[ad_1]
It’s not often that you hear about the Phillies extending another team’s misery, but it happened Monday night.
The Phillies got timely hits and plenty of offensive power and great work from their much-maligned reliever box in suspending a 13-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
The loss was the Cubs 10e in a row.
The victory improved the Phillies to 40-42 as they remained 4 ½ games behind the first-place Mets in NL East. The Phils are 16-26 on the road.
The Phils came back from two first-point deficits and tied the game twice on solo homers from Andrew Knapp and Didi Gregorius in the third and fourth innings, respectively.
They took the lead in earnest in the sixth inning with a double produced by Andrew McCutchen and a single by Rhys Hoskins.
One day after leaving Sunday’s game with a tight oblique, McCutchen hit three hits, including two doubles, and scored two runs.
“I was worried about him after Sunday, where he would be today, but he obviously felt great,” said manager Joe Girardi.
The sixth round rally began with Bryce Harper setting a lead against left-handed reliever Rex Brothers. The march took place on a 3-2 pitch and Cubs manager David Ross didn’t like the call and ended up being ejected. McCutchen’s brace came moments after the expulsion.
The Phils turned him into a rout when they took advantage of a poor defense to score six points in the eighth. Three of them came on a home run from Odubel Herrera. The Cubs used infielder Eric Sogard on the mound in the ninth and he gave home runs to Hoskins and Alec Bohm as the Phils continued to drop him.
The Bohm circuit was his first since May 6.
“It was nice to see our offense explode for a few more races and give us a bit of a break,” said Girardi.
Girardi has taken a lot of heat for moves gone awry this season, but the Phillies skipper has pressed a few of the right buttons in this one.
He let JT Realmuto rest and threw Knapp behind the plate.
Knapp hit a long homer to the right to put the Phillies on the board in the third inning.
Matt Moore started for the Phillies and made only four innings before going out for a pinched hitter in the fifth. While the Phils didn’t get anything out of the threat, Girardi’s decision to give Connor Brogdon two innings of relief paid off when the right-hander netted some big zeros in a close game.
Archie Bradley followed Brogdon with a scoreless seventh inning. Girardi used Jose Alvarado in an eight-point game in the eighth and the mercurial left-hander gave Javier Baez a solo comeback. A week ago, Alvarado was closest to the team. Now Ranger Suarez will have the chance to be the guy the next time a save situation arises. If you score points, it’s Closer # 3.
“I’m going to use Alvarado in some important situations, right now in the seventh or eighth inning,” Girardi said. “If I have to close with him, I’ll close with him if Ranger is down.” I am not afraid to conclude with Alvarado. I believe in him. I know he’s had a few tough outings, but his business is great.
The Phillies will look for two runs against the Cubs on Tuesday night. The pitchers’ showdown favors the Phils as Aaron Nola takes on Jake Arrieta.
After spending the previous three seasons with the Phils, Arrieta is back with the Cubs this season and was one of baseball’s worst pitchers. He pitched at an 8.31 ERA in six starts in June – opposing hitters registered an OPS of 0.980 – and will carry an overall 5.57 ERA in the contest.
The Phils have six more games to play on that road trip – three against the Cubs and three against the Red Sox – which will take them to the All-Star break. They need to keep winning as the front office strategizes for the trade deadline.
[ad_2]
Source link