• March 19, 2024

Notes From The Phillies’ 5-3 Win Over Miami

Chase UtleyThe Philadelphia Phillies won the finale of their series with the Marlins on Thursday night 5-3. Their record improves to 36-42.

  • Cole Hamels got the start, and pitched seven innings allowing three runs on six hits. 
  • Hamels struck out seven and walked none.
  • All three of Cole’s runs were given up on solo homers.
  • Chase Utley provided the offensive spark to win the game in the bottom of the 14th with a walk-off two-run homer. Utley also singled home the team’s second run in the fifth inning, and scored a run in the first off of a Carlos Ruiz sac fly.
  • Domonic Brown was initially held out of the lineup, but entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning and singled, eventually coming home to score the tying run.
  • Ben Revere hit out of the lead-off spot, and went 3-6 with a rare walk.
  • Cody Asche went 2-6 and left four runners on base.
  • The Phils as a team went just 2-12 with runners in scoring position.
  • The bullpen turned in another great performance, combining for seven scoreless innings.
  • Jake Diekman took over for Hamels in the eighth, and managed to get through it scoreless despite allowing two walks and a hit.
  • Jonathan Papelbon struck out two in the ninth, lowering his ERA to 1.44.
  • Antonio Bastardo had a clean 10th.
  • Ken Giles allowed a walk, but got through the 11th without allowing any damage.
  • Mario Hollands got through the 12th.
  • Justin De Fratus threw two scoreless innings, and earned the win.

Final Thoughts

Back in Spring Training, Jonathan Papelbon said that he believed this bullpen had the potential to be a top-five unit in all of baseball.

As ridiculous as that sounded at the time, right now this bullpen looks pretty darn good. I don’t know that its among the top-five in baseball yet, but this group has been excellent over the last month.

Some of the young arms that have been around for a couple years like Diekman and De Fratus are maturing and figuring out how to succeed at the major league level. Lefty Mario Hollands has been a nice surprise. Ken Giles has had no difficulty so far translating his success from the minor leagues. Even Antonio Bastardo has settled down and figured things out (no earned runs since May 11th.).

There haven’t been a lot of positives or signs of progress to look at with the Phillies over the last few years, but the growth of the bullpen is looking more and more like one that fans can be legitimately excited about.

 

Denny Basens

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paulman
paulman
June 27, 2014 1:58 pm

Pitching as a whole has been better than expected and that’s even with Cliff Lee missing a month.. (Hamels can’t get any run support, Burnett has pitched well Kendrick has Pitched well of late and has kept them in games and Buchanon/Hernandez have Pitched better than I expected as the 4th/5th Starters and around 4.00 ERA range.
Phil’s are averaging 3.93 Runs Per Game after 78 Games but have only Scored 2 Runs or Less in 27 of their 78 Games which is 35% of the Time which is horrible.. They have been Shutout 10 Times already this Season which is inexcusable …