GAME
RECAP: Padres Beat Phillies 9-7
The Padres didn't give Phillies starter Jake Thompson much of a warm welcome in his Major
League debut. San Diego's first three batters reached safely to start the game,
and four batters later Christian
Bethancourt broke
open the scoring with a bases-clearing double, with the Padres going on to win,
9-7. The Padres totaled 14 hits, with leadoff hitter Travis Jankowski continuing to serve as the team's
spark plug, with three hits and a career-high four runs. "He's been
outstanding," said Padres manager Andy Green. "Loving what he's
doing, loving the quality at-bats, loving him shooting balls to left field. The
walk in the last at-bat [in the eighth inning] when he recovered from being
down, I think 1-2 in the count, to come back, walk, steal a base and then have
enough feel on the [Yangervis] Solarte play to come flying across the plate to
score. We needed that run." Thompson, the No. 69 prospect in baseball according to
MLBPipeline.com, allowed four runs in the first inning and two more in the
fifth, when Jankowski and Wil Myers led off
with back-to-back doubles. He was taken out after 4 1/3 innings and struck out
one batter while walking two and hitting one. "He's 22 years old,"
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "You can't judge him on this
outing." San Diego starter Paul Clemens also threw 4 1/3 innings despite
allowing just two earned runs. Green pulled Clemens after he got his first out
in the fifth inning, just a half-inning after Clemens grounded into an
inning-ending double play on a failed bunt attempt.
PHILS PHACTS:
- The best thing that can be said about Thompson's debut
is that he will get plenty of opportunities to prove himself the rest of
the season. He appeared to rush himself in the first inning as the Padres
took a 4-0 lead. He settled down after that, retiring nine of 11 batters at
one point. But there is no question he has room to improve after allowing
six runs in just 4 1/3 innings. "I wasn't nervous," Thompson
said. "I was kind of amped up, instead of being nervous. Especially
in that first inning, I just wasn't able to spin the ball for strikes or
be able to get fastballs down in the zone."
- Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard has been relegated to bench duty since Tommy Joseph's emergence this season. But Howard quietly
has been putting up some pretty solid numbers. He homered in the second
and doubled in the fourth and is hitting .310 (18-for-58) with four
doubles, six home runs, 10 RBIs and a .690 slugging percentage in 22 games
since June 23.
- "He's making too many mental mistakes. We've got to keep
working with him and talking to him about it. He's got so much talent. We
have to corral it and figure out a way to get him on track. That's the one
thing he's missing right now. He needs to be a little smarter on the
bases, and all around baseball. He could be a helluva player." -- Mackanin, on Cesar Hernandez getting
caught stealing third in the seventh inning. Hernandez has made 13 outs on
the bases this season.
NEXT
GAME:
Phillies right-hander Jerad Eickhoff (6-12, 3.68 ERA) pitches the series finale against the Padres on Sunday
at 4:40 p.m. ET at Petco Park. This is the second time Eickhoff will face the
Padres. He threw seven scoreless innings against them in April at Citizens Bank
Park.
PHILS PHACTS:
Looking Forward To Second Start – Jake Thompson expected
better than this. But if there is any good news following his big league debut
Saturday night in a 9-7 loss to the Padres at Petco Park it is that
he will get more opportunities to prove why the Phillies coveted him last
summer in the Cole Hamels trade and why MLBPipeline considers
him the No. 69 prospect in baseball. He allowed seven hits,
six runs, two walks and struck out one in just 4 1/3 innings. He became one of
six Phillies pitchers since 1913 to allow six or more earned runs in fewer than
five innings in his big league debut, according to Baseball Reference. Turk
Farrell (1956), Rafael Quirico (1996), Ethan Martin (2013), Severino Gonzalez (2015) and Zach Eflin (2016) are the others. "I wasn't
nervous," Thompson said. "I was kind of amped up, instead of being
nervous. Especially in that first inning, I just wasn't able to spin the ball
for strikes or be able to get fastballs down in the zone." Thompson
allowed four runs in the first to hand the Padres a 4-0 lead. "He was
overthrowing obviously," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "He was
pumped up. He's got good stuff. He just lacked command, the ball was up in the
zone. Kind of typical for a guy making his debut." "I'm sure he had
some nerves, a lot of adrenaline," Phillies catcher Cameron Rupp said.
"It makes it a little bit tougher to get the ball down, I think. You're
probably feeling really fresh. It happens." Thompson settled down a bit
after the first, retiring nine of 11 at one point, before he found himself in
trouble again in the fifth. Thompson's debut garnered a little more interest
than normal because he took a somewhat unusual route to the big leagues. The
Tigers selected him in the second round of the 2012 Draft before trading him to
Texas in July 2014 in the Joakim Soria trade.
The Rangers then traded him to Philadelphia in July 2015 in the Hamels deal. Thompson
also had been pitching incredibly well in Triple-A Lehigh Valley before his
promotion. He went 11-5 with a 2.50 ERA in 21 starts, including an 8-0 record
with a 1.21 ERA in his last 11 starts. "For me, I need to get back into
the bullpen and work on spinning the ball," Thompson said. "I wasn't
able to spin the ball very well tonight, curveball or slider. Just make sure I
can spin those down in the zone consistently." He gets his next
opportunity Friday night against the Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. "He's
22 years old," Mackanin said. "You can't judge him on this
outing."
Making Cuts – The
Phillies decided Saturday that they needed to see Luis Garcia, Michael Mariot and
other relief pitchers in the final two months of the 2016 season more than they
needed to see Brett Oberholtzer. The
Phils designated Oberholtzer for assignment to make room for right-hander Jake Thompson on
the 25-man roster. "He's pitched pretty well lately," Phillies
manager Pete Mackanin said about Oberholtzer, "but overall, there's other
people that need to be seen, given opportunities to make decisions on them. I
think there are other people that are more important for us to see to make a
determination about whether they fit. And that's what this year is about."
Oberholtzer can be traded, claimed off irrevocable outright waivers, assigned
to the Minor Leagues or released within the next 10 days. He first must clear
waivers to be sent to the Minor Leagues or released. Oberholtzer posted a 2.88
ERA over 25 innings in 13 appearances since June 8 after he posted a 6.75 ERA
in 25 1/3 innings in his first 13 appearances. But the Phillies look at
Oberholtzer as a long man, while they think other relievers in the system can
potentially play more critical roles in the future. The Phillies acquired Oberholtzer
in December as part of the Ken Giles trade. He went 11-20 with a 3.94 ERA
in 45 appearances (42 starts) with the Astros from 2013-15. Interestingly,
Oberholtzer's departure leaves the Phillies without a left-hander on the entire
pitching staff. It is unclear if that has ever happened before in franchise
history, but it shouldn't hurt the Phillies too much -- Oberholtzer was not
particularly effective against lefties. Right-handers have a .747 OPS against
him in his career, while lefties have a .776 OPS. "There's not a lot of
guys you can really count on," Mackanin said about the organization's
left-handed relievers. The Phillies also asked for unconditional release
waivers for right-hander Andrew Bailey.
Today
In Phils History – In the last at bat of his career in 1893, Frank O’Connor
hit a homerun off of Blatimore’s Bill Hawke. In 1942, the Phillies signed free
agent Chuck Klein who would wind down his career over the next 3 seasons of his
career. The following season, Utility man Glen Stewart hit the only 2 homeruns of
his career (742 at bats) against the Giants. Frank Thomas joined the Phillies
via trade on this day in 1964. Bob Skinner resigned as manager on this day in
1969 citing a lack of support from the front office regarding discipline of
Dick Allen (George Myatt finished the season with his second stint as interim manager).
Following a single by Greg Luzinski in the top of the 9th against the
Cardinals manager Danny Ozark replaced the slugger with Jim Kaat to pinch run
who was later replaced after a double by Jay Johnstone with pinch runner Johnny
Oates who scored the winning run. 10 years later, Juan Samuel scored on a 4
base error against the Cardinals but it wasn’t enough as Todd Worrell broke the
NL Rookie record with his 23rd save of the season. A decade later,
Todd Ziele tied a MLB record by committing 4 errors in a single game while
playing 1B against the Braves. 5 years later, Bobby Abreu connects in the 5th
inning against San Diego for the 10,000th homerun in franchise
history. In 2009, Harry Kalas was posthumously inducted into the Phillies Wall
of Fame.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are currently 51-61 this season putting them on pace to beat most
preseason predictions. All time, the Phillies are 52-51-0 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.
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