The Comeback is Greater than the Setback: Mariners 5 Phillies 6

The Phillies were looking to avenge last night’s opening series defeat and give me my first win recapping games for The Good Phight.

Young right-hander Logan Gilbert got the ball for the Mariners, who was looking to make up for his rough start against the Brewers eight days ago, allowing four runs through six innings.

Things did not go as planned in the bottom of the first, Bryson Stott drew a rare nine-pitch walk. After a Trea Turner popup and a Kyle Schwarber strikeout, Nick Castellanos crushes a 3-1 fastball to right center field for an early 2-0 lead.

Taijuan Walker ran himself into trouble the following inning. With two outs, he walked Cal Raleigh on 4 pitches, allowed an infield single to AJ Pollock, and four pitch walked Kolten Wong, who was hitting just .140 coming into that at-bat.

JP Crawford snatched the hearts of Philadelphia and made Ruben Amaro Jr think about his days as Phillies General Manager, hitting a tank to dead center field on a fastball right down the middle, 4-2 Seattle.

As the great Dave Niehaus would put it, “Get out the rye bread and mustard grandma, it’s a grand salami.”

The inning just could not end there for Walker, Julio Rodriguez took a hanging slider to left center field to make it 5-2.

The Phillies began the third with a little luck, Edmundo Sosa hit a ball right off Gilbert’s leg for an infield single. Bryson Stott continues to do a 1950 Billy Goodman impression with a single to left. Sosa moved to third off a Turner flyout so Kyle Schwarber can do what he does best, an opposite way single to make it 5-3.

Walker was removed from the game after just 4 innings and 68 pitches. This comes the day after the Phillies used some of their lower-leverage guys like Yunior Marté and Andrew Vasquez.

It was easy to see that something wasn’t right for Walker, the team announced he left with right forearm tightness.

Luis Ortiz came in and continues to show plenty of movement on his sinker, recording 2 strikeouts with the pitch in the 5th. Ortiz returned for the 6th for a really important inning in Rob Thomson’s bullpen. He’s been excellent so far this season with a 1.29 ERA.

As the rain pours down in Citizens Bank Park, Stott continues to a great Dom DiMaggio impression with a single to right. Turner moved him over on a ground out to second and Schwarber struck out. All this did was set the stage for a Castellanos single to center for his third RBI of the night.

Gilbert struggled to go deep into the ball game, just 5 innings on 86 pitches. Trevor Gott pitched a clean sixth inning and was brought back out for Sosa in the seventh for a strikeout. Tough lefty Gabe Speier did his job by getting Stott and Schwarber out to finish the inning.

Justin Topia didn’t see the same fate as Gott or Speier however. Castellanos leads off the inning with his third hit of the night, hitting a single just past Crawford on a down-and-away slider.

Brandon Marsh hit a single just past Kolten Wong at second to put runners on first and third. JT Realmuto had his fair share of struggles heading into this game but came in the clutch with a single up the middle to tie the game at 5.

The rally continued when Alec Bohm pulled a sinker into left, sending Marsh home from second to give the Phillies a 6-5 lead.

José Alvarado came in the ninth to face the bottom of the Mariners’ order. It took just two pitches to get AJ Pollock to ground out to shortstop and a ten-pitch at-bat to get José Caballero down swinging.

With two outs, Crawford’s hot night continues, taking a down and in 99 mph sinker to right field for a double. With a runner on second, two outs, Julio Rodríguez strikes out on a cutter.

The Phillies improved their record to 12-13 and are set for the finale of the three-game series tomorrow at one o’clock.

Hard-throwing right-hander George Kirby faces Matt Strahm to decide the series.