Powered by continually good pitching and some timely hits, the Phillies get a much-needed series victory over the hot Chicago Cubs to steady the ship after a rough week
On Friday, the Phillies would look to shake off their New York demons at the friendly confines, but weather would delay the start as rain would hold off game one of the series for a few hours. However, it would have been better if the skies had opened entirely and flooded Wrigley Field, as it would have spared us from another terrible Phillies performance. They came out again on Friday like a team that just got taken off life support and limped to a 4-0 loss. They scattered five hits and twelve strikeouts throughout the game and were 0-7 with runners in scoring position. Taijuan Walker looked mediocre through three innings, allowing two runs, but the staff only allowed four runs on the day as a whole, which should be enough for any series baseball team. The Phillies would expand their losing streak to five straight games, with each loss almost more infuriating than the last, as this lifeless team seems to be trying to run the clock out on the season in April.
Saturday would be an entirely new day. The offense would finally wake up again. They would score ten runs, powered by a six-run fourth inning, as the offense would look competent for the first time in a week. They would reach base fifteen times and would hit only their second home run in the past week when Max Kepler would go deep to make the game 10-2. The biggest difference, though, was the Phillies going 7-13 with runners in scoring position. This team has no issue whatsoever getting runners in scoring position, but bringing them home has been a folly of epic proportions so far this year, and this outburst is an example that if they can finally start hitting in these spots, they could bury a lot of teams. On the Pitching side, Jesús Luzardo was phenomenal once again. The lefty struck out five while allowing two unearned runs over six innings on Saturday. Matt Strahm would get roughed up as he allowed two runs while only recording one out, but Joe Ross and Carlos Hernández were largely inoffensive on the mound, and the Phillies would finally be back on the winning side after a big skid.
The Phillies would open Sunday fighting an uphill battle as they would be the primetime game on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, a scenario, for whatever reason, that has been a calamity of horrors for the team over the last few years. On top of that, it would be another Aaron Nola start. However, Nola would buck that trend as he would be brilliant all night. With a slight uptick in velocity, but more importantly, masterful control all night, he made easy work of the Cubs. It was his cutter specifically that was giving the Cubs hitters fits. The only run he “allowed” came after the Phillies’ defense botched a Nico Hoerner fly ball that put him on second, who was then promptly driven in by Pete Crow-Armstrong. Other than that, Nola would go seven while striking out six in what was easily his best start so far this year. Despite his best effort to reverse this year’s trends, the Phillies’ offense held up their end of the Nola trend by only scoring one run over the first nine innings of play. Nola has not pitched well, but that is now only eleven runs scored by the Phillies offense in his six starts this year, which is pretty pathetic. Jameson Taillon and his five ERA would baffle a Phillies team that at one point saw him retire twelve straight batters in the middle innings.
Despite the lack of offense, the Phillies would keep the game tied at 1-1 with shutdown innings from Orion Kerkering and José Alvarado, which brought us to the tenth inning. The Phillies nearly took the lead in the ninth when Nick Castellanos hit a ball that was inches away from going out. Regardless, in the tenth, Cubs pitcher Caleb Theilbar could not find the strike zone, walking both JT Realmuto and Max Kepler to load the bases to start the inning. Alec Bohm would then anger every dad in the Delaware Valley by swinging at the first pitch thrown by Theilbar after two straight walks, however, it was a deep fly ball to right field that acted as a sacrifice fly that allowed Castellanos to score and JT to move to third to take a 2-1 lead. That would be shortly lived as Johan Rojas would bunt directly to a charging first baseman who would flip home for an easy out on a running JT. Bryson Stott would then walk to load the bases with two outs, and it was Trea Turner, legging out an infield single (poorly played ball) that allowed for Kepler to score and the Phillies to take a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom half. The Phillies would alarmingly hand the ball to Jordan Romano to close it out, but similar to Nola, Romano looked dominant, slamming the door hard on the Cubs for the series win.
Finally, a breath of fresh air for a Phillies team that desperately needed it. This Cubs team has been one of the better teams in the league so far this year, so coming into Chicago and taking two out of three from the Cubs is certainly a positive. It is even more so as the Cubs had the best offense in the league, and the Phillies held them to nine runs over these three games in their park. This team still has concerns, but on the pitching side, things seem to be moving in the right direction. If Nola and Romano can build off of these outings, it would help a ton, especially if Romano can rebound as his presence in the pen is so desperately needed. Romano is either going to be playing golf in June or be the Phillies’ most trustworthy arm come October, and there does not feel like any in between is possible. The Phillies are also only a week away from getting Ranger Suarez as well. For the offense, they can still look so anemic at times. That being said, there is a lot of evidence that they might be more victims of bad luck at the moment than of a lack of talent. They have the third most walks as a team in all of baseball and only rank sixteenth in strikeouts, an indicator of good at-bats. They are also ranked in the top five in line drive rate, which means they are consistently making good contact with the baseball. They are eleventh in team batting average, and while they have left the third most men on base in all of baseball this year, that could be a positive sign for once/if they start producing. As shown on Saturday, when this team is consistently producing with runners in scoring position, they get enough hits that they can bury teams. This is the first series this year that felt like a true team effort. Starting pitching and bullpen kept the games close, and the offense stepped up, although not enough, to close the door for two wins. Hopefully, the Phillies can carry this momentum back home into a series against a pesky Nationals team.