The Phillies and Padres are squaring off in the NLCS for the first time ever. The Phillies haven't been here since 2010 and the Padres haven't seen 1998. As such, there will be a lot of plays that mark the "first time since ... " in this series and we're here to embrace that.
Take it away, Bryce Harper:
That's the first run of the 2022 NLCS, and it was just the Phillies' second hit of the game against Yu Darvish. It's the first Phillies NLCS run since Jayson Werth plated Chase Utley with a sac fly in Game 6 in 2010. The last Phillies NLCS home run was also Mr. Werth, who hit a solo shot in the ninth inning of Game 5 to provide insurance and help send the series home from San Francisco.
It's also worth pointing out, again, just how hot Harper is. Before the game started, I mentioned this of Harper in Best Bets: He's actually gone 10 for 20 with three doubles, three home runs, six RBI and six runs scored if we start with a Game 1 walk in the Wild Card Series.
In Harper's first at-bat here in Game 1, he hit a hard one-hopper to Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth -- who made an outstanding, diving play to get the final out of the inning -- that was 106 miles per hour. He's in one of those zones where you can say something like, "even his outs are well struck."
Thanks to Cronenworth, the Philies stranded a runner at third in the first inning. Harper was really close to driving home the first run of the series. He did so next time around, making sure that no defender could rob him.
