Phillies starting pitchers have found a new bit, and you’ve got to applaud their dedication to it.
It goes much like Cristopher Sánchez’s outing against the St. Louis Cardinals did on Friday. Sánchez opened up the three-game series against the NL’s second-worst club by allowing two runs in the first inning, each coming off of former far-fetched trade target Paul Goldschmidt’s opposite field homer just five pitches in.
It was the fifth straight game in which the Phillies have allowed at least one first-inning run. They were the eighth and ninth first-inning runs Phillies starters have allowed in that span.
But in those previous four games, the starters settled down to surrender just five total runs across 20 2/3 innings — and Sánchez continued that trend as well. He blanked the Cardinals over the next five frames, giving the offense more than enough room to earn a comfortable 7-2 victory over the Redbirds.
Of the three games the Phillies have now won during that aforementioned five-game stretch, each has seen them erase and take the lead by the end of the second inning. The erasing on Friday came from Garrett Stubbs, who sent a spinner down the third-base line for a two-out, game-tying double in the second.
Stubbs got the start on Friday with J.T. Realmuto, who again leads baseball in innings caught by a sizable margin, taking the day off. At risk of blowing a 61.3-mph squeaker out of proportion, it’s a move the Phillies might want to consider more down the stretch should their No. 1 Wild Card lead grow. Stubbs has at minimum held his own since the Phillies acquired him in November 2021, and a revitalized Realmuto could pay dividends in October.
Anyway, Stubbs scored the go-ahead run one batter later, when Kyle Schwarber’s 109.9-mph double allowed them to trade places.
The Phillies extended their lead when a Bryson Stott sacrifice fly scored Bryce Harper in the third. Then, in the sixth, Alec Bohm provided the blast of the evening moments before one fan provided the snag of the evening deep in the left field bleachers.
The 444-footer was the 14th homer of Bohm’s season, a career-high for the fourth-year third baseman. It also extended the Phillies’ MLB-leading August home run total to 44, as noted by MLB.com‘s Todd Zolecki.
That number would grow one larger an inning later. Schwarber delivered his second extra-base hit of the night with his 35th homer of the season, putting the Phillies up 6-2.
Harper tripled two batters later and Nick Castellanos doubled him home, moving the first four spots in the lineup to 6-for-16 with a homer, a triple and three doubles in the win.
The late separation helped the Phillies stay away from some of their back-end relievers. José Alvarado threw a perfect inning before Andrew Bellatti and Jeff Hoffman each did the same to seal it.
The Phillies’ 70th win of the season moves them to 12 games over .500 and pads their No. 1 Wild Card lead to three games.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Saturday, August 26 vs. St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park
- 7:15 p.m. ET
- TV: FOX
- Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP
- Spanish Radio: WTTM 1680
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