The glory of Maikel Franco: Phillies 5, Marlins 0

That felt good.

That felt really good.

For the first time this season, we saw a game of what was, ostensibly, normal baseball. There were no crazy pitching changes. The lineup was mostly normal. (Save for the absence of Nick Williams, which is puzzling and unnecessary. Let the chiseled man-god play!) There was a little hitting, more walking, and lights out pitching. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough. And it felt so good.

Nick Pivetta shone like no Phillies starting pitcher has since Aaron Nola was unjustly pulled on opening day at 68 pitches and YES I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT FOREVER, OR PROBABLY NOT BECAUSE THAT’S ANNOYING.

Uh, where was I. Nick Pivetta. Yeah. He was ultra fantastic. He allowed four hits and struck out nine over 5 ²⁄₃ innings. He was sharp and confident and showed exactly why the Phillies have continued to have faith in him. He was followed by Adam Morgan, Luis Garcia, and Hector Neris. They allowed no hits, no walks, and Hoby Milner got the night off.

The Phillies scored five runs on Thursday, and four of them were scored off the bat of the Mighty Maikel Franco. He looked pretty damn good. He had three hits, including a triple (!?) and a home run. Odubel Herrera had two hits, and Cesar Hernandez walked three (!?!?!) times.

There is one major concern right now, at least to me. So if I may be brutally honest, J.P. Crawford has looked like hot stinky garbage at the plate. He looks like he’s swinging a 90 pound bat, and he’s staying away from the plate like it gave him an STD. It’s not good.

But we can worry about that tomorrow. Or Saturday, since tomorrow is an offday for some reason. Right now, I’m just going to be happy about the win. And that’s great advice for everyone: enjoy this because we haven’t really felt this way yet this season. It’s nice. More of this, please.