OOTP 4/29: A double dip split

Tuesday night, the simPhillies were rained out in San Francisco. So, today, they played a doubleheader. If you are counting the transactional news that hit the wire today, you could say the team won more than it lost today.

Game 1 - Phillies 12, Giants 3

In game 1, the offense woke up in a big way.

Rhys Hoskins, in his first game since his demotion to the right-handed part of a first place platoon with Jay Bruce, mashed two home runs in leading the Phillies to a 12-3 win. The offense as whole went off as well, tallying 16 hits against former Phillie Drew Smyly. The only real down part of the lineup was Andrew McCutchen’s return from a rehab stint, where he went 0 for 4 with a walk and a run scored. With how Jean Segura has been raking, it could be a while before Cutch returns to the top of the lineup.

If you see that boxscore, you’ll notice that there are a lot of pitchers. That’s because Vince Velasquez, the day’s starter, tweaked an oblique muscle and might have to miss his next start.

After a bullpen game like that, the team needed game 2’s starter to go a good amount of innings.

Game 2 - Giants 6, Phillies 2

In the second game, the Phillies offense got a lot of hits, but like they have so often in this season, they could not cash in on scoring opportunities.

Notable here was Hoskins, tripling in his pinch hitting opportunity. That is 12 total bases in his last three hits, something he has not done well so far in this season. The rest of the offense was just kind of “eh”, not driving in the runs when the chances were there, wasting a decent outing from Aaron Nola and losing the series to Gabe Kapler and the Giants.

Once again, it was old friend Jose Alvarez that put the game out of reach. More on him in a second. The bullpen was clearly tired, seeing as how no one could throw more than 20 pitches at all.

The team is off tomorrow as they head home to take on the Rockies.

Notes

• Andrew McCutchen was brought back from his rehab assignment. Nick Williams, with minor league options left, was sent to Lehigh Valley
• Deolis Guerra was DFA’d and placed on waivers in order to make room for the rehabbing Tommy Hunter. Guerra was then claimed off of waivers by both the Astros and the Blue Jays, thus concluding his time with Philadelphia
• The team had finally seen enough of Alvarez, trading him and his 12.75 ERA to Seattle for relief prospect Aaron Fletcher. Fletcher’s profile for the season was good enough that it was worth the risk.
• The team then made a trade to fill Alvarez’s left handed void, acquiring Tony Cingrani from the Royals for minor leaguer Norman Anciani.