PHILDAELPHIA — The Arizona Diamondbacks have done everything possible to prepare themselves for this moment.
They’ve talked about their experiences, their emotions and their expectations.
They’ve even talked about their fears.
Forget about the talented and confident Philadelphia Phillies they’ll be facing in the National League Championship Series beginning Monday night.
It’s the Phillies’ crowd at Citizens Bank Park that is commanding their attention.
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It is the most raucous and rowdy crowd in all of baseball.
And everyone knows it.
‘We know the atmosphere is going to be crazy,” Diamondbacks veteran third baseman Evan Longoria said. “It is one of those places that when you go to at this time of the year, you can feel it. It feels different. It’s what the postseason should feel like. …
“There’s going to be pressure. There’s going to things said that you wouldn’t say anywhere else, and you probably shouldn’t say even at a baseball game.
“And I think we’re prepared for that.”
The Diamondbacks, after sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers, tried to mitigate the crowd’s impact by spending their workouts in Phoenix this week with fake crowd noise blaring throughout Chase Field. They turned up the decibels under their own roof to its loudest level, trying to simulate a hostile environment.
But who’s fooling who?
“The crowd noise at Chase was a little more treble than bass,” said D-backs Game 1starter Zac Gallen, who grew up in nearby Somerdale, N.J. “It was a little more on the annoying side, which I think honestly might have been beneficial.”
Still, how can you even pretend to replicate the same environment when there aren’t fans taunting you from the moment you step onto the field, calling you names that will make you blush, and researching your bio hoping to get underneath your skin.
“I’m sure those fans are doing research about me and my family already,” D-backs closer Paul Sewald said. “It’s rowdy.”
The worst place to be as a visiting ballplayer is in the bullpen. It’s located on an upper level above the Phillies’ bullpen close to the fans, where you can see, hear and feel absolutely everything.
And it can get ugly.
It’s like Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium on steroids.
“The Fenway and Yankee Stadium security guards are really on it in those places,” Sewald said.
And in Philadelphia?
Uh, not so much.
“There’s a little inlet there that I think a lot of us are going to spend a lot of our time in away from the fans,” Sewald said.
Yep, there’s a reason why the Phillies have the greatest home record of any ballpark in postseason history, going 26-11 since Citizens Bank Park opened in 2004.
“I think the team really responds to the energy in this ballpark,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson says. “We really didn’t see it until we got to the playoffs last year, and then we saw the other side of the passion that our fans have.
“I feel the energy come through me as well.
“I think it’s the best fan base in maybe all of sports.”
The joint is loud. It’s electric. It’s hostile. And for the visitors, it can be mortifying, if you let it be.
“Obviously, you won’t know until you’re in it and feel it,” said D-backs first baseman Christian Walker, who grew up in nearby Norristown, Pa. as a diehard Phillies’ fan. “It’s one of the few stadiums and atmosphere you can feel the excitement through the TV.
“But my personal stance on it coming in is I’m going to try to harness it. It’s going to be a lot of energy. It’s no secret it’s for the Phillies, but also there’s a certain buzz in the air. It’s hard to explain.”
Well, Stacey Gallen has done her best to try explaining it to her son. Zac was able to buy World Series tickets for his mom, a rabid Phillies fan, last year and listened to her excitedly talk about the atmosphere at the three home games at Citizens Bank Park, telling him over and over, “It is crazy here.”
“The energy here she said was unmatched,” Gallen said. “She said, ‘One day I hope you get to be in an environment like this’, you know, pitching in the playoffs and just the energy.
“It’s kind of wild the fact that here we are a year later, and it’s the same spot where she mentioned the environment, the energy, so I’m excited.”
D-backs starter Merrill Kelly, who will be pitching Game 2, can certainly relate. He took his brother, Reid, to Game 3 of the World Series last year at Citizens Bank Park, celebrating his birthday as a lifelong Phillies fan where they grew up until elementary school.
It was the game that could haunt pitchers forever.
The Phillies clobbered the Houston Astros, 7-0, hitting five home runs.
“I’ve seen them probably as loud as they can possibly be,” Kelly said. “They hit five homers that game so I have a hard time believing anything I’m about to experience is louder than that.
“Everyone says it’s kind of intimidating, but I feel like that’s the fun part, right?”
Gallen, who wore a vintage University of North Carolina Michael Jersey Jordan to his press conference, plans to embrace the environment. Besides, he never grew up a Phillies fan anyway. He grew up a St. Louis Cardinals fan because of Mark McGwire, dreaming one day of pitching in the playoffs for the Cardinals.
He wound up being drafted by the Cardinals, but never got the chance to live out his dream, traded after the 2017 season along with the future Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara, to the Miami Marlins for power-hitting outfielder Marcell Ozuna. He was traded again two years later to Arizona for infielder/outfielder Jazz Chisholm.
Now, here’s his chance to make lives miserable for Phillies fans, even if it involves his own family.
“If you’re scared,’’ Gallen said, “stay home. So, worrying about the crowd noise, worrying about all that stuff, you just have to go about your process. Go about what you do well, execute the fundamentals, and you’ll be fine.”
Besides, the best way to combat any hostilities on the road is simply by winning. The D-backs won two games on the road in Milwaukee in the wild-card series. They won two games in Los Angeles against the Dodgers in the division series. So, life on the road has been absolutely no problem.
Yet, as much as the D-backs wanted to tout the tough atmosphere for visiting players at Miller Park in Milwaukee and Dodger Stadium, sorry, but it’s a different animal in Philly.
“There’s nothing like it,” said Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos, who became the first player to hit two homers in back-to-back postseason games. “The closest thing I can even compare it to is when I played for the Chicago Cubs, but it’s a completely different type of energy.
“In Chicago, everybody is happy. It’s cheers. It’s celebrations. Party at Wrigley. And everybody is at Wrigley.
“Here, the fans are like, “We’re here to win. And if we’re not winning, we’re [expletive] pissed.’’’
It’s as if the Phillies’ fans feel that they let down their own team if they’re losing. Their job is to make life miserable for the opposition. Castellanos saw the way tried to unnerve Atlanta shortstop Orlando Arcia and DH Marcell Ozuna in their last series. It appeared to work, with Arcia turning around and yelling back at the fans while teammate Ronald Acuña Jr. tried to calm him.
“Just looking at it from the other side when you hear stadiums get going like that, it’s hard to get that momentum back on your side,” Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm said. “Just a lot of energy on our side when we play in this building.
“Just a different kind of sound here. You can feel the noise here. You just don’t hear it. It’s a great environment. And a great place to play as a home player.
“If you’re a guy that does get distracted by that sort of thing, hey, it can be tough to play.’’
The Phillies’ fans are counting on it.
LOUD and clear.
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