Philadelphia Phillies: Not quite getting well in Cincy
The Philadelphia Phillies were breezing through September, keeping pace in the wild card race, then things started to wobble in the Queen City.
As the Philadelphia Phillies worked their way through a difficult Labor Day weekend, including a nasty piece of travel between a night game and one in the early afternoon the next day, they seemed to be serving notice they would compete in September this year.
While the Cubs kept winning, so did the Phillies. This was important because the Chicago was 3½ games ahead of Philly as August closed in the race for the visiting team Wild Card in the NL. Three days later, the Phillies had narrowed that gap by a game and had their ace, Aaron Nola, ready to face the Reds high-profile acquisition, Trevor Bauer, Sept. 4 in the Queen City.
Before play on Sept. 4 last season, the Phillies were 3½ games behind the second Wild Card slot. By Sept. 11, they were 6½ back; when the season ended, they had fallen further, from four games over .500 to two under. Perhaps this year would be different than most of the preceding decade.
The Phillies had wasted Nola’s previous two, excellent starts, but he was pitching, finally, the way he’ll be expected to for the next decade. Better, recently, Bryce Harper had touched both the 30 home run and 100 RBI marks, and Rhys Hoskins was also beginning to swing a hotter bat as well. Other cogs in the Fightin’ offensive machinery were also meshing nicely.
Of course, two of the Phillies three wins in September had been against the Reds, but hey, good teams are supposed to beat bad teams. The team had scored a total of 18 runs on 25 hits in those three games. Hoskins had hit two homers in the second game.
For the first time in almost three months, Philadelphia was seven games over .500.
It was sunny in Cincinnati as Bauer took the mound. There was, apparently, a very slight chance of rain late in the evening.
Game Time
Both starters, however, wouldn’t have to worry about the weather. They were gone by the end of the fifth inning. Oddly, neither had pitched horribly despite giving up nine runs between them. Nola mixed pitches well as usual but didn’t have his best curve, while Bauer worked effectively up in the zone, and perhaps mixed his six pitches even better.
Both had terrible single innings – Nola the second, Bauer the fifth – when they each gave up four runs. The difference as the game went to the relief staffs was the home run Nola had given up to Joey Votto in the first.
Former Reds star Jay Bruce took Nola off the hook in the seventh, though, with a pinch-hit homer to center that left the field in a hurry.
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Then total weirdness broke out.
Pinch hitter Jose Iglesias took Phillies reliever Jose Alvarez deep in the bottom of the inning, giving the Reds a 6-5 lead. Then, Phillies shortstop Jean Segura bounced a foul ball off home plate and bloodied his own mouth in the top of the eighth. (He lined out softly to short after a trainer’s visit.)
In the bottom of that inning, Philadelphia’s rookie center fielder Adam Haseley stole a home run from former Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis with an over-the-wall catch, then hid the ball until he had trotted ten yards back into right-center field. Where he smiled. Shyly.
This was followed relatively quickly by a home run off the bat of Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen, putting Cincy up 8-5. Really. Then Lorenzen stayed in the game and played – where else? Center field.
(Actually, Lorenzen has been MLB’s secret two-way player for several years, compiling a 19-20 pitching record and hitting seven home runs, including this game’s win and lost ball. He also posted a blown save on this particular evening. The guy was all over the box score.)
In the bottom of the ninth, three Phillies couldn’t solve another Iglesias, the Reds closer.
dark. Next. Cubs: Will they beat the Cards for the NL Central?
In other words, the last three innings were 2019 in miniature for the Phillies – a lot of promise, definite strangeness, and another loss, or in the frequently invoked phrase by sports fans around the Delaware Valley, “You couldn’t make it up.”