The Philadelphia Phillies new additions showed they have the firepower to not just compete in the NL East, but even in the postseason.
The Philadelphia Phillies rolled into August in first place, coming off an exciting 3-1 win in Boston. Eleven days later, however, another impressive win (5-1 over San Diego in support of their ace, Aaron Nola) seemed at best to contribute only to an illusion of possible greatness. In the seven games surrounding and including that win over San Diego, Philadelphia had scored only 16 runs. All these games came against two good teams, Arizona and Boston, and a weak opponent, the Padres. They had lost both the Arizona and San Diego series, and the first of two games against the Red Sox.
Subtracting the five runs the Phillies had scored for Nola, they were averaging 1.83 runs a game for a week. Starting pitching was keeping Philly in most games, but something fairly apparent for weeks was becoming glaringly apparent. In the third week of June, the Phillies had been accused of only dribbling runs across home plate, and this quality had finally pushed them out of first place.
Atlanta held a two-game lead as Philadelphians prepared to see how Vince Velasquez would hold up Aug. 15 against a Boston team that had only gone to (gulp) 51 games over .500 against them the night before.
Moreover, nobody in the Phillies dugout should have been taking any solace from the fact both they and the Red Sox had each scored five runs against each other in three recent games. That is the sort of desperate statistic grasped at by teams losing a bunch of series two games to one.
Following a loss to the Padres the day after his team’s offense had contributed to Nola’s 13th win of the season, a friend – a Phillies fan for decades – suggested a race for third place among the Braces, Phillies and Nationals was underway. Was that so?
A Fourth Game against Boston
At 8-9, Velasquez took the mound on a sunny, humid night in South Philly. His ERA had finally dropped below 4.00, and he had pitched better lately than his won-lost record suggested. His catcher was Wilson Ramos in his first appearance for the Phillies. His first baseman was Justin Bour, who had only been a pinch hitter so far in his brief Philadelphia career. Both had been acquired from struggling Florida teams.
The Phillies had added in total two infielders and a catcher before this game, one of whom was playing regularly. Would Asdrubal Cabrera, Wilson Ramos and Justin Bour actually make a meaningful offensive difference in the season’s final weeks?
The lengthy contest became a matter of bad news early and late for the Phillies and good news mostly late.
In the bad news category were the facts Velasquez lasted fewer than three full innings, departing with a 3-0 deficit, and the ninth inning announcement Atlanta had defeated Miami.
In the good news category were the very significant contributions by all the players the Phillies had acquired in within the past three weeks. Principal among those contributions were three extra base hits by Ramos to right-center field. All three struck the wall, the first a double high off it with runners on first and third to cut the Boston lead to two runs in the fourth inning.
Later the big catcher slammed a triple to open the sixth inning, and he added a two run-double in the seventh to increase the Phillies lead to 6-3.
Cabrera had a single and a walk, and Bour had two hits; both scored single runs. Bour also made a fine stretch play at first to halt a Boston rally in the sixth inning.
Even left-handed reliever Aaron Loup, recently acquired from Toronto, pitched a scoreless seventh inning, and the Phillies booked a 7-4 win, splitting the season series with Boston, and dropping them back to a mere 50 games over .500
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The New Guys Aren’t Enough Alone
However, the new guys didn’t do it alone. Significant contributions also came from a number of players whose bats had largely been dormant recently, including Carlos Santana, who had a pinch-hit single to tie the game at three, and Scott Kingery, whose pinch-hit sac fly gave the Phillies their first lead at 4-3. Additionally, seven relief pitchers combined for 6 2/3 innings, surrendering only one run.
And the guy who gave up the run was Pat Neshek, who loaded the bases in the eighth inning, then retired two batters before surrendering an infield single to Mookie Betts with the bases loaded. Neshek’s overall ERA rose to 0.64.
So, yeah, baseball is a team game, and even a new guy showing up to pound three balls into a gap can’t do it by himself. At least for one night, however, the Phillies looked like a team that might finally have enough firepower to stay in the N.L. East race until the end.