The series with Seattle ended with a Phillies’ victory. The club was able to take two out of three from a good Mariners team. The Phillies pitching faced a tough offense and the hitters faced tough pitching from Seattle. Taking this series was big heading into the weekend.
Game one
The Phillies lost game one in frustrating fashion, 5-3. Bailey Falter started the game for the Phillies and was opposed by Marco Gonzales. Falter pitched well despite taking the loss. He pitched six innings, giving up three earned runs. He also struck out seven batters. When he left the game, the Phillies were in a two-run deficit. Connor Brogdon came in to pitch the seventh inning and surrendered one more run. Yunior Marte was a bright spot as he came in and pitched a scoreless eighth inning and showed flashes of dominance that the Phillies had hoped he would display.
The offense had a lackluster performance even though they put up three runs. Edmundo Sosa hit a solo home run in the third inning. Alec Bohm and Jake Cave also recorded RBIs on the night. All in all, the Phillies left seven men on base and were 2-7 with runners in scoring position. Again, a solid start by Falter was wasted in an uninspired loss.
Game two
Game two was much more exciting for Phillies’ fans. The Phillies started out with the lead in the first inning when Nick Castellanos hit a two-run home run to the opposite field to score Bryson Stott. Castellanos would go on to have two more hits and tack on another RBI and run scored.
In the second inning, the Mariners were able to put up five runs off of Taijuan Walker. Walker would go on to pitch four innings surrendering the five runs. The Phillies’ bullpen was dominant once again. Luis Ortiz, Seranthony Domínguez, Craig Kimbrel, and José Alvarado pitched five innings and shut the door on the potent Mariners’ offense. In the five innings of relief the bullpen struck out eight Mariners while allowing just three hits.
The Phillies offense was working in game two, however, aside from the Castellanos home run, the Phillies had no extra base hits. The team had twelve hits and eleven of them were singles. The situational hitting was there, however, as the offense mounted a comeback and took a 6-5 lead in the eighth inning on an RBI single from Alec Bohm. Alvarado recorded his fourth save of the season in the ninth inning.
Game three
The third game of the series featured very little offense on Thursday afternoon. The Mariners deployed George Kirby, who pitched a tremendous eight innings of one-run baseball. The Phillies turned to the unexpected rotation savior in Matt Strahm. Strahm once again pitched better than anyone could ask of him. He tossed 5 1/3 innings allowing just two hits while striking out five.
The lone run of the game came off the bat of Kody Clemens. Clemens singled on a ball into the right-center field gap in the bottom of the second inning to score Nick Castellanos. The two teams combined accumulated just seven hits during the pitching duel.
Series takeaways
Nick Castellanos is back. He is now slashing .333/.394/.525 on the season with three home runs and ten doubles. Castellanos seems comfortable and he has admitted that he is more so this year than last. During the offseason one of the major talking points surrounding the Phillies was Castellanos bouncing back this year, especially with the absence of Bryce Harper in the lineup to begin the season. He has bounced back and has helped carry the club as they have now reached the .500 mark on the season.
The bullpen has been lights out. Phillies relievers have been shutting down opponents’ offenses over the last few series. Gregory Soto has settled in after a tough first series. Over his last seven games, he has not allowed an earned run and has struck out nine in 7 1/3 innings. Seranthony Domínguez seems to have found his niche. In his last seven games he has allowed one earned run in 6 1/3 innings while striking out seven. The most dominant of all has been José Alvarado. On the season Alvarado has allowed just one earned run in 11 1/3 innings and has struck out 22 batters. Alvarado carries a strikeout rate of 55%. This number is outrageous as the league average is just under 23%. He has not only been the best reliever on the Phillies, but perhaps the best in baseball.
The Phillies will be getting Ranger Suarez and Bryce Harper back soon. If players like Castellanos and the bullpen can keep performing at a high level, the Phillies have a chance to gain some ground in May and June.
