The Phillies rebound nicely and sweep out the hottest team in baseball as they handle business against the Toronto Blue Jays and have now won 5/6.
The Phillies would face a fun challenge on Friday night as they take on perhaps the hottest team in baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays. The Phillies would strike first in the second inning as Brandon Marsh’s double would score JT Realmuto to make it 1-0. Otto Kemp would be called out trying to score. That looked like all there would be from the Phillies in that inning, as with runners on first and third and two outs, Kyle Schwarber would take the second pitch he saw to centerfield. The ball would have just enough to make it over the wall and give Schwarber his 22nd home run of the year and the Phils a 4-0 lead. The Phillies would be on cruise control the rest of the day, led by an incredible outing by Ranger Suárez. The lefty would tear through the Blue Jays, scattering five baserunners over seven innings while striking out six. He didn’t even break a sweat as he made the hottest team in baseball look completely incompetent. In the sixth inning, Otto Kemp would get his first RBI as he singled in Realmuto to make it 5-0. In the eighth inning, Realmuto, Marsh, and Turner would all come up with RBI hits, and the Phillies would cruise to a pleasant, 8-0 victory.
Saturday would not be so easily won. The Phillies would once again, though, get another great outing from their starter as Cristopher Sánchez was once again brilliant. Seven efficient innings of two-run ball as he only scattered five hits, no walks, and struck out five in front of a satisfied home crowd. The offense would be largely quiet, though, as even though the Blue Jays used four pitchers over the first seven innings, the Phillies could only knock in two runs that came on a walk and hit by pitch with the bases loaded. Things would be a bit uneasy until the eighth inning when Max Kepler came to the plate. The Phillies’ left fielder would turn on a 2-0 pitch to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead with only three outs left. The Phillies would hand the ball to Matt Strahm in the ninth, and he would get a strikeout and two more outs on only seven pitches to close out the game. The Phillies would secure the series with a fun, 3-2 win.
On Sunday, pitchers would thrive early as Zack Wheeler and José Berríos would go back and forth early. The Phillies would snag a run in the first with a Kyle Schwarber single that scored Trea Turner to make it 1-0 and a second run in the third when an Alec Bohm sac fly made it 2-0. The Phillies would keep threatening in the fourth with runners on second and third. Otto Kemp would sneak a single to left field off of Berríos that made the game 4-0. The Blue Jays would get two back, though, in the top of the fifth to make it 4-2, but Alec Bohm would push the lead back to four immediately after he launched a two-run bomb to make it 6-2. From there, new dad Zack Wheeler would deal six innings of one earned run ball with nine strikeouts and only four batters getting on. Nick Castellanos would deal the death punch, though, as in the bottom of the sixth, the right fielder would hit a grand slam to make it 10-2. The Phillies would then go on cruise control and win an easy game and sweep the Blue Jays 11-4.
Oh, how things can change in a week. The Phillies had nothing short of a fantastic week, sweeping out a team in the Blue Jays that had won twelve of their previous fourteen heading into this weekend series. The Phils ascertained their dominance, as outside of Saturday, the series wasn’t even close. The starting pitchers were brilliant, which is to be expected but always appreciated. The bullpen was even solid in this series as they kept Saturday close and, outside of some garbage time runs Sunday, didn’t allow any runs. The Phillies held arguably the hottest team in baseball to six total runs this weekend. It was a welcome relief to see this team respond the way they did, as they have now won five of their last six, with all of the games being against good squads. The Phillies now get a four-game series against the Marlins that they hopefully can carry momentum into. This good week has put the Phillies only 2.5 games behind a Mets team that has cooled off a bit and now holds a full game lead on the first wildcard.