After a disappointing series split with Cincinnati, the Phillies finish their road trip by heading to Chicago for a three-game series against the White Sox.
STARTING PITCHING
The starting pitching has been very inconsistent to start the season and it continued into this series. Wheeler, Falter, and Walker were the starters for the series with Wheeler and Walker getting the wins.
Wheeler, who has not been pitching like the Wheeler we know, had a non-Wheeler outing again. The Phils scored five runs in two innings and Wheeler immediately allowed a four-run inning. It wasn’t ideal and it was certainly not Wheeler-like, but other than that one inning, he was solid. Is the pitch clock affecting him that much? Maybe. He doesn’t have as much time to collect himself after allowing a couple of hits, but you can only use that as an excuse for so long. He simply needs to pitch better overall and I truly believe he will shortly.
Falter was given the loss, but there is more to his outing than just him allowing a three-run home run. After giving up a walk and a single (shoutout Bohm defense), the home run happened. After that home run, Falter retired 19 of the next 22 batters before Thomson put in Luis Ortiz to relieve him. Obviously the three-run home run isn’t good and shouldn’t have happened, but he settled in nicely right after. The offense should have put up more than one hit on the White Sox.
Walker had another solid outing. After the Turner home run, he immediately gave up a two-run home run but settled right in after. He was the first pitcher to go into the seventh inning this year, which really saved our bullpen. He finished with 6.1 innings pitched and allowed two runs on five hits and two walks. Walker is another guy the Phillies got this season that has done just what this team needed to start the season, especially with Ranger Suarez being out.
BULLPEN
The bullpen has been a welcomed sight to start the season and this series wasn’t any different. They didn’t allow a single run in this series. Alvarado, Ortiz, Soto, Kimbrel, and Dominguez all had great outings in their relief efforts. Seranthony Dominguez seems to be looking like himself again, which only adds to Topper’s choice of pitchers to close out innings. After his first couple outings of the season, Gregory Soto has been more than reliable. Jose Alvarado has simply been lights out this entire season with his 1.08 ERA. Not many people are hitting off of him and his now famous “strike one, strike two, and good luck” saying is simply true at this point. Luis Ortiz was just called up and has only pitched two innings, but he has done his job well. Kimbrel has given us our fair share of scares, but overall has done exactly what we needed him to do. Kimbrel, just like countless other players this year, had a rocky start but has settled in. In the last week, he has pitched three innings only allowing two hits. He’s not the Kimbrel of years past but is certainly a guy the Phillies needed going into this season.
OFFENSE
While the Stott (17, franchise record to start the season) and Bohm (10) hit streaks did end during the doubleheader this series, the offense was acceptable and Trea Turner FINALLY hit a home run.
Josh Harrison had a fantastic game in game one of the doubleheader. He went 3-5 with a two-run home run and 4 RBI to lead the Phils in the 7-4 win. Marsh was the lone player to have a hit in the second game of the doubleheader, which ended the hit streaks of Bohm and Stott and resulted in a gruesome 3-0 loss. The second game was horrid to watch, but the offense did bounce back in the final game of the series. Stott (2-5), Turner (3-5, HR), and Marsh (2-4, HR) all had multi-hit games in the 5-2 win. Castellanos continues his solid start and JT continues to heat up. Schwarber looked like he was heating up, but he’s still getting acclimated into the season. He is known for starting the season slow, so none of this is particularly concerning.
TAKEAWAYS
Trea home run, series won, and consistent bullpen. They look to be getting it together day by day, but there are still issues that need to be fixed. The starting pitching has to figure it out, the inconsistencies and high-scoring innings are not acceptable by our two aces. The offense will rarely give you five-run innings plus an insurance home run and you need to be able to, as an ace, shut a lackluster team like the White Sox down. The offense is not without fault, however. They still need to improve their situational hitting and hit better with runners in scoring position, but that has improved slowly. The best thing is the lack of terrible base running. They haven’t had any issues the last few series.
