Delayed gratification: Phillies 11, Cardinals 4

The start of Wednesday night’s game was delayed by more than 90 minutes, but it turned out to be worth the wait. The Phillies hit four home runs, and Aaron Nola pitched seven strong innings, as they easily handled the Cardinals 11-4.

Cardinals starter Genesis Cabrera was making his major league debut, and the Phillies welcomed him to the big leagues with two runs in the first inning. Unfortunately for Cabrera, things didn’t improve after that. After Cesar Hernandez drove in the first two runs, Bryce Harper took care of the next four. First came his tenth home run of the year.

He followed that up with a two-run double in the fourth that was the 200th of his career. He was denied a chance to try for a cycle when he had to leave the game after fouling a ball off his foot.

The game got out of hand in the fifth inning when Scott Kingery and Maikel Franco hit back-to-back home runs, and Andrew McCutchen added a two-run shot two batters later.

Staked to a big lead, Aaron Nola turned in his best start of the season. He pitched seven innings, and the only blemish was Matt Wieters’ solo home run in the fourth. Juan Nicasio turned in a shaky inning in relief, but his failings are far more tolerable when he’s not trying to protect a one-run lead in the ninth inning.

Speaking of the ninth, JD Hammer was called upon to finish things out, and he did not disappoint.

The teams will be back at it Thursday afternoon. Hopefully, unlike the last two nights, that game will start on time. But if the Phillies do have to wait through another delay, it would be nice if the end result was as positive as it was on Wednesday.