SIXERS WIN!!!!: Diamondbacks 8, Phillies 4

There was a distinct difference in the two events that occurred down at the Sports Complex tonight; primarily that one of them got to happen indoors. The other one, which we will discuss here, was far less enjoyable through both its final score and its lack of a ceiling.

While everyone was watching footage of Brett Brown being drenched in chocolate milk while avoiding accidentally raising their cat into a ceiling fan, the Phillies were quietly wrapping up an 8-4 loss to the NL West-leading Diamondbacks. They hadn’t had trouble getting on base early on, working walks and hitting singles in the first three innings; in fact, Aaron Altherr hit a two-run double and Maikel Franco cracked a sac fly in the third frame, answering a two-run rally from Arizona in the top of the inning with a pair of solo shots off Phillies starter Vince Velasquez to make it 3-2.

Velasquez had four strikeouts through the first two innings on only 23 pitches, but that all came to an end in the fifth, when he threw a laborious 36 pitches and gave up the lead on an RBI double by David Peralta to make it 4-3. Meanwhile, the Phillies offense stalled out as Robbie Ray smothered the lineup with strikeouts in the bottom of the fourth and wound up recording 11 of the 14 outs for which he was on the field as K’s. He departed before the end of the fifth as well, but the Phillies would only break through for a run (Thanks to a Cesar Hernandez single on another two-hit night for the Phillies lead-off man) one final time off Diamondbacks reliever Fernando Salas. The Arizona reserves proceeded to shut down the Phillies bats, while Victor Arano allowed too many base runners, earning a run, and Yacksel Rios got hammered for three more runs over an inning and a third.

Meanwhile, the gentle spring rain that had settled over Philadelphia slowly turned into a downpour. The difference from was, it wasn’t chocolate milk, like in the Wells Fargo Center across the street, where the Sixers took down the Heat to advance to the next round of the NBA playoffs despite Miami’s James Johnson committing everything but a felony. NEVERTHELESS, the Phillies fell to 14-8 as the Mets plunged into extra innings at the time of this posting, the Phillies’ hopes of first place in the NL East dashed for the evening by their loss.

To put a fun little bonus on the night, Scott Kingery went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, shifting a narrative that was only ten days old.