Phillies struggle against Grayson Rodriguez in loss to Orioles
Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images
One night after the Phillies’ electric, four-plus hour, extra-inning win in Baltimore, the Orioles took Round 2.
Grayson Rodriguez‘s quality seven-inning start fueled the O’s to a 6-2 win over the Phillies Saturday afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd of 44,555 at Camden Yards. That sell-out crowd featured thousands of Phillies fans — even more than Friday night.
Rodriguez started for the Orioles and was pretty dominant. Outside of making a few mistakes, he went seven solid innings scattering seven hits, two earned runs, one walk, and six strikeouts. One of those mistakes was taken the opposite way by Edmundo Sosa, who crushed a homer over the high-wall in right field.
After that in the second inning, Rodriguez was pretty dialed in. 10 straight Phillies were retired without reaching base between the second and fifth.
The Phils had some more success in Rodriguez’s final two innings, but could not bring anyone home. They were then shut down by Bryan Baker and Craig Kimbrel in the eighth and ninth.
For the Phillies, it was Taijuan Walker who got the start. And, hey, he was not too bad. He went 5.2 innings allowing six hits, three earned runs, a home run to Anthony Santander (who hit two on the day and has three in the last two games), and two walks while striking out four on 92 pitches (55 strikes).
It was one of Walker’s more solid performances thus far. He worked around a third-inning jam while allowing just a run. Then in the sixth, Walker was pulled with two outs in the sixth after almost escaping another situation.
Everyone should be happy with that outing from your fifth starter against one of the best lineups in baseball.
Gregory Soto came in after Walker and got out of the sixth. Then Jose Ruiz came in with two outs in the seventh, got through the inning, and then ran into trouble in the eighth, allowing an absolute bomb to Santander, which put the game out of reach.
The series will come down to Sunday. The Father’s Day matchup is going to be a good one, where Phillies ace Zack Wheeler will go up against the Orioles’ ace, Corbin Burnes.
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