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This is the most late-season baseball tweet:
We're in the bottom of the 8th inning in Boston, and the Red Sox lead 6-1. Luis Garcia is in to pitch for the #Phillies.
— Phillies (@Phillies) September 6, 2015
It's late in the game; the Phillies are losing by an unmanageable margin; Luis Garcia is on his way in; at this point, we're just laying out clear-cut exposition: We're playing this game because the commissioner says we can't just put on a rerun of some loss from 1997, was the official word from Phillies HQ, I was told.
No, but it's fun to watch younger players like Darin Ruf and Erik Kratz get their shots and have vivid, confusing dreams about what the future might hold. Take the young Phillies starters who took on the Red Sox all weekend - that could be a glimpse into an era of this team we'll all see and enjoy. Homegrown Adam Morgan? Astutely acquired Alec Asher? "Jumpin'" Jerad Eickhoff?
It was Eickhoff who continued the young Phillies pitching staff's "There Is No Future" Tour through Boston, contributing six earned runs over four innings in another difficult-to-watch start for a new youngling.
Fenway Park has not been kind to the #Phillies rookie pitchers. Morgan, Asher, and Eickhoff have a combined 14.25 ERA this weekend.
— Matt Breen (@matt_breen) September 6, 2015
The three straight losses to the Red Sox culminated in the Phillies' 11th sweep of the year, which sounds kind of low when you consider how many times they've lost two nights in a row. David Ortiz positively menaced Eickhoff at the plate, touching his low and away fastball in the first for a two-run shot, and then sweet holy christmas did he almost smoke another offering for a grand slam in the fourth. Eickhoff had already given up an additional four runs in the second inning at this point.
Not long after, Pete Mackanin came out, wrapped Eickhoff in a blanket, gave him some hot tea, and patted his back reassuringly he as he escorted him off the field.
It was all sunshine and farts on the other side, as Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez could only bellow with laughter as the Phillies tried frantically to touch his baseball with their bats over the course of seven innings, managing just a single run while Ortiz, the DH picked his teeth with the bat boy in the Boston dugout.
Odubel Herrera was the obvious MVP of the weekend with his bat flip off a garbage time RBI single with two outs in the ninth inning and the Phillies down by five (he also made a catch in the fourth that briefly held off the Boston offensive attack) running, jumping catch . Prior to that, it was Cesar Hernandez who'd been the Phillies' offensive backbone with his mighty third inning bloop that accidentally scored Freddy Galvis.
The Phillies bullpen held, however, and allowed zero runs from Boston through the game's final five innings. Dalier Hinojosa, Hector Neris, and Luis Garcia closed things out allowing not only no more runs, but no more hits (Hinojosa allowed three walks), combining for five K's.
The Phillies are likely saving their remaining wins for teams whose season will actually be affected by them; after all, Jeff Francoeur can't re-sheathe his blade until he's tasted blood.