NLCS: Phillies Beat Padres at Home in Game 3

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PHILADELPHIA — The National League Championship Series returned to Philadelphia for the first time in 12 years on Friday, and many of the old stars of that era were on hand to watch. The slugger Ryan Howard was there with his children, and so was Charlie Manuel, the former manager, and J.C. Romero, who pitched in the Phillies’ last N.L.C.S. win.

They all received loud ovations when they were shown on the giant video screen, but the biggest cheers were saved for the current group of players, who have captivated this city by climbing to within two wins of the World Series.

The Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 4-2, in Game 3 at Citizens Bank Park and they lead the series, two games to one. In the 97 previous times that a seven-game series was tied, 1-1, the team that won Game 3 won 67 times, or 69.1 percent.

The Phillies sent Padres starter Joe Musgrove to his first loss of the postseason, beginning with a leadoff home run by Kyle Schwarber that made the stadium pulsate under the din of the applause. Ranger Suárez, the Phillies starter, pitched well, allowing only one earned run, which garnered him some loud cheers of his own.

But the player who had the most eventful game was Jean Segura, the veteran second baseman who was at the center of many of the most critical plays of the game, and celebrated the good ones with a bat slam and two emphatic leg kicks.

Segura had played 11 seasons in the majors, including the last four with the Phillies, appearing in 1,328 regular season games before reaching the postseason this year, the longest such active streak of any player. He seemed intent on making up for the deficit all in one game.

He hit a two-run single in the fourth inning, which he commemorated by slamming his bat to the ground. It was reminiscent of a similar bat slam by teammate Rhys Hoskins, who did the same after hitting a three-run home run in Game 3 of Philadelphia’s division series against the Atlanta Braves.

Unfortunately, Segura was picked off first base by Musgrove, which made for a quiet trip back to the dugout.

But it was two defensive plays that drew as much attention as the big hit. With two runners on base in the sixth inning, Segura snared a sizzling ground ball off the bat of Josh Bell. He turned it into a double play, and celebrated it with a leg kick and fist punch. He did the same after another inning-ending defensive play in the seventh.

The Phillies were playing only their third home game since Sept. 27, a stretch that included 18 road games. It was also their first home game in the N.L.C.S. since 2010, when they lost Game 6 of that series to the San Francisco Giants. The fans came prepared to cheer and shout, and they got off to an early start.

After the strong start provided by Schwarber’s homer, the Phillies threatened to break the game open. Musgrove walked the next two batters as the anticipation and excitement mounted. But Musgrove wriggled out of it. He forced Bryce Harper to hit into a double play and then got Nick Castellanos to ground out to end the inning. Considering the first three batters had reached base safely, Musgrove did well to limit the damage to only one run.

Musgrove was making his first start since Game 4 of San Diego’s N.L. division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and his second since he was checked for using a banned substance in a playoff game against the Mets on Oct. 9.

Because some suspicion had previously been cast on Musgrove, Rob Thomson, the Phillies manager, said he would keep on eye on the Padres starter.

“We’ll watch and see,” Thomson before the game, almost as a friendly warning. “If we think the guy’s cheating intentionally, we’ll call him on it.”

That is what Buck Showalter, the Mets manager, did in Game 3 of their N.L. wild-card series. Showalter asked the umpires to check Musgrove for a banned substance on his person. Musgrove was in the process of throwing seven shutout innings, with only one hit, and the Mets noticed that Musgrove was throwing slightly harder than his normal average fastball velocity, and that the rate of spin on his pitches was higher than in his recent outings.

Last year, Major League Baseball began enforcing a ban on foreign substances, which many pitchers had been using to increase their grip on the baseball, allowing them to spin it more and achieve more movement on pitches.

Strangely, the Mets, and a national television audience, also noticed that Musgrove’s ears appeared pink and shiny and Showalter specifically asked the umpires to examine them. They did, prompting the unusual scene of an umpire rubbing the ears of a starting pitcher in the middle of a playoff game. Showalter later said he felt bad about his implicit cheating accusation against Musgrove, but said he had to do whatever he could to help his team.

It did not help, though. The umpires found nothing illicit and Musgrove was allowed to continue pitching and the Padres went on to eliminate the Mets, with a 6-0 victory. Thomson said before Friday’s game that he would not raise any frivolous objections for gamesmanship.

“I think we’ll just play the game like we normally would,” he said. “I’m not going to call him on it for head games or anything like that. That’s not something I’d do. I’m sure Buck didn’t do that either. I think we just play the game the way it’s normally played.”

Musgrove’s ears looked much the same on Friday as they did in that game and evidently did not arouse any suspicions from the Phillies, who never called for an inspection. They did not need to. They were perfectly happy scoring runs off him.