Phillies Take 2 Out Of 3 vs. Angels Ending Incredible Home Stand

As the Philadelphia Phillies swept the St. Louis Cardinals in their last series over the previous weekend, the Phillies are continuing to hammer down offensively with absolute force. They came into this series against the Los Angeles Angels knowing that they could continue to be the best ball club out there in the National League and they definitely put a stamp on it on a beautiful Monday evening at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies started Taijuan Walker. He didn’t have an amazing performance but he fought until he was taken out of the game. Walker pitched 5.2 innings while allowing 3 earned runs, 8 hits, and 6 strikeouts.
Trea Turner made more noise when he took one to left field in the bottom of the 1st against Lucas Giolito which was a game-tying solo home run making the game tied at 1 and Bryce Harper did some damage as he hit a game-tying 2-run home run in the bottom of the 4th that made the score 3-3. An inning after Harper’s home run, Turner hit a go-ahead 2-run home run in the bottom of the 5th that made the score, 5-3.

The Angels made it interesting in the first couple of innings scoring some runs but they couldn’t handle the spark of the Phillies lineup.

It was a slow night for Angels star Shohei Ohtani as he was quiet for the majority of the game. He went 1-4 with only one hit. Knowing that Ohtani wasn’t himself at the plate makes Phillies fans more confident in their pitchers and that’s exactly what happened on Monday evening where Walker, relievers Matt Strahm, Jeff Hoffman, and Gregory Soto had a big impact in a huge way on the mound. It’ll be interesting to see how they can maintain being consistent in the last two games of the series.

Bryce Harper and Trea Turner are finding their ways to hit home run bombs in South Philadelphia. It is great to see these two having terrific vibes on the baseball field. This is exactly what the Phillies fans want to see. There’s nothing better than watching these duo rake baseballs out of the yard. Just knowing how on fire they are, you can see improvements offensively. This is, hopefully, the start of something special for this team for a deep playoff run.

The Phillies took game 1 of the 3-game series, 6-4.

The Phillies absolutely hammered and embraced their offensive performance on Tuesday evening at Citizens Bank Park. The pitching in the first few innings might’ve gone cold but that didn’t stop the red-hot Phillies from getting going as the game progressed with a comeback victory to win their fifth consecutive game.

Phillies starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen started the game by allowing hit after hit and having bad velocity with his command of pitches. Lorenzen struggled by allowing a home run in the top of the second inning that made the score 1-0 by Luis Rengifo. Surprisingly, with the unsuccessful performance inning by inning, he ended up pitching 6 innings. Lorenzen gave up 8 hits on 3 earned runs and struck out 5 batters.

The fireworks of the Phillies offense lightened up quickly as the bottom of the second rolled in as Bryce Harper stepped into the batter’s box and made noise as he ripped a game-tying solo home run to right field that made the score 1-1 against Angels starting pitcher Tyler Anderson.

A half inning later Shohei Ohtani reached on an infield single to the pitcher and scored a run that made the Angels re-take the lead, 2-1.

It didn’t take long for the Phillies to regain their momentum as Kyle Schwarber launched a game-tying solo home run to center field that made the score 2-2.

In the top of the 4th inning, Rengifo went yard for the second time of the game with a blast to center field to help the Angels regain their lead, 3-2. Moments later, the Angels extended their lead as Shohei Ohtani hit a hard single to right and scored in a run that made it 4-2.

Then, the Phillies magic arrived, in the bottom of the 6th where Alec Bohm hit a go-ahead home run that made the score 5-4, following a Johan Rojas sacrifice fly that scored in another run that made the score 6-4. Moments later Trea Turner came up to bat and hit a huge triple to left field and scored two more runs.

Knowing the Phillies’ offense having confidence that a bad pitcher’s performance was happening is something that Phillies fans can take a breath of air. It is really awesome to see what they can do even with a bad pitching performance. It’s something to be smiling about because this team fights for what they want at the end which is to win the ball game and they did just that on Tuesday night.

Michael Lorenzen coming off a rough pitching performance shouldn’t concern Phillies fans. He may be off some days like Tuesday but he can turn things around knowing how he pitched in the past earlier this season. It’ll be very interesting to see what he can do in his next start.

The Phillies took game two of the three-game series, beating the Angels with a final score of 12-7 in a big comeback win.

It wasn’t the way the Phillies wanted to end the series finale as the Angels cruised on by the Phillies hot bats in a come-from-behind victory on a gorgeous Wednesday afternoon.

Phillies starter Christopher Sanchez didn’t have the type of stuff that the Phillies wanted in their finale but he struggled in the first couple of innings with a bad pitching performance. Sanchez pitched 4.2 innings, allowed 7 hits with 3 earned runs, and gave up a home run.

The Angels led early on in the top of the second when Renfroe hit a two-run home run to left that made the score 2-0.

Following that top half of the inning, the Phillies bats were firing up as Johan Rojas hit a single to center that scored Bryson Stott making it a one-run game, 2-1. Moments later, Garrett Stubbs grounded into a fielder’s choice to shortstop and scored Alec Bohm, tying up the game at two.

A few innings later the Angels re-took the lead by scoring three more runs that made it 5-2 as Andrew Velasquez, Shohei Ohtani, and Brandon Drury had good at-bats that half inning and helped the Angels punch in more runs.

Then, in the bottom of the fifth inning, Phillies Nick Castellanos stepped to the plate hit a single to right field, and scored Trea Turner who made it 5-3.

In the bottom of the sixth, Trea Turner turned Citizens Bank Park into a concert-type atmosphere as fans across the stadium erupted as Turner hit a three-run home run to left center field making the score 6-5. In the bottom of the eighth, Bryce Harper stepped to the plate with the Phillies down one run by a 2-run single in the previous inning by Hunter Renfroe that made the score 7-6 Angels. He felt confident in himself on the biggest stage of the game as he let the ball fly out of the park which made it his 300th career home run on a two-run go-ahead home run.

Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel didn’t have the type of stuff that Phillies fans were expecting at that time of the game as he let a sac-fly by Rengifo that scored in a run and a two-run home run by Brandon Drury that made the score 10-8 Angels.

Trea Turner continues to feel good in his at-bats. He is now on an 18-game hitting streak at home. Turner has been productive as of late and that is exactly what Phillies manager Rob Thomson and fans want to see. It’s going to be really interesting to see what he can do in Milwaukee next.

Bryce Harper is on fire as he hit his 300th career homer. Harper is finally finding his timing and getting in the grove of blasting off hits. It was great to see what he got to accomplish in this series. He and Turner are going to definitely give the Brewers some trouble this upcoming weekend.

The Phillies fell to the Angels, 10-8 in their series finale.

UP NEXT: The 74-59 Phillies travel to Milwaukee to start a weekend series with the Brewers on Friday, September 1st with the first pitch slated for 8:10 pm ET. The game can be seen on NBC Sports Philadelphia and you can hear it on 94.1 WIP. The rest of the series can be seen on FOX (on Saturday) and NBC Sports Philadelphia (on Sunday).