But long before that, the Astros had appeared to be picking up where they had left off against the Yankees in the A.L.C.S. The Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker, who led the team with 107 runs batted in during the season, slammed an inside 89-mile per hour changeup from Nola into the right field seats for a solo blast.
Three of the next four hitters — first baseman Yuli Gurriel, center fielder Chas McCormick and catcher Martín Maldonado — singled and produced a run. Nola escaped further trouble when he got second baseman Jose Altuve to ground into an inning-ending double play, but the Astros were already leading, 2-0.
An inning later, Tucker and the Astros did more damage. Two Astros standouts this postseason reached base: shortstop Jeremy Peña on a double and third baseman Alex Bregman on a walk. And when Nola tried again to throw a pitch inside to Tucker — this time a 95-mile-per-hour sinker — the ball drifted over the plate and Tucker sent it into the Astros bullpen in right field. The three-run blast gave the Astros a 5-0 lead and many of the 42,903 in attendance erupted.
But the Phillies, who have rallied repeatedly throughout the postseason, thought little of the deficit. In the fourth inning, first baseman Rhys Hoskins, designated hitter Bryce Harper and right fielder Nick Castellanos each singled, with Castellanos’s producing a run. Then third baseman Alec Bohm ripped a hanging curveball from Verlander into the left-field corner for a two-run double. In the span of five batters, the Phillies had slashed their deficit to 5-3.
Verlander eventually got out of the inning and returned for the fifth, when things deteriorated. He coughed up a double to center fielder Brandon Marsh and then walked left fielder Kyle Schwarber. But Manager Dusty Baker stuck with Verlander and it backfired.
After Verlander got Hoskins to pop out, he twirled another floating curveball over the plate, this time to Realmuto, who waited and slammed it against the left-center field wall for a game-tying two-run double. At second base, Realmuto waved his hands up toward the Phillies dugout as if to signal for more noise.
Once the score was tied, Phillies Manager Rob Thomson felt the urgency and began deploying some of his best relievers. He removed Nola with one out in the fifth inning to bring in late-inning reliever José Alvarado to face the heart of the Astros lineup. It worked.