In game 1 of the 2022 World Series, the Phillies put up 6 unanswered runs to come back from a 5-0 deficit, and take game 1 in Houston.
Justin Verlander didn’t look sharp from the start, he threw a lot of elevated breaking stuff (5 of his 6 breaking balls were left elevated) in the top of the first. He did go 1-2-3 in the inning, but Kyle Schwarber hit a home run distance foul ball, and the Phillies had 2 hard hit balls in the inning. Aaron Nola’s half of the first inning looked much better than Verlander’s. Nola began his first ever World Series start with some perfect pitch sequencing to leadoff man Jose Altuve. Busting him inside with the fastball then throwing a perfect cutter to get him chasing off the plate. Nola was dotting both of his fastballs in the bottom part of the zone to both Altuve and Jeremy Pena. Nola successfully pitched around Yordan Alvarez, not throwing him a strike. He got away with a middle middle mistake to Alex Bregman, but got him to pop out on the next pitch. Nola’s control looked good for the most part, he ended the first with 2 strikeouts a pop out and a successful pitch around to Yordan.
Verlander started to find some control of his slider in the second inning, but continued struggling with the command of his curveball. He had a stress free 9 pitch inning getting Bryce Harper to strikeout whiffing at 3 straight elevated fastballs. Then a .000 xBA pop out and a .150 xBA groundout to end his half of the second inning. Nola continued painting the edges of the strike zone with both his 2-seamer and his 4-seamer. He got hit around in the bottom half of the second, but only got burned on one bad pitch, the Astros just had some quality hitting. The one mistake Nola made in the inning was to leadoff man Kyle Tucker, Nola left a changeup middle middle and Tucker golfed it into the right field seats for a solo homer and the first run of the World Series. On the very next pitch Yuli Gurriel did a fantastic job pulling his hands through and keeping the barrel of his bat in the zone for long enough to get to a 4-seamer that was dotted on the inside edge of the zone and send it into center field for a single. Chas McCormick then fought off a 4-seamer way in on his hands, making contact well below the label of his bat, and shooting it the other way to right field for a single that moved Gurriel over to third. Then, with 9 hole hitter Martin Maldonado up, the Astros ran the hit and run to perfection. Maldy singled right to where second baseman Jean Segura was playing before running to cover the bag, scoring one and placing runners on the corners once again. Altuve who has struggled all postseason, continued not being able to buy a hit to save his life. Grounding into a double play, despite the ball having a 106.8 mph exit velo and a .480 xBA. Nola really only threw one bad pitch in the inning, despite allowing 2 runs. Gurriel, McCormick, and Maldy just hit good pitches.
In the third inning Verlander threw 12 pitches, 10 of which were fastballs. He struck out Bryson Stott on 6 straight fastballs, then got a groundout and another strikeout looking from Segura and Brandon Marsh respectively. His curveball, the two pitches in the inning that weren’t fastballs, were his out pitches to both of those guys. In the bottom of the third Nola started to lose his command, neither of his fastballs were painting the edge like he was consistently doing in the first two innings. He started off the frame attacking Jeremy Pena with offspeed and breaking stuff, sticking true to the scouting report. Pena had a .203 xBA against breaking balls and a .177 xBA against offspeed pitches this season. But Nola gave in on the 5th pitch of the at-bat, throwing Pena a 2-seamer which he hit for a double. Pena had a .306 xBA against fastballs this season, going against the scouting report on the 5th pitch of the AB started a spiral that Nola would like to forget. He allowed Bregman to reach base on a 5 pitch walk, and then for the second time in two at-bats Kyle Tucker put a ball over the outfield fence. Tucker got a 2-seamer that ran just a bit too much back over the plate, and he deposited it into the Astros bullpen for a 3 run bomb. Kyle Tucker is the first Astro ever with a multi-homer game in the World Series. To Nola’s credit he showed some resilience getting 2 straight groundouts to finish off the inning.
The Phillies offense showed that same resiliency getting back 3 runs in the top of the 4th. Verlander once again struggled with his breaking ball command, getting away with 3 elevated ones to Schwarber who flew out to center. Hoskins singled on a fastball, Verlander then threw Realmuto 3 breaking balls once again all 3 were elevated. Realmuto hit a liner right back to Verlander that if he caught, would have ended the inning because of how far Hoskins jumped off first base. But JV dropped it allowing Hoskins to reach second, and only getting the out at first. Verlander had the end of the inning in his glove but just couldn’t secure it, allowing the previously mentioned 3 run rally to start. The Phillies strung together 3 hits on only 6 Verlander pitches. Harper ripped a single into right field, Castellanos dug out a slider and dumped it into left field for an RBI, Bohm then hammered a first pitch curveball that JV left in the middle of the plate into left field for a 2 RBI double. Stott then slowed down the pace drawing a 10 pitch walk in another at-bat in which Verlander was unable to locate any of his breaking stuff. JV got Segura to pop out to end the inning, but his lack of control on his breaking stuff finally caught up to him. Nola had a 1-2-3 inning despite not hitting the edge of the strike zone with either of his fastballs since the 2nd inning, in which he was consistently doing. Nola used his knuckle curve as the out pitch to all 3 hitters, getting McCormick to strikeout, Maldy to groundout, and then Altuve to flyout after getting some help from the umpire to get ahead 0-2.
There is no reason that Verlander should have gone back out for this inning, he is a 3 pitch guy and has had zero control over 2 of his pitches all game. He allowed a leadoff double to Marsh and then walked Schwarber. He got a pop out from Hoskins after getting away with a hung slider. Then Realmuto punished a curveball that was once again hung for a 2 run double. Just like that with a bunch of hung breaking pitches, the ball game is tied. Even after blowing a 5 run lead, Baker would choose to leave Verlander in the game, however he did get a groundout and a strikeout to finish off the top of the fifth. The Phillies went 0-9 at the plate through the first 3 innings, in the 4th and 5th they went 6-12 with 2 walks and 5 runs. Nola learned from his last at-bat against Pena, and this time in the bottom of the fifth he struck him out with a combination of his breaking and offspeed stuff, the only fastball that Pena saw was a show-me one that was way above the zone. Nola would then be pulled to allow Jose Alvarado to face the lefty lane of Yordan and Tucker. Alvarado did his job getting Yordan to pop out, and Bregman to strikeout to end the inning.
In the top of the sixth the Astros turned to Bryan Abreu, who made quick work of Bohm, Stott, and Segura. Abreu got Bohm to lineout to right field, struck out Stott on 4 pitches, and Segura on 3 pitches. Abreu threw 6 fastballs in this frame, all 6 strikes, 3 looking and 3 whiffs. Alvarado would stay in the game in the bottom of the sixth to try and finish his job of retiring Yordan and Tucker, and he did just that. Getting Tucker to flyout on the first pitch of the AB, a 99.9 mph sinker. The Phillies would then turn to Zach Eflin after Alvarado did his job putting away the 2 most dangerous lefties in the Astros lineup. Gurriel hit a swinging bunt that was a tough play for Eflin to make, as Hoskins kept Gurriel out of scoring position by coming off the bag to secure the wild thrown from Eflin. Mancini continued his hitless streak by flying out to right field. McCormick worked a walk to move a runner into scoring position with 2 outs. Nothing would come of it as Eflin got Maldy to ground out to third, on what was a good play by Bohm moving across the diamond. Eflin’s misses were all very close to the zone, and he effectively used the bottom of the zone, throwing only 1 pitch above the belt.
Abreu trotted back out to the mound for the top of the seventh, getting the first out on a Marsh flyout. Schwarber hit an infield single on a ball that neither Abreu nor Pena could field. Hoskins then struck out on 5 straight sliders. Abreu finished his outing by walking both Realmuto and Harper on 5 pitches to load the bases. Side note, Kyle Schwarber won America free tacos by stealing second base during the Realmuto at-bat. Hector Neris would be called upon to escape the bases loaded 2 out jam. And he did just that, striking out Castellanos on a splitter. The Phillies got 2 more outs out of Zach Eflin in the bottom of the seventh, both via the groundout. With two outs in the seventh, Rob Tomson would opt to go to the presumable game 3 starter, Ranger Suarez, to face Yordan. Suarez struck out Yordan, starting him off with a cutter then throwing 5 straight sinkers.
In the top of the eighth inning, Rafael Montero would get the ball. He struck out Bohm on 3 pitches, all fastballs. Then a flyout from Stott and a pop out from Segura. Montero only needed 8 pitches all of which were fastballs. On the year, Montero’s 4-seamer had a -2 run value and his sinker had a -3 run value. The Phillies let Suarez back out to the mound to finish the other half of the Astros dangerous lefties. But before he could do that he had to face Bregman, whom Suarez got to groundout right back to the mound. Unlike Jose Alvarado, Suarez did not do his job retiring the Astros lefties, as Tucker hit a 107.6 mph rope into right field for a single. Now over their short history, Tucker is 2-3 with a homer against Ranger Suarez. Nothing would come of Tucker’s single as a call to the bullpen was made for Seranthony Dominguez. Dominguez got Gurriel to ground into a fielder’s choice. Then made Mancini continue to look lost at the plate, striking out on 3 pitches, whiffing at all of them.
Despite the game still being tied the Astros opted to go to closer Ryan Pressly for the top of the ninth. Pressly went 1-2-3, getting Marsh to groundout, Schwarber to strikeout, and Hoskins to pop out. Pressly caught Schwarber looking at a changeup, he threw 2 of them in the at-bat after throwing only 25 all season. Pressly threw 15 pitches, only 3 of them weren’t sliders or curves. Seranthony came back out for the bottom of the ninth. He struck out McCormick, getting him to chase a slider out of the zone. Christian Vazquez was called upon to pinch hit for Maldonado, Vazquez would strikeout trying to check his swing on a 4-seamer way off the plate. After the inning started to look like a mow down one for Seranthony, Jose Altuve hit a .090 xBA flyball that fell into no man’s land between center field and the middle infielders for a 2 out single. Altuve would then immediately try and get into scoring position by attempting to steal second, after going to review because of an excellent throw from Realmuto, the call on the field of safe stood. Pena hit a bleeder into right field that appeared as it was going to do the same as Altuve’s hit, and be a game winner, but Castellanos of all people made a diving catch to save the game. On the year, Castellanos had -9 DRS and -11 OAA, in his career he has -57 DRS and -55 OAA in the outfield.
The Astros would turn to starter Luis Garcia in the top of the tenth to hopefully give them some length, but that did not happen. The first batter he faced, Realmuto, hit a homer into the right field seats on a 4-seamer that was off the plate. Harper then shot a 4-seamer that was dotted on the lower inside corner of the zone into left field for a single. Castellanos would follow him up with a ground ball into a fielder’s choice. Bohm grounded out as Bregman made a fantastic barehand play. Dusty Baker would then pull the man he hoped would give him some length, as he faced 4 hitters retiring only 2 of them. Baker would ask Ryne Stanek to keep the game a one score game. Stanek would do that despite Bryson Stott drawing a walk after fouling off 3 4-seamers. Stanek would do his job getting Segura to hit an incredibly soft liner to third base. The Phillies having used their top 2 bullpen arms, Dominguez and Alvarado, called in David Robertson to close out the game in the bottom of the tenth. Robertson would get the most daunting out of the inning, by striking out Yordan Alvarez. However, Bregman would then give the Astros some life by doubling off the out-of-town scoreboard. With a runner in scoring position and only 1 out, Kyle Tucker would strikeout followed by a Yuli Gurriel walk. However, Robertson would secure the save, despite the incredibly high stress outing by getting Aledmys Diaz to groundout after some hit by pitch controversy.
The Phillies rallied back to seemingly steal game 1 from the Astros, and now put all the pressure on game 2 starter Framber Valdez and the offense behind him to at least split the first two games at home.