Phillies Back at .500 After Another Shutout

Final. 0. 127. 3. 6

The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the San Diego Padres in the Thursday afternoon finale of a four game series.

Riding yet another outstanding starting pitching performance, the Phils defeated the visiting Padres by 3-0 at Citizens Bank Park. The win gave the home side a 3-1 series victory, and was the club’s 5th win in the last 6 games, moving them back to the .500 mark here in mid-April after beginning the season with four losses.

Delivering that oustanding starting performance out on the mound this time was 23-year old Vincent Velasquez, fresh off his first regular season outing in a Phillies uniform over the weekend in which he registered the team’s first victory of the 2016 season.

Velasquez was strong in that outing last Saturday against the New York Mets. This afternoon he was downright filthy and nearly unhittable. The young right-hander scattered three hits, striking out 16 batters while walking one in a complete game shutout.

It was Velasquez’ first complete game at any professional level, and he dominated the Padres on the day. Though he pitched with just a 1-0 lead during much of the game, he was never in any trouble.

The 16 strikeouts from Velasquez fell just one shy of the franchise record for a 9-inning game set by Art Mahaffey all the way back on April 23rd, 1961 and was two shy of the all-time club mark of 18 set by Chris Short during a 15-inning outing on October 2nd, 1965.

“I’m fully excited. Man, gosh, it’s still hitting me…It was a great day today.” ~ Vince Velasquez

The Phillies offense was supplied by veteran 1st baseman Ryan Howard, with The Big Piece getting an opportunity to start against Padres’ lefty starter Drew Pomeranz, mostly due to Darin Ruf still struggling with a sore shoulder.

Howard got the scoring started by bashing his 3rd home run of the season, a solo shot out over the fence in left-center field leading off the bottom of the 2nd inning.

More from That Balls Outta Here

In the bottom of the 6th, Odubel Herrera drew a leadoff walk and promptly stole his first base of the season. Herrera then moved up to 3rd on a ground out, and came in to score when Howard drove a sacrifice fly to center field for a 2-0 lead.

Pomeranz was battling Velasquez nearly evenly for awhile. In the end, the southpaw allowed two earned runs on just three hits, walking three and striking out eight Phils’ batters over seven solid innings.

The sloppy Padres helped the Phillies to another run in the bottom of the 7th ining. Andres Blanco, who had started at shortstop but now slid over to play 1st base, started the inning with a double to right. He moved to 3rd on a sacrifice bunt laid down by Peter Bourjos. Then with two outs and Velasquez at the plate, Padres’ reliever Carlos Villanueva uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Blanco to score the final run of the game.

Velasquez was looking calm in the postgame locker room, but that belied the excitment he felt inside. “My face doesn’t show it, but it was fun,” he said per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “I’m fully excited. Man, gosh, it’s still hitting me…It was a great day today. Everything was just kind of clicking.”

The key piece in new general manager Matt Klentak’s first trade this past off-season as highlighted in a piece earlier today here at TBOH by Mike Campanella, he may make that deal with Houston a steal, even if none of the other pieces develops.

“It looks like we made a pretty good trade,” Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said per Zolecki. If Velasquez continues to perform at the level that he has demonstrated throughout spring training and now into his first two starts of the regular season, that could prove one of the biggest understatements in franchise history.

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