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BOSTON – Raise your hand if you see that coming.
Continue like this if you saw it coming like that.
Not many of you, huh?
The Boston Red Sox may not have the expected season as they languish in third place in the AHL, but they are still the defending champions of the World Series and they still have a lot of thunderclaps on their shelves. They went on to lead the majors on average batting (.276) and took third place in points per game (5.78) and fourth in OPS (.827).
It's the crime that the Phillies had to stop during a two-day visit to Fenway Park.
It was the offense that the Phillies stopped.
The Phils completed an impressive sweep of two Sox games with a 5-2 win on Wednesday night. The Phils defeated the Sox, 3-2, on Tuesday night.
Two wins scoring only eight points. Take a bow, personal staff.
"I remember what it's like to play here and the difficulty of a team coming out to beat this team in the middle of the summer," said Gabe Kapler, coach of the Phillies and former Red Sox player. "World champions in defense. More specifically, this is one of the best baseball teams and we pay a lot of attention to it. Our pitchers did a good job for two consecutive days. Our office, in particular, was excellent. "
The Phillies' office was ravaged by injuries. Tommy Hunter, Pat Neshek, David Robertson, Seranthony Dominguez, Edubray Ramos, Victor Arano, among those who have fallen. In their place, the team uses starters who have lost their place in the rotation, guys who have spent a lot of time in the miners this season and a handful of attacks from other organizations.
Many of them have been successful in this series. Many of them arrived Wednesday night. The pen recorded 7 1/3 innings in both games, including 5 1/3 in relief from Drew Smyly on Wednesday night.
Jared Hughes, ranger Suarez, Mike Morin and Jose Alvarez all provided a scoreless job for setting up Hector Neris for his 23rd rescue.
Hughes got a huge ground ball by defending MV AL's acting player, Mookie Betts, to come out of a base jam in the fourth quarter. Morin eliminated Betts (for the second night in a row) in seventh place. Alvarez got the biggest defeat of the match (an attack by Chris Owings).
So many great performances from the Phillies, often criticized. And many of those guys did not even shine in Kapler's eyes a few weeks ago.
Morin, who pitched the ball aimlessly in 11 of the 13 appearances with the Phils, was about to make a waiver before the Phillies caught him in a spot contract with Minnesota. Hughes was ripped off the Reds' waivers last week. Suarez is a rookie who works as a reliever for the first time in his career. Alvarez joined the Anaheim Phillies as part of an uncertain exchange for Luis Garcia over the winter.
These unannounced records, which have sometimes defeated other clubs, have been the lifeblood of the Phillies in this series.
"I think when that happens, players can have a chip on their shoulder," Kapler said. "They may have something to prove. They can say, "I'm going to prove to you that you're wrong, whether to exchange, dismantle or fire me." And that can give the best performance, especially with guys who have been doing it for years in the past, like Morin, like Parker (like Blake), like Alvarez. And as Hughes has. "
Is letting go by another club a motivator?
"I'm trying not to be vindictive," said Hughes. "I'm trying to focus on the win today. At the same time, it opens your eyes because it lets you know that you have to work on things to get better. That's where I have to be. When you are vindictive, you lose concentration. "
Alvarez is one of the few Phillies lifters to have withstood the test of time this season. He was an unknown difference maker in the file.
"I do not care to point out," he says. "I'm just trying to help the team. When they need me, I'll be there. "
The Phillies did not hit a ton in this series. They had only 13 hits, but they made them count. Bryce Harper (two points) and Corey Dickerson (triple with RBI and singles with RBI in the last three rounds) had big success on Wednesday night. Harper has also played an important role on the ground. The fans of the Red Sox have been heckling mercilessly. Kapler even took note of it before Harper's two-point run in fifth.
"They were good enough for him until then," Kapler said. "It was a pretty explosive moment for the celebration of the canoe. I'm really happy that Bryce can play an important role at that time. "
The Phillies have six more games than .500 and two back in the NL joker race.
They are now facing a very interesting weekend: three matches in Miami against the worst team in the NL. The Phils are only 6 to 7 against the Marlins this season.
With only 36 games to play, the Phils have to clean the Marlins. A bad performance in Miami after a sweep in Boston would be like drowning in the bathtub after a successful swim across the Channel and the Phils can not afford that to happen.
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