The early Philadelphia Phillies offensive fireworks gave way past the first week of the season to a fairly impressive show of grit against tough opponents.
Coming out of the first week of play for 2019, the Philadelphia Phillies established they could score runs. Through the first half dozen games, they averaged over eight runs a game, and even though they fell off a bit after that (2.7 runs a game for the next three), they still won two of three games.
The pitching, suspect for the first week, was holding up after all. More specifically, the bullpen was starting to work better in the second week.
True, starting aces Aaron Nola and Jake Arrieta “weren’t quite there yet” – both sported WHIPs above 1.300. Nominal fourth starter Zach Eflin, however, had stepped up, winning his second game of the season a day before his 25th birthday, and posting a 0.75 ERA through two games. (Most professional Phillies watchers had expected Nick Pivetta to be the pitcher to take a step forward. He hadn’t yet although he had won a game.)
In fact, four of the five Phillies starters had already won a game, and fifth starter Vince Velasquez pitched well in one start and one relief appearance, producing a 0.667 WHIP over six innings.
Not quite party time – but not miles away from the house with the balloons on the porch railing either.
What was more encouraging about the Phillies first efforts past the explosive first week, however, was the emergence of a little toughness when the ball wasn’t flying all over and out of the ballpark.
Early Signs of Grit
At 7-2 before play Apr. 9, the Phillies are still scoring 6.3 runs a game, but in their last three contests, they have lost by four and won by one twice. The most impressive effort probably came in their 2-1 win Apr. 7 against young Jose Berrios of the Twins, a pitcher who mixes a number of moving pitches extremely well.
No, the team didn’t statistically light Berrios up – after three games, the hurler’s WHIP is still 0.726 – but they did what they needed to. More specifically, in the sixth inning, Andrew McCutchen walked, and two batters later moved to third on a Bryce Harper groundout to the Twins shifted shortstop because no one covered third on the play to first.
Then, Rhys Hoskins battled through a long at-bat against Berrios, eventually reaching down for a breaking pitch and flicking it into the left-field stands. He only got a pitch that high – and it was low – because McCutchen was on third, and Berrios was unable to really bounce a curve to the Phillies clean-up hitter.
This was Eflin’s second win, and he gave up only a run on a first-inning home run, but better than that, the three relievers who followed him into the game, David Robertson, Adam Morgan, and Hector Neris, surrendered nothing in the two innings that followed Eflin’s departure and Hoskins’ home run.
The following day, Hoskins homered twice, again providing the margin of victory in a 4-3 game, and a different reliever, Pat Neshek, picked up the save after giving up a home run that brought the Nationals within a run.
This is how a championship team in 2019 wins games.