The Los Angeles Dodgers took down the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3, in a comeback thriller at Citizens Bank Park to take Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday.
The Phillies’ home ballpark is known for being one of the most boisterous playoff environments in all of sports, and the atmosphere was certainly electric on Saturday night. At least through 6.2 innings.
A Teoscar Hernández three-run home run with two outs in the seventh inning catapulted the Dodgers into the lead and put an abrupt halt to the Phillies’ momentum. Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy spoke on what it was like in the dugout after Hernandez’s third home run in as many games this postseason.
“When you can hear a pin drop in the stadium, that’s the ultimate feeling in baseball,” Muncy said after the game. “I felt like the people in the upper deck could hear us cheering in the dugout.”
Many crowd-silencing moments exist in sports, but for that crowd to be Citizens Bank Park in October, a very special layer is added, as Muncy noted.
“Something’s going to happen in this game that the crowd’s gonna go wild, but that doesn’t matter,” Muncy said. “What matters is what happens at the end, and when we silence the crowd, it’s gonna be an amazing feeling.”
There was no shortage of drama during Game 1, and there was anticipation in the air until the final out of the game, but LA would prevail in the end.
The Dodgers will hope to do so again on Monday for Game 2, but history isn’t on their side. In fact, Citizens Bank Park has the highest winning percentage among active ballparks during the postseason (minimum 20 games played) with a mark of .659 going into the NLDS.
The Phillies trail the St. Louis Cardinals’ .660 winning percentage at Busch Stadium II from 1966-2005, and the New York Mets at Shea Stadium from 1964-2008, amassing a .667 winning percentage.