The Phillies hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates for the final game of a three-game home stand. Phillies rookie Mick Abel was excellent as he earned his first MLB win in his major league debut on Sunday afternoon in a 1-0 Phillies win. The 23-year-old pitcher dueled with the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, Paul Skenes, in a pitcher duel that saw the pitchers combine to allow only eight hits through the first six innings of play.
Mick Abel stuns in Phillies debut
Abel was exquisite in his MLB debut finishing with five hits allowed, no runs, no walks and nine strikeouts. The nine strikeouts tied a long-standing record from nearly 70 years ago. Curt Simmons, a highly-touted 18-year-old pitcher, started the second game of a doubleheader on September 28, 1947. Simmons pitched a complete game in the second game of the double-dip of baseball, a 3-1 win for the Phillies over the New York Giants.
Pittsburgh’s starter was equally as dominant in his outing — eight innings, three hits allowed, one earned run, a walk, and eight strikeouts. The second year pitcher kept the Phillies at bay in his 17th career road start, but the Pittsburgh offense was unable to bail out the lone mistake the Buccos made in the fifth inning.
On the board
The Phillies scratched their first run across the board in the bottom of the fifth inning as Nick Castellanos scored on a fielder’s choice. Brandon Marsh legged out an infield ground ball to push the first run across the plate in the ballgame. The play was scored as an infield single (as opposed to an error on Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes) generating an RBI for Marsh. It was the 200th RBI of Marsh’s career in his 500th major league game in his six-years in the big leagues.
Getting over the line
After the sixth inning, Thompson turned to his bullpen ending the rookie’s outstanding afternoon, which was always him plan — to get Abel through six innings if he could. “We wanted Strahmy going through [O’neil] Cruz. Romano and Kirk [Kerkering] were kind of interchangeable. Because Kirk got up in the sixth to [warm-up] … in case we had some traffic there, we just sent him out for the seventh, then went to Strahm in the eighth.”
Orion Kirkering’s outing started with some angst after the first two batters reached base. Pittsburgh attempted a sacrifice, but Kirkering fielded the ball and tossed over to Alec Bohm at third base for the force out for the first out of the frame. The Pirates next batter, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, grounded in an inning-ending double play to end the seventh inning.
Skenes mowed through the Phillies lineup in the seventh inning. Phillies reliever Matt Strahm did the same and struck out two of the three batters he faced Sunday afternoon.
Last year’s NL Rookie of the Year, Skenes, returned for the eighth inning of play, sitting down the Philadelphia batting lineup in order once again to give the Pirates a fighting chance to tie the game with three outs remaining.
Phillies reliever, Jordan Romano, entered in the final frame and closed the game with three strikeouts to save the 1-0 Phillies win, the 28th victory of the season of the 2025 season. “Romano threw the ball well,” Thompson said of this afternoon’s closer who picked up his 5th save in a Phillies uniform this season.
The win wraps up a successful 4-2 homestand at Citizens Bank Park. Philadelphia travels west for a four-game series with the Colorado Rockies starting tomorrow night at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado.
Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
