SI:AM | The Phillies’ Vibes Are Immaculate

Plus, the best college football games this weekend.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I feel sorry for anyone who watched Chiefs-Broncos over Phillies-Braves.

In today’s SI:AM:

🔔 Phillies advance

⛹️‍♀️ Caitlin Clark’s encore

😵 Rock bottom for the Broncos

Next up, the Diamondbacks

An increasingly familiar scene unfolded in Philadelphia last night: the Phillies celebrating wildly in a beer-soaked clubhouse.

The Phillies are accustomed to celebrating this time of year. After eliminating the Braves in four games last night, they’ve now won five playoff series in the past two years—first as an unlikely underdog but now as a defending pennant winner seeking a return trip to the World Series.

The ringleader of those clincher celebrations is backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, who was handing out (and taking) tequila shots after Philadelphia clinched a spot in the playoffs. Last night Stubbs stuffed his customary celebratory powder-blue overalls with as many beers as the pockets could fit and wore an empty beer case on his head. Nobody has as much fun as the Phillies, and Bryce Harper credits the team’s success to that camaraderie.

“I just think there are so many guys that have been in these situations, not just now, but their whole lives,” Harper told reporters last night. “We’ve got some really good players. I think we just kind of vibe together. We vibe well here. It’s a lot of fun.”

This week, that fun came at the expense of the Braves, who learned the hard way that the last thing the Phillies need is motivation. After Harper’s baserunning mistake in Game 2, Atlanta shortstop Orlando Arcia was heard in the clubhouse mocking the Philadelphia star. “Attaboy, Harper!” Arcia reportedly yelled. Harper responded by hitting two homers in Game 3, glaring at Arcia as he rounded second both times. Arcia said he never intended for Harper to learn about the jab, but then he never should have said it in a room full of reporters.

During last night’s celebration, Phillies players wore shirts that said “Atta Boy, Harper” on the front and “He wasn’t supposed to hear it” on the back. The Phillies aren’t just winning—they’re having more fun than anybody. And their fans are picking up on the good vibes in the clubhouse. The atmosphere inside Citizens Bank Park has been the best in baseball all postseason, and that isn’t lost on the players.

“Home field advantage is real; it’s very real,” Harper told ESPN during the celebration.

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The Phillies’ success isn’t entirely vibes-based, though. They also have an explosive lineup and a pitching staff that stymied one of the best offenses in the history of the game. They hit 11 homers in the series and had a team ERA of 1.80. The Braves’ depth made them the best team in the regular season, but the Phillies are built for playoff success.

They have two excellent starting pitchers in Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler. Ranger Suárez started two games against Atlanta and perfectly played his part. He didn’t go deep into the game, but he held the Braves in check long enough to hand it over to the bullpen, allowing one run on four hits in 8⅔ innings.

They also have a lineup full of power hitters who are capable of turning any game on its head. Harper had three homers in the series. Trea Turner had two (while going 8-for-17). Nick Castellanos had four—two each in Games 3 and 4, making him the first player in postseason history with multiple home runs in back-to-back games.

Playoff baseball is notoriously hard to predict—just ask the Braves, Dodgers and Orioles—but at this point, it’d be foolish to pick against the Phillies.

The best of Sports Illustrated

David Sherman/Sports Illustrated

• Stephanie Apstein has more on how the Phillies knocked out the Braves, specifically their new pitching approach that stifled Atlanta’s historic offense.
• Apstein also wrote about the idiotic handwringing over the reporting of Orlando Arcia’s comment about Bryce Harper.
• For today’s Daily Cover, Emma Baccellieri profiled Caitlin Clark, the Iowa women’s basketball star who has big goals for her fourth (and perhaps final) season.
• After they fell flat against the Chiefs last night, Gilberto Manzano believes that the only solution for the Broncos is to tear it all down.
• On the flip side, Conor Orr argues that Kansas City’s Andy Reid could eventually surpass Bill Belichick for the title of best NFL coach ever.
• Andrew Gastelum has the story of a 21-year-old surfer and his father, who’s often tasked with rescuing him from the 100-foot waves on Nazaré’s notorious Praia do Norte.
• Richard Johnson breaks down the best college football games of the weekend, headlined by Washington-Oregon.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. Jack Hughes’s goal from a tough angle.

4. Blue Jackets rookie Adam Fantilli’s parents’ reaction to his first NHL point.

3. The video of Johan Rojas’s clutch catch with just the crowd noise.

2. Courtland Sutton’s one-handed catch for the Broncos’ only touchdown against the Chiefs.

1. Houston’s game-winning Hail Mary against West Virginia.

SIQ

The first nighttime World Series game was played on this day in what year?

• 1965
• 1971
• 1976
• 1981

Yesterday’s SIQ: The three-point shot made its debut Oct. 12, 1979, with the Celtics’ Chris Ford hitting the first three in league history. How many threes did the league leader make that season?

• 55
• 90
• 125
• 164

Answer: 90. The leader was Brian Taylor of the San Diego Clippers. Taylor, who had previously played for the New York Nets in the ABA, where the three-point line originated, also took a league-leading 239 threes that season.

By comparison, Klay Thompson led the NBA last season with 301 made threes. Taylor’s 90 threes would have ranked 139th in the league last year. In the 1979–80 season, only 38 players made at least 10 three-point attempts. Last year, there were 363 players who made at least 10 threes, including backup centers Dewayne Dedmon and Frank Kaminsky. Put another way, of the 539 players who appeared on an NBA court last season, 491 of them (91.1%) made a three-pointer. In the ’79–80 season, only 150 of the 287 players in the league (52.3%) made a three. It’s incredible how much the game has evolved.