Aaron continues his Altherr: Phillies 5, Diamondbacks 3

Heading into the game’s start, it looked like it would be a pitcher’s duel. The headliners were Jake Arrieta and Zack Greinke, two of the better starters in the National League over the last five seasons. Early on, it looked to be that way too, as both pitchers went comfortably through the first three innings with a few blips for each that lead to the hometown nine being up, 2-1.

Then in the fourth, some shoddy fielding by Maikel Franco led to the bases being loaded up for the Diamondbacks with nobody out. After a walk tied the game at two, Jarrod Dyson stepped up to the plate. Heading into the game, Dyson was hitting a meager .173/.259/.365, but did manage to hit his first home run of the season last night off of Vince Velasquez, so he was not an automatic out. Instead, he inexplicably bunted to try and get a run in, only to be thwarted by a pretty impressive play by Arrieta:

The next batter saw Franco make up for it with a nice, inning ending double play that left the game tied.

In the sixth, Arizona would take the lead with a sacrifice fly that scored Paul Goldschmidt, but in the bottom of the inning, that lead would prove to be short lived. Grienke put the first two men on by giving up a long double to Carlos Santana, then walking Odubel Herrera. After getting Rhys Hoskins to strikeout, up came Aaron Altherr.

Now, last week, I wrote a piece about how badly Altherr was struggling. It made sense because he was. Since that piece came out, Altherr has been hitting the ball much better, going 5 for 13 with three RBI. Now I’m not saying that piece had any influence over Aaron, but hey <reaches hand over shoulder and pats own back>. Tonight, he had a chance to do some damage against Grienke in a big spot in the ballgame. When that chance came, he didn’t miss. Grienke got behind 2-0, then hung a slider.

That would bring the Phillies in front, 5-3, where it would remain until the ninth. Hector Neris came in to try and lock it down, and though he put men on second and third with, we’ll say less than pinpoint control, he managed to induce a long fly ball that ended the game with the Phillies coming out ahead, 5-3.

Game Notes

• Arrieta lowered his ERA to 1.82 in 24 ²⁄₃ innings. Though he only struck out two tonight, he induced 11 groundball outs. The team now has two legit “aces” on their staff.
• The Phillies had three errors tonight, giving them 22 on the season. That would tie them for first in the National League.
• If anyone knows who the whistler the crowd microphone was picking is, please find him and refer him to me. Thank you.
• Tomorrow’s broadcast in on Facebook. Yup, again.