Arrieta walked six but otherwise shut down the Braves in helping the Phillies to a season-opening sweep with a victory on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. (Ian D’Andrea/Flickr)
The Philadelphia Phillies (3-0) are playing at a level we haven’t seen in quite some time. It was 2011 to be exact when the club last began a season winning its first three games.
The Phils beat the Atlanta Braves (0-3) by a 5-1 margin at Citizens Bank Park in front of another big crowd of 41,410 fans and a national television audience on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.
This was the Phillies third sellout of the season. Last year they had four sell outs in total. Three games into the 2019 season the Phillies are the lone remaining undefeated team in all of Major League Baseball. You couldn’t have asked for a more productive opening weekend.
The highly anticipated 2019 debut of veteran pitcher Jake Arrieta turned out to be a very productive outing for the 33-year old right-hander. He tossed six innings of one-run ball, surrendering just three hits while striking out six and walking six in picking up the win.
After the Braves got ahead early on a passed ball in the top of the third inning, Andrew McCutchen got the scoring started for the Phillies with an opposite filed home run (2) in the bottom half to knot the game at 1-1.
Rhys Hoskins gave the Phillies the lead in the home fifth inning with a bases loaded walk, making it 2-1. That was followed by a J.T. Realmuto sacrifice fly to push the lead out to 3-1.
We like this guy. #RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/fP8EJ9zKIi
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 1, 2019
In the seventh inning, Bryce Harper blasted another home run (2) to increase the Phillies lead to 4-1. Later in that same frame, Maikel Franco picked up his seventh RBI of the year with an infield single to make it 5-1.
The Phillies will have an off-day on Monday, one of three scheduled within the first eight days of the regular season.
SHIBE VINTAGE SPORTS STARTING PITCHING PERFORMANCE
Jake Arrieta (1-0) fought his way through six innings on a cold night, picking up his first win of the season by holding the Braves to one run. The righty started slowly, walking four batters in the first three innings en route to six free passes on the night. But he settled down and retired 12 of the final 14 Atlanta batters that he faced. In total, Arrieta threw 104 pitches and only surrendered one run, that on a passed ball when he and Realmuto got their signs crossed-up in the top of the 3rd inning.
Braves rookie right-hander Kyle Wright lasted 4.1 innings, surrendering three earned runs. Wright, who was wild much of the night, was pulled after he plunked Jean Segura with a pitch. This was Wright’s first career big-league start.
PHILLIES NUGGETS PLAYER OF THE GAME: JAKE ARRIETA
It wasn’t the smoothest of starts for Jake Arrieta as he had nearly 50 pitches entering the third inning. The former Cy-Young winner was able to regroup and go another four innings of one run ball, exiting the game with the Phillies winning 3-1.
Six innings in total and pushing past the 100-pitch mark on a cold night in his first start of the year was a performance that speaks volumes about Arrieta’s maturity as a pitcher. It also gives him our Sunday night player of the game honors.
NEXT GAME:
Tuesday, April 2, 7:05 p.m. vs the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park
TV: NBC Philadelphia
Radio: Sportsradio WIP and WTTM 1680 (Spanish)
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