Final Score: Phillies 7, Rockies 3
To break a decade long postseason drought, the Phillies have to be much better against inferior opponents. The Phillies failed test No. 1 more than a week ago in Miami, but they have rebounded in a big way against the Colorado Rockies, who play like a bottom-five team away from Coors Field. They clinched only their second series victory of the year on Wednesday night and are now 9-10.
Odúbel Herrera gave the Phillies an early lead with a solo shot into the upper deck in right field. The home run was his fifth lead-off round tripper of his career and went 429 feet. He doubled the Phillies’ lead an inning later with a sacrifice fly.
The Rockies quickly tied it up in the third with two runs on three hits against Ranger Suárez. With a run in, Randal Grichuk singled to right field to drive in Alan Trejo. The Rockies right fielder made a left turn to second to try and force a rundown to score the third run of the inning, but Didi Gregorius quickly applied a tag before Grichuk got too far.
Speaking of Gregorius, he drove in a run a half inning later on a double to the right-field wall to make it 4-2 Phillies. Bryce Harper began the inning with a triple. Gregorius finished the night 2-for-3 with a double, single and a sacrifice fly. Harper went 3-for-4 with a triple and two singles.
C.J. Cron cut into the lead with his second home run of the year against the Phillies. This one was significantly less devastating than the three-run go-ahead home run he crushed against Jeurys Familia, but it cut the Phillies’ lead down to a run.
José Alvarado was the first reliever to come into the game in the seventh. He allowed the first two batters to reach on singles and struck out the No. 9 hitter Trejo. With the lineup turning over, Joe Girardi turned to Seranthony DomÃnguez. He got the leadoff hitter Connor Joe to ground into a huge 6-4-3 double play to end the threat from Colorado.
The Phillies added on two more in the seventh on a single by Alec Bohm and a Gregorius sacrifice fly. With the bases loaded, Bohm hit a dribbler to the third baseman McMahon. He charged the ball a little too aggressively and it ended up behind him with the shortstop Iglesias backing him up.
More trouble ensued for the Phillies in the eighth. Familia allowed back-to-back singles. In a rematch with Cron, he got the Rockies first baseman to hit a deep fly ball to left-center. There was some confusion between Schwarber and Herrera and the Phillies center fielder dropped the ball. An out was recorded at second base and no runs scored. The play was scored a fielder’s choice 8-6-4.
After a strikeout and a walk against Elias Diaz and Yonathan Daza, Familia was lifted from the game in favor of Brad Hand. With the tying run at the plate, Hand struck out McMahon on a nasty breaking pitch.
Closer Corey Knebel wrapped up the game with a scoreless inning in a non-save situation.
Plenty of Phillies had a decent game on Wednesday night, but backup catcher Garrett Stubbs was arguably the star of this one. Stubbs, who has only made three starts all season, went 2-for-4 with a triple. The former Astros catcher entered the year with 14 career hits. He now has four hits in 10 at-bats as a Phillie.
Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance
Ryan Feltner: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO, 1 HR, 84 pitches
Felner has only three major league starts to his name. The last two have been against the Phillies in Philadelphia and they both haven’t been great. He has given up six earned runs over 8 2/3 innings combined between this outing and a Sept. 12, 2021 start against the Phillies.
Ranger Suárez: 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR, 97 pitches
Suárez delivered his seventh-career quality start on Wednesday against the Rockies. The strikeouts weren’t there tonight, but he did induce six groundball outs. Wednesday marked the sixth-consecutive game the Phillies have won with Suárez on the mound.
Phillies Nugget Of The Game
Per the Phillies, Wednesday was Gregorius’ 1,000th big league game as a shortstop. He has 1,027 games under his belt and 968 career starts at shortstop.
Postgame Notes
- Harper attempted to throw again earlier on Wednesday. The elbow, according to Girardi, is “not where it needs to be.” He’ll continue to serve as the DH and the team will reevaluate again on Tuesday.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Thursday, April 28 vs. Colorado Rockies
- 1:05 p.m. ET
- TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia; MLB Network
- Radio: Sportsradio 94 WIP
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