Categories: 2021 Postgame Recaps

Early offense, late bullpen magic carry Phillies over .500

Final Score: Phillies 5, Brewers 4

The first five at-bats of the game for the Philadelphia Phillies netted the offense five runs. Following Didi Gregorius’ third grand slam as a Phillie, the bats went silent. Only two runners reached base following the first and Odúbel Herrera’s single in the fifth turned out to be the Phillies’ final hit of the game.

Didi Gregorius hit a grand slam in Wednesday’s game. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire)

Thanks to a gutsy performance from the bullpen as well as some unconventional managerial decisions from Joe Girardi, the Phillies have won three consecutive games against one of the better teams in the National League by a one-run margin each time. Every game they have played in dating back to April 30 has been decided by one run.

To briefly summarize, the Phillies won another game that they probably should have lost. They are 16-15 and over .500 for the first time since April 18.

Top Plays

With two strikes, Rhys Hoskins chased a high fastball and brought Andrew McCutchen home on an RBI single to give the Phillies an early lead in the bottom of the first. As everyone knows, Hoskins is at his best when he can hit the ball the opposite way and that’s exactly what he did in his first at-bat.
A few batters later, Gregorius took a hanging slider from Peralta and deposited it into the right-field seats for his eighth career grand slam. Only two active players have more career grand slams than Gregorius: Albert Pujols (15) and Manny Machado (11). All of his grand slams have come since July 1, 2017.

Peralta bounced back by striking out six consecutive Phillies hitters between the first and second inning.
As Peralta began to regain his command, Chase Anderson lost his. After surrendering an infield hit to Lorenzo Cain, the Phillies’ fifth starter walked both Daniel Vogelback and Travis Shaw in the third. Avisaíl García plated Cain with a single to center, but a throw from Herrera and smart tag from J.T. Realmuto led to an inning-ending play at the plate. Home plate umpire Marvin Hudson originally called the runner Vogelback safe, but the Phillies challenged the call and replay overturned the initial ruling.
Anderson surrendered the Phillies’ sixth pinch-hit home run of the season in the fifth. Tyrone Taylor came off the bench for Peralta and smacked a fastball deep into the seats in left field to make it a 5-2 ballgame.

JoJo Romero was the first arm out of the bullpen for the Phillies in the fifth. He allowed two singles and a walk and left with the go-ahead run on first. García’s third single of the game was hit soft enough to safely insure that Herrera had no chance of throwing out a baserunner at home. Brandon Kintzler came in and ended the inning on a strikeout to Pablo Reyes.

Back-to-back clutch pitching performances from Kintzler and Matt Moore kept it a one-run game for Enyel De Los Santos in the eighth. While Girardi badly wanted Moore to get work after not pitching for 18 days, it was odd to see him come into the game with a one-run lead. Nevertheless, Moore got a double-play ball along with a strikeout.
De Los Santos began his first big-league outing since 2019 with a lead-off double off the bat of García of all people. He retired the next two hitters on a strikeout and flyout but hit Brewers catcher Luke Maile to put runners on the corner. The next batter Taylor rolled over to Gregorius at short in what was an impressive performance all things considered for the 25-year-old.
José Alvarado, the third Phillies closer in as many days, was tasked with keeping the top of the Brewers order scoreless. A walk to Cain was his only blemish as the Phillies lefty earned his second save this season in his first game back from suspension.

Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance

Freddy Peralta: 4 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 8 SO, 73 pitches

The first inning was brutal for Peralta. He hung sliders and struggled to fit pitches in a tight strike zone. After a five-run first inning, the 24-year-old retired the next six batters on strikeouts. Coming into today’s game, Peralta’s strikeout rate sat above 40 percent on the year.

Chase Anderson: 4 1/3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 2 SO, 92 pitches

This story has been told before. The Phillies needed length out of their back-end starter with a tired bullpen and they didn’t get it. He struggled with command in the third and perhaps a lucky replay review on the play at home bailed him out of a rough inning. His innings pitched per start reads as follows: 5, 4, 4, 3 2/3, 5 and 4 1/3.

Phillies Nuggets Player of the Game: Brandon Kintzler

Credit the majority of the arms deployed for the Phillies today, but the veteran Kintzler was the one who set the tone. He stranded two runners on base in the fifth and threw an eight-pitch sixth inning. Teammates have raved about his work with the pitching staff behind the scenes and on Wednesday, he came up huge for his team. According to Girardi, Kintzler did not pitch the seventh inning because he is not used to getting up-and-down twice in one game.

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