin’ Mets lived up to their old nickname by having to play five games in four days just to make the post-season, then eliminate NL Central Division champ Milwaukee and reach the second round against the East Champion Phillies.
They won the first game of the best-of-five in Philadelphia before they finally had a day off. They played the second game on Sunday, which has to go down as one of the greatest postseason games ever.
The score was tied 3-3 after six innings when the Mets went back up 4-3 on a home run by slugger Pete Alonso in the seventh, and it looked like the Mets magic was still alive going to the home half of the eighth.
But the Phils rallied with three runs to go ahead 6-4 heading to the 9th inning.
Of course, New York tied the score again on a two-run homer from Mark Vientos, his second of the game, and the Mets had regained the momentum going to the Phillies bottom of the 9th.
The back-and-forth slugfest continued when the Mets walked Philly star Bryce Harper almost intentionally and forced the winning run into scoring position as the home crowd continued to lose its mind.
The Phillies won on a two-strike single to left field by Nick Castellanos to walk off the win and set off a wild celebration in the City of Brotherly Love.
Castellanos had ripped the winning line drive that scored Trea Turner and sent the Phillies to a dizzying 7-6 win that evened the NLDS semis at one game apiece. Perhaps the coolest moment came when Castellanos shared his heroics with his young son sitting behind home plate.
The series moves to Citi Field in New York for the third game on Tuesday at 5 o’clock, when more fireworks are expected, while the wicked West Coast rivals Dodgers and Padres are also tied one game apiece in the other half of the National League bracket; game two in LA had to be stopped for 15 minutes to protect the Padres outfielders from being hit by debris thrown by the Dodger fans.
The baseball season may be too long, but the playoffs always seem to deliver.
Featured image via Associated Press/Matt Slocum
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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