Categories: News

Watch: Big third inning puts Phillies on top

Andrew McCutchen has homered twice in Tuesday’s game (Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire)

If any Phillies fans assumed Andrew McCutchen’s second homer of the ballgame was all the action the third inning would see and looked away for even a second — well, they missed quite a bit.

The Phillies busted Tuesday night’s ballgame wide open that inning, and it started with McCutchen’s 371-foot shot that barely found its way into the first row in left field. It was a moonshot with a 37-degree launch angle, and it was just enough to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead.

It wasn’t quite as majestic as his first tater of the game, a 432-foot leadoff blast to right center, but it counted just the same. It gave him his first multi-homer game as a Phillie and the 17th of his career.

Rhys Hoskins followed with a single down the left-field line, but he got thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, seemingly killing the Phillies’ potential for a crooked number.

But Brad Miller had other plans. Bamboo Brad’s blast, a 405-foot big fly that just snuck inside the right-field foul pole, capped off a five-running inning that gave the Phillies a comfortable five-run lead. It was the third homer of the season for Miller, who got the start in right field with Bryce Harper sidelined.

Things had looked bleak for the Phillies early on, with Aaron Nola throwing 30 pitches in the first and the Brewers taking an early 1-0 lead. McCutchen’s two bombs and the big third inning helped erase that — and then some.