After fueling optimism for the second half of the season by playing .500 ball over a rugged 42-game stretch that matched them against a number of top contenders, the Phillies on Tuesday night began a 13-game sprint to the All-Star break against teams with losing records.
Before commencing the stretch with a game against the Baltimore Orioles, baseball’s worst team, manager Gabe Kapler warned, “If we take any team lightly, we’ll get our asses kicked.”
The Phillies did not take the Orioles lightly Tuesday night, but they still had to battle. In the end, they came away with a 3-2 win thanks to another strong starting pitching performance from Zach Eflin, a pair of two-out extra-base hits from Rhys Hoskins and Andrew Knapp and a game-saving defensive play from third baseman Maikel Franco in the eighth (see story).
The win improved the Phillies to 46-37. A win in the series finale on Wednesday afternoon would push the Phillies to a season-high 10 games over .500.
The start of the game was delayed one hour, 25 minutes by rain that continued throughout most of the game.
Eflin became the first Phillies’ starter since Cliff Lee in 2011 to win six straight starts as he pitched two-run ball over seven innings. He gave up five hits, walked none and struck out six. One of the hits that Eflin gave up was a ringing first-pitch homer to Mark Trumbo leading off the second inning. Trumbo was sitting fastball and got one, 94.5 mph. The ball came off the bat at 113 miles per hour and jetted over the center-field wall. The homer was the first Eflin had allowed since May 30. He did not allow a homer in five starts in June. He went 5-0 with a 1.76 ERA in that month.
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Trumbo’s homer gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead. The Phillies went ahead in the third on a two-out, two-run double by Hoskins. The RBIs were the 99th and 100th of Hoskins’ career and they came in his 124th game. No Phillie has gotten to 100 RBIs quicker. Hall of Famer Chuck Klein had the previous team record. He reached 100 RBIs in his 143rd career game in 1929.
The Orioles tied the game with a run against Eflin in the fourth, but the Phils retook the lead for good on a two-out RBI triple by Knapp, the hero of Sunday’s extra-innings win over Washington.
Though Eflin was at an economical 82 pitches through seven innings, manager Kapler lifted him for pinch-hitter Dylan Cozens in the bottom of the seventh. Cozens struck out against Baltimore starter Alex Cobb and the Phillies got nothing in the inning.
The bullpen got the final six outs. Tommy Hunter got two in the eighth before handing off to Seranthony Dominguez with a runner on base. The hard-throwing right-hander pitched into a bases-loaded jam with a pair of walks and needed a huge assist from Franco to get out of trouble. Franco, shaded toward second base, made a terrific diving play to take away a hit from Chris Davis. Had the ball gone through, it would have scored two runs and the Orioles would have taken the lead.
Dominguez came back out for the ninth and got three outs, including the last two with the potential tying run on second base, to record the save. He threw 28 pitches.