Phillies Weekend Report: Nationals Pitchers Put On Suicide Watch
What A debilitating series for the NL East jackhammer, Washington Nationals thanks in part to your Philadelphia Phillies. After the 5th inning on Friday the lineup scored 27 runs, giving them a run differential of +10. At no point last season were they in the positives. They hit .454 with RISP. They walked 14 times (h/t Matt Stairs) They sent a World Series champion pitcher into hiding. Aaron Nola found his fastball again. A blown save followed by a walk off win and 2 of 3 taken from Nationals in April.
And how about 108,000 faithful Phillies fans who made their way to the stadium over the weekend. First time a weekend series hit the 100k number since Sept 26-28, 2014. Are Phillies fans back?
Friday April 7 – Nationals 7 Phillies 6
The story Friday was Vincent Velasquez. 10k’s in 4 IP is pretty remarkable, but he ran his pitch up to 94 through those 4 innings, walking 3 and allowing 5 hits, including 2 HR. He just dug himself way too many holes on Friday. He fell behind 1-0 to 11 of the 20 hitters he faced and ran himself into just way too many 3-ball counts.
This is the type of pitcher Vinny is and we should expect this more often than not. On a positive note, that change up he was working on in the Spring, saw a huge uptick in usage. Mixing in his slider and occasional curve, Vinny has given himself an excellent repertoire of pitches. Give him April to figure out his stuff and by May, the electricity Velasquez brings to the mound should be in full force.
Freddy Galvis delivered again in the bottom of the ninth with a 2-run home run to cut the lead to 1. This came after he smoked a 2-out RBI double to extend the inning, before an Aaron Altherr 2-run home run to cut the lead to 3. I can’t say enough about Freddy and how clutch he has been during his tenure with the Phillies. In the end, the Phillies fell short and Max Scherzer continued his dominance against the Phils.
Saturday April 8 – Phillies 17 Nationals 3
With Jeremy Guthrie making his first start since the 2015 World Series, it was just simply the Phillies night. That’s really all you can say. 17 was the most runs they have scored in a game since 2013. They batted .900 in the first inning, scoring 12-runs including 8 with 2-outs. Oh, poor Grandpa Guthrie. The last stat anyone will ever read when typing up his name on Baseball Reference is “2017…135.00 ERA.” It took the Nationals all of 5 minutes to release him following that game. On his birthday no less! But hey, that’s what you get Nationals fans when management has to scrape the bottom of the barrel for starting pitching after you give up the farm for Adam Eaton. Take Clay off our hands while your at it.
Life isn’t so bad for Jeremy. Odds of him returning to the majors are slim after Saturday night’s start. But, would you rather be a guy black balled from the MLB after one of the worst single inning pitching performances of all time, own a world series ring, have 43 million in the bank, or be a Phillies blogger? Yea, I’ll go with the former on that.
Aaron Nola was without a doubt the biggest benefactor from this game. He needed this start and he needed it bad. Following a less than ideal spring, he went out there and looked like the Aaron Nola of old. The fastball was dancing left to right and the spinner was sharp. A quality start, even with the 17 runs of support is how we needed him to begin this season. Confidence level is on the rise.
Sunday – Phillies 4 Nationals 3
It was Cesar Hernandez who had to save the day with a walk off single after a 3-run, 9th inning lead was squandered by Jeanmar Gomez. Yes, Jeanmar sucks and he should not have been in the closer to role to even begin with. His ERA is 18 in 11 IP and he’s 3 blown saves since Sept 2 of last year. I know, I’m tired of talking about too. Frankly, I’m glad this happened so it will finally sink into Mackanin’s dumb noggin that loyalty doesn’t save you baseball games. The best pitchers at the back end of your bullpen do.
Sure, Jeanmar had 37 saves last season, but his stuff might be the 5th, maybe 6th best out of the bullpen. We aren’t paying Joaquin Benoit 7.5m this season to pitch in the 6th in a 3-0 lead! So as we figure out the closer issue, thankfully our bullpen problems do not run as deep as the Nationals’ who are looking to continue their reign of the NL East. 7.52 ERA and 2 Blown Saves in early April? 11 ER on 16 hits to the helpless, Philadelphia Phillies? I can see in the distance a window, closing.
In other news, Jeremy Hellickson has been a little too soft for my liking in his first two starts. While he has has looked fantastic in the innings hes pitched, leaving his first start due to fatigue after 67 pitches on Monday and suffering hand cramps from dehydration on Sunday, should be somewhat of a call for concern. That’s not what I want to see out of our supposed ace. It’s a long season, injuries happen. His BAA of .206 and .90 WHIP in those 2 starts doesn’t have me complaining, however.
That concludes the Phillies Weekend report. Right now I’m locked in, but I usually am. It was an amazing weekend of Phillies baseball. We definitely needed it in our first home series to bring some fans back in. We’ll see where we are in August and whether or not I’ll have to be the conductor of the “Tank for Seth Beer” train. Shout out to my dudes on twitter who have been following the games with me and let’s get after the Mets tonight while we crush some dollar dogs.
Go Phils
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