Sweep sweepity sweep sweep: Phillies 3, Pirates 2

The Phillies did it again. They stayed with the Pirates the entire game, and beat them in the end. They won 3-2.

Like the two previous games I recapped in this series, the baseball was deeply, deeply frustrating and boring through the bulk of the innings. Both the Pirates and the Phillies sent good pitchers to the mound today in Trevor Williams and Nick Pivetta (respectively). Pivetta outdueled Williams by ¹⁄₃ of an inning, and they both allowed two runs and struck out seven. Williams allowed one hit and five walks, and Pivetta allowed five hits and two walks.

Again: good, but boring and frustrating. Watching the Phillies struggle and struggle against Williams was not fun. They had a chance to go ahead in the eighth, but with men on the corners, Pedro Florimon popped up on the first pitch he saw and ended the scoring chance.

Besides Nick Pivetta and the bullpen pitching clean and standing strong, the win came from two players: Andrew Knapp and Aaron Altherr. Altherr came into the game in the seventh inning had three hits, including a triple and the game-winning walk-off single. And who did he score? That would be Andrew Knapp, who hit a triple — that was allllllmost a home run — and was on third base when Altherr got his hit.

The Phillies just swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in four games. They’re 14-7. They’ve won 11 of their last 13. They’re half a game out of first place. And...

It’s still just April. There’s a lot of baseball to go. But even when this team gets bad, we know they’ll be able to make their way out of it. Because we know what this team is capable of, and it’s good baseball.