Citizens Bank Park was nearly full for a brisk-turned-rainy mid-week contest against the Colorado Rockies. Already a chilly evening, rain sent some Phillies fans running for the concourse in the fifth, but the action continued. Those that remained in their seats used the game’s giveaway—the Opening Night t-shirts—as rally towels to cheer on their squad with a chance to break things open.
That didn’t quite happen, but the strong pitching from Phillies hurlers continued and helped secure another close one as Philadelphia hung on for a 5-1 victory.
Let’s see how we got there.
Sosa breaks it open
Edmundo Sosa has to be the story of this young season for Philadelphia. Trea Turner dealt with back spasms after the opening day game, opening the door for Sosa to get some regular playing time the first week of the season — and he has grabbed that opportunity and ran…and hit…and played great defense…and you get the idea. After knocking in the go-ahead runs in Monday’s home opener, Sosa broke things open for the Phillies again tonight – this time, a two-run double in the eighth took his team’s lead from two runs to four.
Sosa finished the game with three hits, two RBIs, and a run scored. So far, through his four games, he leads the team with nine hits (.600 BA) and four doubles, and he is second on the team with five RBIs. The perfect utility man may just be forcing his way into the lineup more often.
When asked if he’s going to try to find a way to get Sosa in the lineup tomorrow, manager Rob Thomson jokingly said, “I’m gonna call MLB and see if we can play 10 [players].” He added that playing the outfield likely is not an option with a right-hander on the mound, but that comment left the door open for him potentially seeing time out there with a lefty starting the game.
Pitching performances
Zack Wheeler was every bit the ace the Phillies front office paid him to be Wednesday night. He went seven strong innings, allowing just one run on a solo home run in his final frame. He wasn’t slowing, however, as he struck out the side in that inning to cap off a great night. This was Wheeler’s 26th double-digit strikeout game, his 18th as a member of the Phillies.
In the fifth, Wheeler threw 18 pitches – his most to that point. The saving grace for the right-hander was the sixth, as he responded with a quick eight-pitch frame. This is likely what allowed him to finish the entirety of the seventh, as he threw 22 pitches to close out his night. Zack finished the game with 105 pitches, allowing three hits and just one run while striking out 10, earning his first win of the season.
Wheeler gave way to Matt Strahm, who struggled but left the game unscathed. He faced five batters, but four of them saw deep counts. Strahm threw 30 pitches, just 16 for strikes, but managed to strike out two and leave the man he walked at first base. José Alvarado came in to shut things down in the ninth. He did surrender a double but struck out two on his way to a scoreless frame of his own.
Rockies starter Kyle Freeland was no slouch. He went 6.2 innings, allowing just three runs on nine hits. Freeland was efficient for the most part, throwing less than 10 pitches in three innings – including both the first and second frames. Phillies hitters had the veteran left-hander on the ropes in the fifth, but he managed to escape – we’ll get to that more in a moment.
Freeland threw a healthy amount of sweepers to left-handed hitters – especially Bryce Harper. The first baseman seemingly didn’t have a great eye for them until the final one he saw that he drove to the right-field wall for a flyout. All in all, Harper saw 15 pitches from Freeland – 11 of which were sweepers. Oddly enough, those are the only sweepers he has seen in the young season, per TruMedia.
Thomson did say postgame that they expected a heavy dose of the sweeper from Freeland, especially against their left-handed hitters.
Fifth inning miss
The fifth inning started as good as possible for the Phillies. Edmundo Sosa led off with a single, and an errant pick-off attempt from Freeland allowed him to advance to second. Rojas laid down a beautiful bunt and was safe at first. After a stolen base, Turner hit an infield single to load the bases for the heart of the order – and that’s where the excitement ended. Harper, Bohm, and Schwarber were due up with a reeling pitcher still on the mound. 14 pitches later, they all struck out, and not a single run was scored.
The Phillies only struck out four times in the game, and three of them came from the 2-3-4 hitters in the same inning while the bases were full. That can be demoralizing – and it’s an extremely rare feat (apparently not in Philly, though):
After the game, Manger Rob Thomson spoke about the inning and what the message is to the players following that type of mid-inning performance.
Just keep going, you know – if you get runners on base, like we did, you’re gonna score. You’re gonna run into innings like that every once in a while, but you just gotta keep getting runners on base. And if you do that, you’re gonna score runs.”
They did just that.
Other notes:
Johan Rojas had a great game tonight, going 2-for-2 with two singles, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a stolen base. He played great defense in center, once again, and he laid down two bunts – one the sacrifice and one the aforementioned base hit in the fifth. Thomson was asked about his at-bats during post-game:
“This was the best Major League game he’s played, in my opinion, because that’s exactly what he needs to do. He needs to move runners, put the ball in play, sacrifice, play good defense. You know, he just really played well.”
The Phillies early-season trend of navigating the starting pitcher and then dominating the bullpen continued tonight. Here’s how things have broken-down so far:
- vs. Starting Pitchers: 30.0 Innings, 5 runs (1.50 ERA)
- vs. Relief Pitchers: 14.0 Innings, 24 runs (15.43 ERA)
Philly has earned their second-straight series win to open the season. They have one more tomorrow vs. the Rockies before welcoming the defending World Series Champion Dodgers to town for a weekend tilt.
