Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
Everyone can now breathe a sigh of relief.
After the worst week of baseball played by the Phillies since the September collapse of 2018 in Gabe Kapler’s first year as manager, things on Sunday looked a lot more like the team that had built the best record in baseball in the first half of the season.
Zack Wheeler was dominant, tossing eight shutout innings, the Phillies hit four home runs, including one from Bryce Harper, who broke out of his recent malaise in a big way, and the Phillies defeated the Seattle Mariners 6-0, snapping a six-game losing streak.
Wheeler (11-5) allowed just two hits and struck out nine. He had all of his pitches working, but his most effective pitch was his fastball, which he was spotting with precision.
It was a bounce back start for Wheeler, who had an uncharacteristically poor outing in his last start, when the New York Yankees shelled him.
Most of the game was a pitcher’s duel between Wheeler and Seattle starter Logan Gilbert (6-8), with the difference coming on the third pitch of the game – a rocket homer by Kyle Schwarber – that gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead.
From that point forward Wheeler and Gilbert played a game of anything-you-can-do-I can-do better. But the difference is the Phillies worked some good at bats against Gilbert, forcing him to throw more pitches, thus chasing him from the game early.
Nick Castellanos had one at bat against Gilbert that was 15 pitches long – the longest plate appearance for any batter in the major leagues this season. Castellanos grounded out sharply at the end of that at bat, but it allowed the Phillies to get into the Seattle bullpen, and once that happened, things changed.
In the eighth inning, Bryson Stott hit a solo homer, Harper launched a 2-run bomb and Alec Bohm hit a solo shot. J.T. Realmuto added an RBI single, as the Phillies posted five runs in the inning to put the game away.
Harper finished with three hits, his first multi-hit game since July 12th and first three-hit game since June 24th.
What changed for Harper?
“There’s times I expand the zone and I’m really bad,” Harper said. “When I don’t expand the zone and hit pitches over the plate, I’m really good. It’s as simple as that.”
On Harper’s first hit of the game, a line drive single to right field, he reached 3000 total bases in his career, becoming just the 42nd player in major league history to reach that plateau before turning 32-years-old. He’s just the 12th left-hander and the first since Ken Griffey Jr to accomplish the feat.
“I just want to win, and I know when I play well, we’re going to win,” Harper said. “So, when I don’t play well and we lose, I take a lot of that on myself. You guys know how I am. I want to be great. I want to be the best and do the things I can to get this organization where (it) wants to be.”
Schwarber also had three hits.
Brandon Marsh made an unbelievable catch in center field in the seventh inning. He lost the ball in the sun but stuck his glove out blindly and had it land in the palm of his glove without ever seeing it.
“That was wild,” Harper said.
It was an important catch because it kept the score 1-0 Phillies at the time and set up the big inning to follow.
The Phillies got some help from a couple of bad baseball teams on Sunday as well. The Miami Marlins shut out the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Angels beat the New York Mets. That allowed the Phillies to pad their lead in the N.L. East back to six and eight games respectfully over the Braves and Mets.
GOOD NEWS
Ranger Suarez (back spasms) is feeling better and will throw a bullpen session on Monday in Los Angeles, but likely won’t be inserted back into the rotation until after the Phillies return to Philadelphia from their west coast trip.
Suarez was originally slated to return this weekend in Arizona but had a minor setback in that he was still feeling soreness in his back. That seems to have cleared up and he’s now on track to return against Miami at Citizens Bank Park next week.
That means Kolby Allard will get one more turn at pitching bulk innings (possibly with an opener before he takes the mound), before Suarez gets back onto the active roster.
ON DECK
The Phillies begin a crucial three-game series on Monday in Los Angeles against the Dodgers as the two teams battle for the best record in the National League. Aaron Nola (11-4, 3.43 ERA) throws for the Phillies against Tyler Glasnow (8-6, 3.50).
