Offense silent, Phillies swept in Chicago
FINAL: Cubs 2, Phillies 0
The September stumble continued on Thursday afternoon.
The Phillies lost — again — to the 70-win Chicago Cubs, sweeping the spiraling Fightins out of Wrigley Field. Whether the Phillies make the playoffs or not, this season series finale was a hard one to swallow.
Although Ranger Suárez allowed three hits in the bottom of the first, he made two fantastic plays to cut down runners and a leaping catch by Matt Vierling ended the inning, limiting the Cubs to one run.
The game stayed relatively quiet until the fifth inning, where a misplayed ball by Brandon Marsh in the outfield allowed Seiya Suzuki to get on third with two outs. The next batter, Ian Happ, knocked Suzuki in with an RBI single to put Chicago up 2-0.
The Phillies had a chance to get some runs back in the top of the sixth inning when a Rhys Hoskins leadoff walk and a Bryce Harper single put runners on first and second. Philadelphia, however, failed to push any runs across the plate before recording three consecutive outs.
Opportunity arose again in the seventh inning for Philadelphia when back-to-back two-out walks were issued to Matt Vierling and Kyle Schwarber, but Rhys Hoskins struck out to end the inning.
Right-hander Keegan Thompson tossed the final three innings of the game for the Cubs to record the save and complete the shutout.
Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance
Javier Assad: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 80 pitches
Javier Assad had an ERA of 6.38 in 5 starts in September, the Phillies failed to score any run off the rookie righthander. Is that a reflection of Assad’s pitching prowess or an indictment of the Phillies offense? You decide.
Ranger Suárez: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 92 pitches
Was Suárez perfect on Thursday? No. He gave up some hard contact and allowed seven hits. He also made some incredible plays on defense (just give him the gold glove). But he gave the Phillies enough as the team needs more than zero runs on a mediocre Cubs team.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Friday, Oct. 1 vs. Washington Nationals at Nationals Park (doubleheader)
- 1:05 p.m. ET
- TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP
- Spanish Radio: WTTM 1680
