Notes From The Phillies’ 4-3 Win Over Cincinnati

The Philadelphia Phillies won the second game of their weekend series against the Reds 4-3. Their record improves to 17-30.

On The Mound

• Jerad Eickhoff lasted just 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits and a walk.
• Eickhoff allowed two runs in the first, and settled down until the sixth inning, where he got the hook in favor of Edubray Ramos
• Ramos got the final two outs of the sixth, allowing a walk.
• Pat Neshek pitched a scoreless seventh. Neshek’s ERA stands at 0.98.
• Joaquin Benoit pitched a scoreless eighth.
• Hector Neris pitched a scoreless ninth and got the win.

At The Plate

• The offense generated four runs on seven hits.
• Cesar Hernandez, Michael Saunders, and Tommy Joseph each hit solo home runs.
• Joseph would also drive in the winning run in the ninth.
• Hernandez finished 2-4.
• Aaron Altherr went 1-4 with a single.
• Odubel Herrera turned in another shining 0-4 effort.
• Maikel Franco went 0-2 with a walk.
• Freddy Galvis went 1-3 with a double.

Final Thoughts

Jerad Eickhoff is still without that elusive first win.

Eickhoff is a much better pitcher than what he’s shown over the past few weeks, but sometimes when a pitcher just doesn’t get run support, it can get in their head and start impacting their performance.

Eickhoff, who is 0-5 on the season, may well be in a block like that right now.

Sometime over the next week, Howie Kendrick is going to return from the minor leagues, and when he does it will be interesting to see what happens to Maikel Franco. With Kendrick taking reps at third down in the minors, there’s a lot of speculation that Franco could get shipped to the minors while Kendrick takes over his starting role on an everyday basis.

I think it’d be a good idea to get both Franco, and Odubel Herrera, away from the majors for the time being. Both guys have been lost for the majority of the season, and could use some time away to clear their heads.