It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here: Phillies 7, Cardinals 2

What a difference ten months makes. Last time the Phillies faced the Cardinals, they were riding the joint Albert Pujols-Yadier Molina retirement tour into a NL Central title under rookie manager Oli Marmol and vibes were good in the Gateway City.

This is not that same St. Louis Cardinals team.

The Phils took the first game of the series on Friday night without much in the way of drama or fight. Chris Sanchez started off shaky but quickly settled into a really nice outing and the offense did more than enough to back him up.

For the fifth consecutive game, the Phillies allowed their opponent to put up a crooked number in the first inning. This time, Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run line-drive home run to right-center and the Phils found themselves in a 2-0 hole after Sanchez had thrown his fifth pitch of the game. The young starter found his rhythm after that, allowing just two more hits and retiring the final twelve batters he faced.

Garrett Stubbs got his team on the board in the second with a full-count jam-shot double that trickled and spun down the third base line, dancing away from Nolan Arenado and plating two to tie the game. Kyle Schwarber scored Stubbs on the next at-bat with a ground-rule double that got stuck in the right field fence.

Solo shots from Alec Bohm in the sixth and Schwarber in the seventh (his 35th of the year) all but put this one away. The Phils tacked on their seventh run on a Nick Castellanos RBI double while Jose Alvarado, Andrew Belatti, and Jeff Hoffman worked the last three innings to lock down the win.

Game two of this series is scheduled for a 7:15 first pitch tomorrow with Zach Wheeler going against Dakota Hudson. Maybe they won’t have to play from behind in that one.