Arch(er)ing toward greatness: Phillies 9, Rays 4

I love Chris Archer. I really do. He’s fun and talented and everything baseball should be.

But I won’t deny it was fun watching him get pasted by the Phillies offense. They absolutely ravaged him, scoring eight runs over four innings on a day when he obviously didn’t have his best stuff.

Most of the damage came in the second inning, when it seemed like the Phillies literally couldn’t stop getting hits.

It started right away. Nick Williams doubled and Scott Kingery doubled, and that was the first run. Maikel Franco walked, and after a mound visit, Archer struck out Jorge Alfaro. For a second, it seemed like Archer was getting it together. And then the dam broke. J.P. Crawford double, 2-0 Phillies. Cesar Hernandez single, 3-0 Phillies. Carlos Santana single, 4-0 Phillies. Odubel Herrera single, 5-0 Phillies. Rhys Hoskins forceout, 6-0 Phillies. It was glorious.

A word about J.P. Crawford: kid is on FIRE. And he’s feeling really good.

The rest of the game wasn’t quite as fun as that half-inning, but it was still pretty great. Jake Arrieta had another good start, throwing 6.2 innings and giving up just two earned runs (three altogether). He gave up seven hits and walked two. But the strikeouts... woof. He struck out just one batter, which is really unusual.

Victor Arano took over at that point, and he pitched 1.1 clean innings. Drew Hutchison took the ninth and he gave up a run, but with a 9-3 lead, you can give up a run and not give up the game.

The Phillies go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon. Be there or be square, kids! I’ll leave you with this.