Phillies Take Series Over Los Angeles Dodgers
Kyle Schwarber celebrates his walk-off homer on Friday night against the Dodgers. Yong Kim/Philadelphia Inquirer
The red-hot Philadelphia Phillies brought the same energy Friday evening at Citizens Bank Park as they did in their previous series versus the Detroit Tigers by sweeping them as the offense sparked at the end of the game.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have been on a roller-coaster lately, especially with the way they played versus the Cincinnati Reds where they took two out of three. The Dodgers came into tonight’s game with something off their shoulders with bad baseball.
The Dodgers pitching wasn’t as sharp as Dodger fans wanted to see and the Phillies offense really embraced the struggles with great pieces of hitting late in the game.
The Phillies started Ranger Suarez, who pitched great in the first five innings, gave up one earned run, and struck out eight. Phillies manager Rob Thomson called to the bullpen to put in Matt Strahm. That time of the game was when the Phillies were looking defeated with back-to-back home runs by Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman that tied the game up at four in the top of the seventh. Although Suarez only pitched for five innings, the Phillies blew it open with a go-ahead game-winning Kyle Schwarber home run that made the Phillies win six in a row with a final score of 5-4.
Is Ranger Suarez heating up at the right time? It looks like it. It was definitely encouraging to see his velocity and the continuation of striking out batters. This game was by far the best start of any game he has performed this season. He is looking very solid and makes Phillies fans proud of the way he is shaping up to be in the pitching rotation.
June Kyle Schwarber is heating up! Kyle Schwarber has definitely turned it around with Friday’s performance although the stats don’t look amazing. Just got to give him the credit he deserves and he is going out there every day to help his team win ballgames and that’s what he is exactly doing.
The Philadelphia Phillies snapped a six-game winning streak Saturday evening at Citizens Bank Park. It was a beautiful warm day but it wasn’t beautiful when Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola struggled.
Aaron Nola was dealing until the top of the third when his pitching went downhill which turned out to be a two-run top half of the inning where the Dodgers were embracing their chances Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman were the stars of that half inning with base hits.
This start marked the tenth straight start of allowing at least one home run which he did in this game. He couldn’t do anything well on the mound which made a sold-out crowd mad.
From then on, the Dodgers continued their sharp at-bats as they kept making things worse for the Phillies’ defense by getting more runners in scoring position and tallying more numbers onto the scoreboard.
Phillies manager, Rob Thomson, was ejected in the sixth inning when he was mad about the pitch clock not getting reset after Aaron Nola requested a new baseball.
Should Phillies fans be a little worried about Aaron Nola’s one horrendous game? There shouldn’t be any questions in regard to being worried about Nola. I know he didn’t pitch well, but it’s just one game. Hopefully, the next time he takes the mound he thrives and makes a more positive outcome.
Trea Turner was quiet but I wouldn’t be that worried about him to heat up the rest of the season. In this particular game, he had one hit and struck out twice. Hopefully, this isn’t a sign of another slump he is starting up but all we can do is hope for the best for his performances.
On a gorgeous afternoon in South Philadelphia, the Phillies came to play against a solid Dodgers team. The offense woke up today and the pitching was sensational towards the end of the game. Phillies starting pitcher Taijuan Walker did a decent job on the mound with five strikeouts, two walks, and no earned runs.
The scoring got started excellently in the bottom of the first when Bryce Harper hit a hard single to left field to bring home Trea Turner that made it a 1-0 game. Then, in the bottom of the third, Bryson Stott followed with a single to center field that scored Turner and Harper that made the score 3-0.
Walker didn’t pitch from the top of the sixth to the end of the game, but the Phillies brought in Gregory Soto to pitch and he gave up a solo home run by Freddie Freeman which made the score 3-1.
The Phillies continuously got more runners in scoring position and more success came through afterward for them with backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, Nick Castellanos, and Kody Clemens all pitching in with big-time hits to rack up the scoreboard.
Can Phillies fans rely on Jose Alvarado and Craig Kimbrel from now on? It sure looks like they can because they were really dominant in today’s game besides Alvarado being a little bit wild with his velocity but all in all, things looked sharp. Let’s hope that this is the start of a great reliever run.
The Phillies’ bats are on fire when needed the most against great teams like the Dodgers. The contributions of hits by the Phillies have been great and the positive outcomes like today’s have a bright sign of things to come, hopefully, in the rest of their season. We will see how they will do.
The Phillies went on to win the ball game, 7-3. The Phillies are now one game below .500 at 32-33 and will travel to Arizona starting on Monday, June 12.
