Philadelphia Phillies crush slump decisively – sort of

The Philadelphia Phillies seemed to break out of a month-long slump with an impressive pitching and offensive performance on a pleasant afternoon in Philly.

There was excitement in the air at Citizens Bank Park on the sunny afternoon of June 14. Even before Chuck Yeager made a mid-game appearance, there had been an early line drive home run by Rhys Hoskins and a pre-game appearance by Philadelphia Phillies fan favorite Jim Thome.

The place was only half full, but Vince Velasquez was throwing a no-hitter! The visiting fans in section 133 – they came from Colorado? –- were being matched in enthusiasm by Phillies fans. They had endured a month-long, team-wide slump.

Vinny Velo, as some refer to Velasquez, had a lead halfway through the game thanks to home runs by Hoskins and Nick Williams. He seemed to be throwing pretty effortlessly, and as would be noted by those who had better angles than the fans in section 133, he was throwing inside effectively to a tough Rockies lineup.

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Velasquez would eventually surrender the no-hitter and shutout in the seventh inning on an RBI double by Trevor Story following a walk, but then the Phillies broke out in the bottom half of the inning.

They scored four on their way to a 9-3 win. As Scott Lauber noted, it was the first time in 257 innings the team had scored more than three runs in an inning. For those who don’t do the rough math on their fingers for three-digit numbers, that works out to “more than a month.”

It led to happy days again as five Phillies had multi-hit games, including light-hitting catcher Andrew Knapp. After the game, in the way of modest heroes who go 3-for-5, Hoskins said, “It felt normal. It felt like it should.”

The team had posted 13 hits. Slump broken, right? Weeks after the Phillies had occupied first place for about 24 hours; they were back – four games over .500, only four games behind first-place Atlanta.

Hold On

Not so fast. It felt as though half the game the Phillies line score read 2-2-0 because it was on the scoreboard about half the game.

They finally scored their third run in the sixth inning against starter German Marquez, who entered the game with a 4-6 record and a 4.79 ERA. When he was finally removed in the seventh, only three Phillies had crossed the plate.

He had pitched pretty well until the Philadelphia sixth, and he wasn’t hideous in that frame, getting two outs before surrendering the Phillies third run.

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Everybody wearing red caps and shirts went home happy, but the Phillies remain after their impressive outburst a team hitting .231 at this point, 22^nd in MLB baseball. Six of their regular or semi-regular players are still batting under .235.

However, at least Hoskins has now moved up to .244, and Vinny Velo looked at least as impressive as he did in his second career start when he struck out 16 Padres over two years ago.