(Philadelphia) Bryce Harper hit a long ball on his 31e anniversary, Kyle Schwarber hit his first home run of the playoffs, Nick Castellanos also sent the ball out of bounds, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3 in Game 1 of the final series. the National League, Monday.
Harper hit his home run on the first pitch he faced. He also drew a walk, crossed the plate twice and drove in two runs.
It was a 10e home run in two playoff years for Harper with the Phillies, in two years.
Zack Wheeler struck out eight batters in six innings to help the Phillies win their seventh series opener in the last two years.
José Alvarado added four outs in 15 pitches and Craig Kimbrel had a scoreless ninth inning.
The Diamondbacks lost for the first time in the playoffs, after winning their first five games, sweeping the Brewers and Dodgers.
Schwarber started the home run fest by sending Zac Gallen’s first pitch 420 feet into the right field stands. There was some surprise that Schwarber, with 47 home runs this season and 93 in the last two, had yet to hit one in six playoff games.
Four pitches after Schwarber’s long ball, it was Harper’s turn to add more. For the first time in 127 playoff games, the Phillies hit two long balls in the first inning.
Castellanos’ third-inning homer, his fifth of the playoffs and all in the last three games, gave the Phillies a total of 32 home runs in 13 postseason games at Citizens Bank Park over the last two years.
Castellanos became the second player to hit five homers in three postseason games, hitting two long balls in two straight games against the Braves, after Reggie Jackson of the Yankees in the 1977 World Series.
The Phillies then smacked a couple of hits that proved to be important, as Geraldo Perdomo hit a two-run homer off Wheeler in the fifth inning to make it 5-2.
The Diamondbacks added a run in the seventh.