The Phillies come back from a successful road trip to play one of their biggest rivals: the Atlanta Braves. There’s a lot to unpack in this series, so let’s get started.
GAME ONE
Wheeler day is usually a day where we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the eventual win. That wasn’t the case with this game as our beloved Phils lost the first game of the series 5-3.
The pitching in its entirety was less than ideal. They allowed the same amount of hits (8) as the Braves with one more strikeout (11) than the Braves (10). Wheeler started and went 6.1 innings with three earned runs on five hits and eight strikeouts. Knebel relieved him and ended the inning with a strikeout then a fly out in center. Unfortunately, Bellatti (who ended up getting the loss) was put in for the eighth inning and allows a home run to Phillies killer Olson. That’s all he allowed, but it was not at a good time. He gets out of the inning for Brad Hand to close out the game and hope the offense can score at least one run in the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately, he allowed a run to give them a two-run lead that the Phillies just didn’t come back from.
The offense wasn’t beautiful, but they weren’t awful. There isn’t too much to say about them. Bohm and Stott both had two hits making the daycare look good. June Schwarber was still going strong as he had yet another home run. This one is especially great because it tied the game up. Didi even hit a triple in the game, but they just couldn’t get it done with runners in scoring position.
An unfortunate result to say the least. The Braves were just positioning themselves on the field in the perfect sports to field every ball and they were able to hit with runners in scoring position.
GAME TWO
The Phillies lost 4-1, but Appel and Hall both made their MLB debuts, so not a completely bad day in my opinion.
Suarez started the game and wasn’t amazing. He went 6.2 innings allowing four runs on six hits to pair with seven strikeouts. The bullpen of course did their job when we were down by a few runs late in the game. Alvarado relieved Suarez and finished the inning with one hit and one strikeout then Familia came in for the eighth inning and didn’t allow a single hit. The game was essentially over at this point, so letting Appel debut in the ninth inning of a low-leverage game was a smart move on Thomson’s part. The best part of this game came when Appel got on the mound. He allowed one hit but had a strikeout. To hear his story and see where he is now should really put a smile on your face, especially knowing he had as good of an outing as you can ask for.
There is less to say about the offense this game than game one. They only had four hits and Hoskins was two of those. His home run in the third inning was the sole run for us this game. Gregorius and Bohm were the other hitters in the game. Stott had two out of the three walks and Realmuto was the other. Hall made his debut but didn’t have a hit. Not everyone has a hit their first game.
We lost the series with this game, but Hall and Appel making their debuts is the bright spot and hopefully makes you smile when thinking about this game.
GAME THREE
The Phillies end the month of June (or Schwarber if you ask Philadelphia) on a very high note. Their offense came alive in the final game of the series with a 14-4 win.
The offense was the story for this game, so that’s where we’ll start. If you didn’t think me telling you 14-4 was enough to explain how much the offense clicked this game, certainly me telling you that everyone in the starting lineup had a hit by the fifth inning. That just doesn’t happen to us. Nola also doesn’t usually get run support, but they had a seven run second inning after Nola allowed just one. Bohm and Stott both had RBI singles, Vierling had a double to bring in Stott, and Castellanos finished the scoring that inning with a three-run blast to right field. Schwarber continued his June hot-streak with a three-run home run to right field. Rhys follows that up with a home run of his own to make the score 11-1 in only the third inning. Darick got his first major league hit and it went 407 feet to make the score 12-1. Atlanta eventually put in a position player on the mound and Darick Hall not only got his second hit of his career, he got his second home run.
Onto the pitching where Nola was his usual self. He went seven full innings allowing four runs on seven hits and eight strikeouts. We had enough of a cushion to let Familia relieve Nola and start the eighth. He wound up allowing only two to pair with a strikeout. With a 5.13 ERA, I couldn’t ask for a better outing from him. Appel closed out the ninth without allowing a single hit and continues to make Phillies fans smile with his now success story.
Not the first (or second) result we would have wanted from this series, but a 14-4 win sure has a way to make you forget how annoying the first two games were. We plat St. Louis next in a pivitol wild card race series.
Ring Smash the bell.
