Twitter Stunned By Phillies' Silent Bats in Game 4 Loss vs. Astros
The magic of baseball is things can drastically change in the span of a single day.
In the Philadelphia Phillies' case, that magic turned into a nightmare Wednesday.
The National League champions put on an absolute show by launching five home runs off Houston Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. in Game 3 of the 2022 World Series. Then they were completely flummoxed by Cristian Javier and didn't record a single hit a mere 24 hours later in a 5-0 loss in Game 4.
Houston tied the series at two apiece with the combined no-hitter and handed the Phillies their first home loss in eight games at Citizens Bank Park in these playoffs.
Javier was brilliant while striking out nine in six hitless innings of work. While he may have been given the chance to chase a no-hitter in the regular season, he handed the ball to a bullpen trio of Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly that was ready to slam the door shut and finish the task.
Social media had no shortage of reactions to quite the turnabout for Philadelphia's offense:
Some no-hit efforts have incredible defensive plays and lucky breaks for pitchers, but that was far from the case for Javier. He breezed through Philadelphia's red-hot lineup by striking out five in a row in the fourth and fifth innings and inducing weak and non-threatening contact when the home team finally did get the bat on the ball.
It was the type of showing the Phillies were hoping to get from Aaron Nola, but the right-hander failed to bounce back from his poor showing in Game 1. He escaped multiple early jams, but his momentum ended in the five-run fifth when he left with the bases loaded and nobody out and was charged with three earned runs when Jose Alvarado struggled in relief.
Yet the pitching won't matter for Philadelphia if the offense can't get a hit again in Thursday's Game 5.
