JOY: Phillies 2, Rockies 1

ALERT ALERT ALERT

THE PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES HAVE WON A BASEBALL GAME

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ALERT ALERT ALERT

Oh man, did the Phillies need that. We all needed that! The Phillies won 2-1 in 11 innings, avoiding a sweep by the Rockies, and winning their first game in what feels like six years.

The hero of this game isn’t the man who scored the winning run, one Tommy Joseph, responsible for both of the Phillies’ runs today. The hero is the bullpen. In this 11 inning game, they pitched six innings of scoreless relief, and it was glorious. Pat Neshek made this insane grab in the seventh inning.

Hector Neris threw ten pitches in the ninth inning, and every single one of them were strikes. And Jeanmar Gomez made his triumphant return from the disabled list with a scoreless, hitless inning, and he even gets the win to boot.

The bullpen has pitched 13 consecutive scoreless innings. They’re doing great.

Vince Velasquez isn’t doing too bad, either. He only went five innings, and he gave up eight hits, but he struck out seven and allowed just one run (a homer from Trevor Story). He threw 94 pitches over those five innings, which is why he didn’t go back out for the sixth. It’s not amazing by any stretch, but a start like this is a step in the right direction. Baby steps.

The offense, though, is struggling. If there’s a word that goes beyond struggling, that’s what the Phillies offense is doing. The only guy who looked good today was Tommy Joseph. He hit a home run in the seventh inning which tied the game 1-1, and he scored Michael Saunders (who doubled) to win the game. Maikel Franco, fresh from his two-game benching, didn’t look great striking out with runners on first and second in the eighth inning. And Odubel Herrera... woof. He struck out five times today. The platinum sombrero.

Oh lord, that triple slash is horrific. The guy is having such a hard time that I think it might be time to sit him for a day. Let him clear his head, because he looks completely lost at the plate — not just as far as hitting mechanics, but he looks lost mentally. It’s tough to watch, and Matt Stairs and Pete Mackanin need to work to get him right.

But we can think about that tomorrow. Tonight, we can live our lives knowing that the Phillies managed to get a win. Hopefully they’re headed for a turnaround.