Sosa, Syndergaard drop the hammer: Phillies 4, Reds 3

Social media is the land of instant overreaction. Nowhere is this more evident than watching people tweet through a sporting event. No matter what that event is, people feel the need to show real time thoughts to what they are seeing without thinking about letting whatever that game is continue to unfold. In football, it could be an adjustment that gets made. In basketball, it could be a hot shooting night that hasn’t gotten start. Whatever it is, there are times when you think a game is headed in one direction, then it totally turns around.

Case in point, tonight’s start for Noah Syndergaard against the Reds. When he allowed two runs in the second inning, people were...not happy about his performance.

You get the point.

After that second inning happened, they weren’t exactly completely off base. Syndergaard allowed two hits to start the inning, then retired the next two hitters, then allowed a two-out single to the nine hole hitters, Michael Papierski, a catcher who was hitting .125 at the time.

However, the Phillies bounced right back in the third inning when Bryson Stott singled to lead off the inning, then stole second with one out. However, a poor baserunning decision erased him on a ball hit to the shortstop that left Alec Bohm standing on first and two out. When J.T. Realmuto singled as the next batter, the blunder looked even worse, but fortunately for the Phillies, Nick Castellanos came through with a single that scored Bohm and put Realmuto on third.

Castellanos stole second, then was followed by a walk to Jean Segura, loading the bases for Edmundo Sosa. Sosa would deliver, a broken bat single scoring Realmuto and Castellanos and giving the Phillies the lead.

In the fifth inning, Sosa was at it again, this time a broken bat double that would score Segura and make it 4-2, Phillies.

Sosa had an outstanding night, both at the plate and in the field. Though Stott is going to be the fulltime shortstop moving forward, having Sosa available to play third base gives this team some really good defense on the left side of the infield. His play tonight was a huge decided factor in the win.

Meanwhile, Syndergaard just started cruising. Once he found his stuff and started placing it where he wanted, he was almost unhittable. The Reds came into the game with a gameplan of swinging at pretty much anything early in the count that was close and because of that, Syndergaard’s pitch count remained low. He went into the 8th inning having thrown only 71 pitches, but his 77th pitch found too much plate, letting Jake Fraley put a good swing on it and suddenly the Reds were only one run behind the Phillies. In the past, with their bullpen, that was cause for concern.

Not these Phillies’ relievers.

David Robertson and Seranthony Dominguez made quick work of the Cincinnati hitters, securing a win that probably shouldn’t have been as close as it was (4 for 15 with runners in scoring position, 11 men left on base is a little rough), but still counts as a win.

Oh, and those reactions to Syndergaard after his night was finished?

A little bit better.