The Philadelphia Phillies won their series finale against the Mets 6-4. Their record improves to 6-9.
On The Mound
- Aaron Nola was a little rocky in his third start of the year, allowing four runs on seven hits over five innings.
- Nola issued too many free passes on the night, giving up four walks, including one to Mets’ pitcher Noah Syndergaard, which led to a run in the second inning.
- Nola gave up a three-run shot to Neil Walker in the third inning to give up most of his early lead.
- Joely Rodriguez struck out two in a scoreless sixth. After a rough start to the season, Rodriguez seems to be settling in well to the sixth-inning role.
- Rodriguez got out of the sixth with only eight pitches, and was brought back out to pitch the seventh, during which he also retired the side 1-2-3.
- In a bit of a surprise move, Pete Mackanain changed closers, moving Joaquin Benoit to the setup role in the eighth and Hector Neris to the ninth.
- Benoit looked good in a scoreless effort in the eighth, and Neris slammed the door in the ninth for his first save.
At The Plate
- The offense generated six runs on 10 hits.
- The Phils got Nola a nice three-run lead early in the game, doing some damage in the second inning. Tommy Joseph got the scoring started by doubling home Aaron Altherr, and Freddy Galvis and Andrew Knapp followed with RBI-hits of their own.
- The Phils tacked on two more in the third, with Maikel Franco busting out of an 0-22 funk with an RBI-double, and Altherr following him with an RBI-groundout.
- Franco followed up with a solo homer in the eighth to provide a valuable insurance run.
- Cesar Hernandez is in a bit of a slump right now, turning in another 0-4.
- Daniel Nava started in left, going 1-4 and scoring a run.
- Rough night for Odubel Herrera, who went 0-5.
- Aaron Altherr started in right, and went 2-5.
- Tommy Joseph had a nice three-hit game, raising his average above .200.
Final Thoughts
Maikel Franco has been killing the Phils all season, but tonight was a key element in the win.
If Franco hadn’t been performing so poor to start the season, I think there’s a good chance the Phils might be .500 or better right now. They’ve lost a number of close games, and Franco has come up small more often than not throughout the early stages of the season.
Fortunately he was able to figure things out tonight, and hopefully his success will carry over into future games.
Aaron Nola took a bit of a step back tonight after two solid starts, but wasn’t a disaster by any means and still pitched well enough to earn a win.
Any time you can take two of three from a division rival, its a successful series.
The move to put Hector Neris in the closing role was a bit surprising, but not unwelcome. Joaquin Benoit is better suited to be a setup man, and with as well as Neris has pitched, he’s earned a shot to be the ninth-inning guy. Its also worth noting that Mackanin doesn’t seem to want to let former closer Jeanmar Gomez anywhere near the mound in a meaningful situation. Despite an overworked bullpen that was forced to log a ton of innings in this series, Gomez hasn’t been called upon once in a meaningful situation. Mackanin has instead opted to give a more prominent role to Joely Rodriguez, who has been responding well.
Yeah Franco has been bad, and maybe if he was hitting better they would be .500, but I know that if the bullpen was better that they would be .500. Not just the blown saves, but the runs in the 7th and 8th that they have given up.
Also, Joseph is hitting around .200. The catchers are hitting around .200
Velazquez and his 7,40 ERA. Lets not put the whole blame on Franco Cripes.
Yeah I can’t even fault the bullpen for the two or three games they’ve lost. They’ve been asked to take on such a heavy workload, most nights they’re pitching at least four innings since only eickhoff and hellickson have been able to go beyond six frames. It’s tough when the starters never give them a night off.
So 2 things then…
1) the bullpen has been overworked because the starters haven’t been pitching long enough into games but that doesn’t factor into the 6-9 start?
2) are we able to count the Benoit and Gomez blown saves. Because if we can, then that is 2 more wins which makes them 8-7.
My point is to single out one guy for why they are not .500 is a little short sighted in my opinion. Franco has been bad. Really bad, but it is also April 21st, so lets all pump the brakes with moving him down in the order or sitting him. Lets see if the kid can hit his way out of this or not in a season that no one especially the front office thinks that they are going to compete.
Well Gomez’s blown save was still a win. I was referring more to having guys like Neris overworked, forcing lesser guys like Ramos (who has also worked a fair amount of innings) into a situation where he’s got to pitch in the eighth to try to give Neris a night off like what happened earlier in the week where he ends up giving up a two-run shot to Jay bruce, breaking a 3-3 tie in a game where Franco and his .148 average left five men on base!
I understand your point and certainly if one guy pitches better here or a starter goes deeper there, that probably makes up for a loss or two, but Franco has far and away been the biggest disappointment in the early stages of the season. You could see a regression coming for a guy like Joseph, who I don’t think anyone really ever saw as anything more than a stopgap until better options arrive, but Franco has been billed as someone that could play an important role when the team is ready to contend and what he’s done so far has been pretty concerning.
And it is April 21st.
A Nice Win and Series for the Phillies, maybe Franco will get Hot and carry the Offense as he’s capable of doing for a little stretch…Now Win this Weekend Series versus the Braves and get back closer to .500