The Apple of our eye: Phillies 4, Giants 3
The Apple of our eye: Phillies 4, Giants 3
th The Phillies threw on their City Connect jerseys, plopped themselves on Apple TV+ for a streaming TV viewing experience and took on the San Francisco Giants for a baseball game.
Imagine saying all those things 10 years ago.
With Aaron Nola not at his best at all last night, the Phillies somehow scratched and clawed their way to a victory, utilizing some baserunning daring-do by Trea Turner and solid bullpen relief work to secure the victory bag.
The game started off with a missed opportunity when the Phillies put two runners on with two outs in the first inning, but J.T. Realmuto grounded out to end the inning. The missed opportunity felt ominous when Nola lost all semblance of control in the second inning, walking the first two batters before striking out Matt Chapman for the first out. On the very next pitch, Thairo Estrada lashed a double to right that scored both runners and put the Giants up 2-0. Two more batter were walked by Nola to load the bases and bring the ever dangerous Jorge Soler up to the plate. At this point, Jose Ruiz was warming in the bullpen and Nola had crossed the 40 pitch mark for the inning, but Rob Thomson left him in to face Soler and had that faith rewarded, Soler fouling out to Realmuto to end an inning that looked like the end of the game.
In the bottom of the third, Kyle Schwarber reached on the second error of the game by Chapman, Bryce Harper walked for the second time with one out bringing up Alec Bohm. Now, at this point, Jordan Hicks was struggling to throw strikes as well. When he did throw one to Bohm, he delivered.
When Realmuto walked to follow to load the bases, the Phillies had their own chance to break the game open with Brandon Marsh coming up.
Marsh, well yeah, he delivered too!
In the fourth, Trea Turner hit a two-out single, stole second and then the real fun began. Harper took a pitch that looked to be in strikezone for a ball, but catcher Tom Murphy missed it, apparently crossed up and the pitch went to the wall. Turner went to third and, sensing some lackadasical play, sprinted for home to try and snare another run. Though it was close, Turner beat the tag and gave the Phillies a 4-2 lead.
Only problem is: Turner hut his hamstring on the play and will miss some time.
The rest of the game was in the hands of the bullpen. Matt Strahm and Seranthony Dominguez started the parade and were both solid. When Orion Kerkering entered, he was not helped by Bryson Stott at all. With a man on first and no one out, a groundball to Stott made him think he could get the runner at second. When that option was no longer available, he eased the ball to first base, allowing the runner, the speedy Jung-Ho Lee, to be safe with no one out. The next batter singled to load the bases with no one out instead of runners on the corners with one out. Soler came up and grounded into a double play, which allowed a runner to score, but did get two outs. But thanks to that brain cramp by Stott, the inning was not over. Michael Conforto the next pitch to the wall in right, but it stayed in the yard and no further damage was done.
Jeff Hoffman and Jose Alvarado entered the eighth and ninth respectively, shutting down the Giants’ offense and literally saving the day. It was a good night for the bullpen.
With weather moving in this weekend, it was important to get this win tonight. They’ll go back at it again tonight at 6:00.
That sound you heard was thousands of local area fans cancelling their free trial of Apple TV.