Phillies Beat Brewers, Split Series
By Matt Veasey
6. Final. 1. 76. 8
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.
With an offensive outburst seen on just two other occasions this season, the Phillies drubbed the Milwaukee Brewers by an 8-1 score on Sunday afternoon to gain a split of their four game series.
The Phils had previously reached the eight-run mark during a late-April, 10-6 win at Milwaukee, and then again in a late-May, 8-5 win in Detroit.
“When a pitcher gets a ball up in the zone, we want to attack it,” Phils’ manager Pete Mackanin said per Dave Zeitlin of the AP. “And up until today, we haven’t done enough of that. Hopefully this is the start of something big for us.”
Today’s offensive outburst was only half the story, with the other half coming from a strong start by Aaron Nola on the 2nd anniversary of his selection by the Phils in the 2014 MLB Amateur Draft.
Nola (5-4) went six innings on a humid afternoon, allowing eight hits. He struck out nine and walked two batters, delivering 69 strikes among his 103 pitches.
“It was strange,” said Nola per the Associated Press. “I told the infield I was going to get them a 1-2-3 inning one time, and it didn’t happen. I got in jams pretty much every inning. But I battled hard and kept the team in the game, which was the most important part.”
The Phillies bats scored single runs in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th innings to support their pitcher. Odubel Herrera led off the bottom of the 1st with his first of four hits on the day, then motored all the way around to 3rd base on an errant pick-off by Brewers’ pitcher Wily Peralta.
Freddy Galvis then grounded out, scoring ‘El Torito’ with the game’s first run. With two outs in the 3rd, Maikel Franco bombed his 10th homer of the season into the left field stands to make it 2-0.
Then with two outs in the 4th, Cody Asche singled, and raced all the way home on a triple by Cesar Hernandez that developed after Milwaukee right fielder Domingo Santana failed to block the hit while sliding.
In the bottom of the 5th, the Phillies blew the contest wide open and drove Peralta from the game by scoring a season-high five runs.
Herrera got things started again, beating out an infield single. He then stole 2nd, and moved to 3rd on a sacrifice bunt. Peralta (3-7) then intentionally walked Franco to get to Tommy Joseph, who promptly made the Brewers pay.
Joseph drove a 1-2 offering deep to right-center that appeared to go out for a three-run homer. However, replay review properly showed that a fan had reached over a rail and caught the ball.
The hit was changed to an RBI ground rule double, and the scoreboard changed from an 6-0 lead to a 4-0 lead with runners at 2nd and 3rd.
That change of fortunes for the Phillies wouldn’t last long. Brewers’ manager Craig Counsell brought in Neil Ramirez to replace Peralta, and the reliever promptly gave up a three-run blast to right field by newcomer Jimmy Paredes.
It was Paredes first home run with the Phillies, his 2nd on the season overall. Cameron Rupp then stepped in and drove his own blast out to left field, Rupp’s 4th home run of the season giving the Phils an 8-0 lead.
Peralta’s ugly final line showed him allowing five earned runs on seven hits and two walks over just 4.1 innings.
The Brewers managed to scratch out a run on Phillies’ reliever Elvis Araujo in the top of the 8th, but it was way too little, and way too late.
The Phillies will now wrap up this 10-game home stand by hosting the best team in Major League Baseball, the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs. The Phils were swept by the Cubbies at Wrigley Field just two weeks ago.