Phillies advance to World Series, beat Padres in NLCS Game 5 – The Washington Post

PHILADELPHIA — Into the cold and drizzle of a deep autumn Philadelphia evening there suddenly came a warm, heavenly glow that passed through Citizens Bank Park and its 45,485 ecstatic occupants. Flying through that mist, barely airborne long enough to get wet, was a rocket-launched baseball bound for the bleachers in left-center field. On the earth below, Bryce Harper stood briefly to admire it, then dropped his bat, ducked his head and began the most satisfying 360-foot jog of his life.It was a two-run homer in the eighth inning of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday, and it sent the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres and a berth in the World Series, this franchise’s first since 2009. The Houston Astros or New York Yankees await.The blast was Harper’s fifth of the postseason. At this point, he is as close to an approximation of 1928 Babe Ruth or 1977 Reggie Jackson as baseball has seen in recent Octobers. He is hitting .419 with a 1.351 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. He is the center of the Phillies’ universe, his gravity like that of a thousand suns.The Philadelphia Phillies advanced to the World Series on…
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