GAME
RECAP: Phillies Flank Pirates 6-2
The Pirates kept skidding through September on Monday
night at Citizens Bank Park, and Gerrit
Cole's return from the disabled list did little to stop their
fall from .500. Cole surrendered five runs in two shaky innings as the Phillies
handed the Pirates their fourth straight loss, a 6-2 decision to open a
four-game series. The Pirates have lost 12 of their last 14 games, falling four
games below .500 for the first time since June 28. They remain far removed from
the leaders of the National League Wild Card pack, and their six-game deficit
held steady due only to losses by the Mets and Cardinals on Monday night.
Officially eliminated from the NL Central race on Sunday night, the Pirates
faded farther from the postseason picture on Monday night with 20 games
remaining. "It was just a bad night," Cole said. "I put us in a
huge hole early. That's not what we needed." Freddy Galvis homered
off Cole, making his first start since Aug. 24 due to elbow inflammation, and
rookie Roman
Quinn recorded
his first
Major League hit and RBIs -- on a two-run double in the second
inning -- as well as a stolen base off the struggling Cole. Jorge
Alfaro, another highly regarded Phillies rookie, recorded
his first big league hit off Jared
Hughes in
the eighth inning, reaching safely on a swinging bunt down the third-base line.
"Roman Quinn had a nice night," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said.
"It was a good night all around." The Phillies held the Pirates to
five hits and three walks on the night. Starter Jeremy
Hellickson gave
up an unearned run on three hits while striking out six over 6 1/3 innings,
easily outdueling Cole. The Pirates' ace a year ago, Cole's ERA climbed to 3.88
as he grinded through two innings on 55 pitches, allowing four hits and tying a
career high with four walks. "Today it was like he was trying a little
more," catcher Francisco
Cervelli said
of Cole. "He hasn't pitched in a long time. Maybe the next one, it'll be
better."
PHILS PHACTS:
- Giving the opposing
pitcher a base on balls rarely works out. Just ask Cole. The Phillies had
two runs in and a runner on second with one out in the second inning, but
Cole had a chance to limit the damage with Hellickson at the plate.
Instead, Hellickson and Cesar
Hernandez walked
to load the bases. Quinn followed with a two-run double and another run
scored when Maikel
Franco grounded
out to the right side, giving the Phils a commanding early lead.
- The game
could have gotten away from Hellickson early. He should have been out of
the first inning, but Gregory
Polanco's two-out grounder went through the legs of
Howard to allow an unearned run to score. Unfazed, Hellickson struck out Jung
Ho Kang and
then allowed just two more singles before leaving the game with one out in
the seventh. "It's such a good changeup that it plays. The one thing
you try to do as a hitter is sell out to it, give in that you're going to
get beat with a couple fastballs along the way," Pirates manager
Clint Hurdle said. "It's a premium pitch for him. … Then he continued
to make pitches."
- "I'm sure [Jorge] Alfaro is going to tell everybody years from
now that it was a line drive to center field."-- Mackanin, on the first Major League hit by Alfaro, a
dribbler up the third base line.
- Galvis hit his 18th home run of the season in the second inning,
continuing a power surge that nobody saw coming. The long ball off Cole
came in the 518th at-bat for the 5-foot-10 switch-hitter. Coming into this
season, he had 20 homers in 1,073 Major League at-bats and just 25 in
2,399 Minor League at-bats.
NEXT
GAME:
Right-hander Alec Asher will make his second big league start of the season at 7:05
p.m. ET on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park. Asher held the Nationals to two hits
and a walk over six scoreless innings in his last start.
PHILS PHACTS:
First Hits – Outfielder Roman
Quinn and
catcher Jorge
Alfaro now
have one more thing in common in addition to being top Phillies prospects -- Nos.
8 and 4, respectively, according to
MLB.Pipeline.com -- and being called up by the Phillies on Sunday after
Double-A Reading's season ended. Both players got their first Major League hits
in Monday night's 6-2
win over the Pirates at Citizens Bank
Park. Quinn's was a hard-hit double to left-center in the second that also
resulted in his first two RBIs. He had recorded his first stolen base in the
first inning after walking with one out and nobody on. In the sixth he doubled
again, a long drive to dead center that almost cleared the fence. Alfaro, who
is expected to get his first big league start Tuesday night, made his Major
League debut as a pinch-hitter in the eighth and reached on a swinging bunt up
the third-base line. Manager Pete Mackanin said he expects Quinn, 23, to play a
lot in the final three weeks of the regular season and that Alfaro, also 23,
could get between six and eight starts. "They're not going to be able to
establish themselves, but they're going to be able to make a really good first
impression," Mackanin said. "They could make a statement." Said
Quinn, who was showered with ice by his teammates at his locker after the game:
"It always feels good to get the first one out of the way. And it felt
great. This is a dream come true, and I'm looking forward to it." Said
Alfaro: "I was really excited. It was nice to get an at-bat. I was really
nervous. So I think it will help me [Tuesday], because I have an at-bat
already. Now I'll try to make good contact." While Mackanin will get
a good look at the speedy Quinn in the final 18 games, he won't always be
looking at him in center field. Quinn, long viewed as a potential center
fielder of the future, made his Major League debut Sunday at his natural
position. Monday night, though, he was in right. The reason is simple. Odubel
Herrera, a converted second baseman, has only started in
center this season. "We don't want to send any message to Odubel. He's our
center fielder right now," Mackanin said. "Then we'll look at the
whole picture at the end of the season and see what we've got and see what
makes the most sense." Herrera profiles as a left fielder, but the
Phillies will keep their options open. Quinn, who batted .302 and had 36 stolen
bases in 77 games between the Fightin' Phils and a Gulf Coast League rehab
assignment, was used all around the outfield this season, and that will
continue in the big leagues. "I'd like to see him in all three
positions," Mackanin said.
Mound Stability – So
much of the Phillies' focus has been on the young pitchers this season, and
that's understandable. Jerad
Eickhoff, Jake
Thompson, Vince
Velasquez, Aaron
Nola, Zach
Eflin and Adam
Morgan are
among the arms the organization hopes might anchor their rotation for years to
come. In a 6-2
win over the Pirates on Monday night at
Citizens Bank Park, though, 29-year-old right-hander Jeremy
Hellickson was
a reminder of the value of a savvy veteran. He earned his team-leading 11th
victory by allowing just one unearned run on three singles in 6 1/3 innings. Hellickson
can be a free agent at the end of the year. That means decisions have to be
made. The Phillies could try to sign him. They could make him a qualifying
offer, meaning that they'd get a compensatory Draft pick if he rejects it, but
they could end up paying him around $16 million for one year if he accepts. Strictly
from a baseball perspective, manager Pete Mackanin thinks the decision is easy.
"I'd like to see him back," Mackanin said. "He's been a
stabilizer for us. He gives us a lot of innings." Hellickson has been
steady much of the season, but he came into Monday night with a 6.75 ERA in his
previous three starts. "I think the last couple games I was getting ahead
of guys and just wasn't able to put them away," Hellickson said. "And
I gave up some big home runs with guys on base. I was just one pitch away from
those games, and this time I was able to put guys away when I got ahead, for
the most part." Hellickson gave up an unearned run in the first, but he
was able to settle down after needing 29 pitches to get through that inning. "I
knew after that I had to bear down and throw strikes and get some early outs
the next few innings to go six or six-plus," Hellickson said. "It was
just commanding both sides of the plate. I lost command of the fastball to a
few guys, but I was getting ahead and making good two-strike pitches." Hellickson
ended up throwing just 80 pitches in his last 5 1/3 innings. Said Mackanin:
"He was outstanding. No earned runs. He pitched extremely well."
Looking Toward The Off Season – Could
the Phillies sign a veteran free-agent bat this winter? On one hand, the
Phillies have consistently said they don't expect to be big players in the
free-agent market until they view themselves as legitimate contenders. On the
other, they added veteran starters Jeremy
Hellickson and Charlie
Morton last
offseason to stabilize the talented but young and largely unproven rotation. A
case could be made that the same principle applies to the lineup. Rumors
surfaced recently that hitters like the Marlins' Martin Prado or the Rangers' Ian Desmond could
be on the radar. Without commenting on specific names, manager Pete Mackanin
said before Monday night's series opener against the Pirates at Citizens Bank
Park that he believes there would be two benefits to such a move. "I'd
like to get a professional hitter, or even two," Mackanin said. "I
think it takes pressure off the young guys when you have [Tommy] Joseph,
[Cameron] Rupp and even [Maikel] Franco in the middle of your lineup to produce
runs. Your first year in the big leagues, that's tough to be called upon to be
the run producer. "So if you have a guy you can count on to give you
quality at-bats consistently, I believe that's important. The other players see
it, and it's just as important to have that in the lineup as it is in the
rotation." The other factor is that while the manager and coaches have
talked to the players about having a better approach at the plate, sometimes it
helps to have an established teammate as a role model. "Like the pitching
staff," Mackanin said. "You learn from a veteran pitcher by talking to
him and asking him questions. By observing and talking about what kind of
pitches he throws. Knowing basic situations. With hitting, it's moving a runner
from second to third without just giving yourself up with a ground ball to the
right side. A deep fly ball to center will get that runner over. With two
strikes, what is this guy going to try to do with me? What am I going to do?
With a hard thrower, instead of swinging from your heels, take him up the
middle or the other way. All those little things determine how good you are at
this level." Mackanin noted how the Mets struggled offensively before
trading for Yoenis
Cespedes before
the Trade Deadline last season. "And all of a sudden, everybody started
hitting as a group," he pointed out. The Phillies rank last in the Major
Leagues in runs scored. Mackanin believes that the team's pitching has been
good enough to be competitive for much of the season. "Now we have to
figure out how to get more offense," he said.
Today
In Phils History – The Dodgers Dazzy Vance failed to get the shutout but
completed the no hitter against the Phillies in 1925 (the Phillies scored on a
2 base OF error, errant throw, and sac fly). In 1963, Chris Short beat the
Dodgers while setting a new franchise record for strikeouts by a left hander
with 14. The Phillies set a NL record when they used 27 players to defeat the
Cardinals in 17 innings in 1974 (the teams combined to use a MLB record 51
players during the game). Notable acquisitions on this day include Lee Elia (1958),
Sparky Lyle (1980), and Dave Stewart (1985). Finally, Happy Birthday to Rick
Wise who was born on this day in 1945.
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are currently 64-80 this season putting them on pace to beat most
preseason predictions. All time, the Phillies are 50-62-1 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.
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