New toy shines: Phillies 4, Marlins 2

After a nauseating loss last night, we mercifully didn’t have to wait long for redemption. A short 13+ hours later, the Phillies again showed their resilience by winning another close game to take three out of four on the road against a division rival and fellow wild card challenger.

Missing the last two games after injuring his hand sliding into second base on Monday, JT Realmuto was back in the lineup and showed no signs of impairment, launching the first pitch he saw into the Phillies’ bullpen in right field.

Lorenzen was effective from start to finish and seemed to get more comfortable as he got deeper into the game, recording all five of his strikeouts from the fourth inning on.

He finished with two runs on six hits and a walk over eight innings. The walk to Josh Bell resulted in the Marlins’ first run on the day courtesy of a Jazz Chisholm double.

Marlins’ starter Johnny Cueto was chased from the game in the seventh inning after loading the bases with no outs due to singles by Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos and a walk by Bryson Stott. Marlins’ reliever AJ Puk came in to clean up the mess and Brandon Marsh squeezed a two-RBI single through the hole in right for some lefty on lefty crime.

After getting the first two hitters out to begin the bottom of the seventh, Lorenzen missed with a fastball down the middle that Marlins’ left fielder, Bryan De La Cruz smacked to straight-away center field for a first pitch bomb.

Three pitches later Lorenzen surrendered a double to Jesus Sanchez but was able to finish the inning with no further damage.

Rob Thomson has made some questionable decisions lately, but Lorenzen made him look like a genius for keeping him in the game for the eighth inning at 93 pitches. He did allow a two-out single to Jorge Soler but still got out of the inning with only eight pitches for a total of 101.

With Craig Kimbrel and Gregory Soto both having been deployed during last night’s debacle, Seranthony Dominguez came in to close out the ninth. He allowed a leadoff single to Chisholm but sat down the next three hitters to seal the game and series victory.

Phils travel home for a weekend series against the Royals (34-75) that begins a ten-game homestand, their longest of the season. Aaron Nola faces off against Jordan Lyles tomorrow at 7:05pm.