GAME
RECAP: Phillies Dominate Brewers 8-1
Aaron Nola danced into and out of trouble for six
of the busiest scoreless innings you'll see, and Jimmy Paredes and Cameron Rupp hit back-to-back home runs in the
Phillies' biggest inning of the season. They thumped the Brewers on Sunday,
8-1, in the finale of a four-game series at Citizens Bank Park. The Brewers put
a runner on base in each of Nola's six innings, including multiple runners with
fewer than two outs in four of those frames. But Milwaukee went hitless with
eight strikeouts in 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position against Nola,
who struck out nine overall to match his career high for the third time this
season. He has nine straight quality starts, matching Madison Bumgarner for the longest such streak in the
Majors this season. "I told the infielders I was gonna give them a 1-2-3
inning one time," Nola said. "It didn't happen. … I battled hard and
kept the team in the game, which is the most important part." Maikel Franco, Paredes and Rupp all homered for
the Phillies, Franco off struggling Brewers starter Wily Peralta and Paredes and Rupp after Peralta was
replaced by Neil Ramirez in a five-run fifth. It marked the
first time all season that the Phillies scored more than three runs in a single
frame. "When a pitcher gets a ball up in the zone, we want to attack
it," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "Up until today, we haven't
seen enough of that. Hopefully this is the start of something big for us."
PHILS PHACTS:
- The Phillies
broke the game wide open as Paredes and Rupp went yard back-to-back in the
fifth. The five runs turned a 3-0 game into 8-0 and are the most the Phils
have scored in an inning this season -- almost two full runs more than
their nine-inning average. Odubel
Herrera led
off the inning by diving safely into first base for one of his four hits.
He scored on a Tommy
Joseph double,
which almost gave Philadelphia three straight dingers but after review was
ruled a double due to fan interference. It was the first time the Phillies
have hit back-to-back home runs since Aug. 22, 2015 and comes just one
game after Philadelphia homered twice in the same inning for the first
time this season. "We know we can do that, and we showed it,"
Rupp said. "Now we just have to be consistent with it. The bats are
there. Hitting's contagious."
- Mackanin has said for weeks that he expects his young
third baseman to heat up at the plate. After a day of rest Wednesday, it
might be happening. Franco hit a solo shot to left in the third inning --
his second long ball since returning to the lineup. In the four games
since he sat, Franco is 4-for-14 (.286), while scoring four runs and
driving in three. "He still doesn't look like the same guy we saw
early in the season or last year," Mackanin said. "Little by
little, he's starting to relax a little bit and not get too big. … What he
needs to do is not get big and strong. He needs to sneak up on the ball
and be short and quick."
- Nola is one
of only five starters this season to surrender at least eight hits but no
runs, and only the second to do so in six or fewer innings. Cubs lefty Jon
Lesterwas the other, keeping the Pirates at bay on
May 4. And Lester and Nola are among the four pitchers to allow 10 or more
batters to reach safely, but allow no runs. Brewers pitcher Jimmy
Nelson is
on the latter list thanks to a five-hit, four-walk outing against the Cubs
that included a hit batter.
- Franco has hit
five of his 10 home runs this season against the Brewers. That's the
highest total for a Brewers opponent in 2016; the Reds' Adam
Duvall and Brandon
Phillips have
four home runs apiece at Milwaukee's expense.
- For a few minutes, it appeared Joseph was the Phillie who broke the
game open with a three-run home run during the big fifth, but his big fly
was overturned after a review by the umpiring crew, who determined that a
fan had reached over the fence in right field and interfered with the path
of the baseball. Joseph settled for an RBI double, and Parades followed
with a big blast that couldn't be overturned.
NEXT
GAME:
Philadelphia hosts the Cubs for three games at
Citizens Bank Park, beginning Monday at 7:05 ET. The first game of the series
will feature a pair of southpaws, with Adam Morgan (1-4, 7.07) starting for the Phils, opposing the Cubs' Jon Lester (6-3,
2.29).
PHILS PHACTS:
Maturing On The Mound – For Aaron Nola,
Sunday's start was unlike any he's ever had. In an 8-1 win over the Brewers, Nola finished
with a stat line that only Cubs left-hander Jon Lester has matched this season. He became the
second pitcher to allow at least eight hits but no runs in six or fewer
innings. Nola also walked two. But no Brewers came around to score on the
23-year-old righty. "He struck out the side in the first after he walked
the leadoff hitter and gave up a hit," catcher Cameron Rupp said. "And then he did the same
thing again and again and again and again." Not quite, but close. Nola
only struck out the side once, but he finished with nine strikeouts. The
Brewers had their leadoff hitter reach in two of the first three innings. They
had a runner on base every inning against Nola. "I told the infielders I
was gonna give them a 1-2-3 inning one time," Nola said. He didn't, but
Nola still was impressive -- even if it didn't do any favors for his WHIP,
which went up from 0.93 to 1.03. He'd previously ranked fourth in baseball in
the department but fell out of the top 10 after Sunday's performance. It's
strange to see a pitcher go from hittable to dominant with the snap of a
finger, but Nola accomplished that on Sunday. Some of the Brewers' hits came on
mistake pitches, Nola said, but others were just good as pitches put in play.
The right-hander bouncing back from each hit not to allow a run speaks to his
poise on the mound. "Nothing fazes him out there," Rupp said.
"He's got a demeanor that he just knows he's going to get them out." "He
just never loses his composure," manager Pete Mackanin said. "First
and second, one out. Second and third with two outs. You would never detect any
panic or fear in him." By putting runners on base each inning, Nola
elevated his pitch count early. Mackanin -- in his one critic of his starting
pitcher -- said he'd have liked to see Nola go one more inning, but "he
had a few too many pitches." Still, Nola made it through six shutout
innings. That was good enough for him to record his ninth straight quality
start and his 10th in 12 starts this season. Only Clayton Kershaw has more.
Offensive Awakening – At a
glance, it would be easy to mistake this Phillies team for its predecessors 40
year ago on Sunday. With Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski in the house at
Citizens Bank Park, the Phils broke out their throwback threads. Even 1976's
101-win team would have had difficulty keeping up with the offense from the 2016
incarnation during Sunday's 8-1win over the Brewers. There
was so much production up and down the lineup card that manager Pete Mackanin
had to bring a cheat sheet to the podium for his postgame news conference. "So
I wouldn't forget anybody," Mackanin joked. And he didn't. Mackanin noted
home runs from Cameron Rupp, Jimmy Paredes and Maikel Franco. He
praised Odubel Herrera's
4-for-5 day -- the second four-hit game of his career. He also didn't forget Tommy Joseph's
near-home run. After intentionally walking Franco to get to Joseph in the fifth
inning, the 24-year-old first baseman put a 1-2 fastball from Brewers starter Wily Peralta over the right field wall. But it
wasn't all his doing. Replay showed a fan reaching over the wall, negating the
homer and putting Joseph at second and Herrera across the plate, with the first
of five runs the Phillies scored in the frame. No review was necessary to
determine if Paredes had left the yard four pitches later. His mammoth shot to
right landed nearly 20 rows back. The three-run homer blew the game open, but
Rupp wanted to leave his mark, as well. He put a 93-mph fastball over the
left-field wall for an even more monstrous blast, giving the Phillies their
fifth run of the inning and eighth of the game. "We know we can do that,
and we showed it," Rupp said. "Now we just have to be consistent with
it. The bats are there. Hitting's contagious." The only position player
who started Sunday's game to not get a hit was Freddy Galvis, but
even he contributed to the onslaught. "Freddy didn't get any hits, but in
the first inning, he got that run in from third base, then he bunted that guy
to third," Mackanin said. "Those little things lead to runs, and I
just wanted to give him a shout out for that." It was the first time the
Phillies had hit back-to-back bombs since Aug. 22, 2015, when Aaron Altherr and Darin Ruf did so in a 4-2 win over
the Marlins. The five runs in the fifth were the most the Phillies had scored
in an inning all season, and the eight total are tied for the second-highest
output. The 1976 squad ranked second in baseball -- behind only Cincinnati's
Big Red Machine -- with 4.75 runs per game. The 2016 version has had a harder time
coming up with offense. By scoring five runs in the fifth, they outscored their
full-game output for 45 of the Phillies' 54 games. Mackanin said he would like
to establish a consistent lineup, or at least middle of the order. Consistency
would help spread the already contagious offense. Back on the 1976 team, of
their 162 games, Schmidt hit third in 139 of them and Luzinski fourth in 143.
Eight different players have already split time in the two spots on the 2016
squad.
Today
In Phils History – We start in 1928 when Cy Williams hit his second homerun
in as many pinch hit at bats dating back to June 2. The next decade, in 1937,
down by 6 the Phillies delayed the game until it was called due to the 7pm
curfew and received the loss and a fine of $100 to manager Jimmie Wilson for
their dubious efforts. 2 years later the Phillies released Chuck Klein who, after
finishing the season with Pittsburgh, would return to the Phillies in 1940. 20
years after Klein’s release, the Phillies parted ways with another power
hitter, Willie Jones. In 1962, the Phillies swept a double header against the
Mets giving the new franchise a major league record 17th consecutive
loss. 3 years later, the Phillie needed every one of Johnny Callison’s 3
homers in a 10-9 win over the Cubs. Another 2 years passed and the Phillies
traded future Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker to Atlanta. A decade after
the Mets debacle, the Phillies nearly matched their futility as, in the midst
of a streak of 18 losses in 19 games, they tried to change their luck with
"Turn it Around Day" but, despite the quirkiness, lost the game
anyway. And finally, in 1990, as Ethan Martin was celebrating his 1st
birthday, Von Hayes was collecting 5 walks tying the franchise and NL single
game record.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are currently 28-29 this season putting them on pace to beat most
preseason predictions. The Phillies finished the spring exceeding most
expectations compiling a record of 15-11-3 (18-11-3 if you include the
exhibition games against Reading and the University of Tampa). All time, the
Phillies are 52-56-1 on this day. I expect the Phillies to finish in the bottom
half of the division but not last in the NL East by finishing the season with a
77-85 record. Let the rebuild begin!
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