Fish in a Barrel: Phillies 9, Marlins 4

Oh God they needed this.

The past month of Phillies baseball has been absolutely brutal. Before tonight, they were 3-7 in their last 10, and nursing a 3 game losing streak. They haven’t won a series since they swept these very Marlins a month ago. Not only are they losing, but they keep finding unique new ways to lose. With playoff hopes dimming by the day, this team needed to put up a decent win.

And they did. They finally did.

Runs!

Carlos Santana got things started off with a home run on the 4th pitch of the game. He crushed it deep to right, into the absolutely deserted second deck. But that wasn’t the only action those vacant seats got tonight, because Asdrubal Cabrera launched one almost in the same spot just three innings later.

In between those two monster dingers, the Phillies managed to score 5 runs: when Cesar Hernandez hit a bases-clearing triple in the 1st to score Odubel Herrera, Wilson Ramos and Nick Williams and when Asdrubal doubled home Rhys Hoskins the next inning.

Those are a lot of runs. Far more than we’re accustomed to seeing in just a few short innings.

Jake Arrieta

The man has been off and on this season, but he demonstrated that he was decidedly on tonight. He racked up a season high 11 strikeouts and only issued two walks over the course of his 108 pitches thrown.

He had trouble in the 5th, when the Marlins peppered him with 4 singles and a walk to score a run and load the bases. Another run came home when Derek Dietrich grounded out and Rafael Ortega was able to beat the throw home, but Arrieta was able to limit the damage after that with a 4 pitch strikeout. The Marlins’ offense was bookended by two solo Home Runs by J.T. Realmuto; one in the 1st and another in the 8th.

Jake stayed in the game until surrendering the afforementioned home run to Realmuto, going 7.1 innings. It struck me as odd that he was left in as long as he was, especially after his shakey 5th, but I’m not going to nit pick that detail when overall the game was pretty great.

Other Stuff

• With the bases loaded in the top of the 9th, Rhys Hoskins got hit in what looked like the face to bring home a run. Luckily, it instead hit his shoulder, and it looks like it wasn’t anything serious.
• Héctor Neris made things interesting after Realmuto’s 8th inning shot chased Arrieta, but despite giving up back to back singles, no additional runs scored.
• Pat Neshek finished the fish off in the 9th to secure the Phillies their 73rd win of the season.
• The Red Sox defeated the Braves 5-1 in Atlanta shortly after this game concluded. The Phillies have gained ground in the standings and are now just 3 games back from first.