Phillies Rout Dbacks in Series Opener
By Matt Veasey
The Philadelphia Phillies shut out the host Arizona Diamondbacks in the opener of a three game series at Chase Field in Phoenix.
Right-hander Vincent Velasquez made his highly anticipated return from the disabled list and looked as if nothing was ever wrong with him.
The 24-year old who has become such a key piece to the Phils rebuilding effort tossed a gem, firing bullets past the Dbacks hitters repeatedly and registering seven strikeouts while walking no one. He allowed just five hits over five innings, and 55 of his 84 pitches went for strikes.
“It was a little break to pretty much re-evaluate all my outings and go over little mechanics here and there, work on certain things, and then apply them to my bullpens,” Velasquez said per MLB.com’s Jake Rill. “It’s a first day back, so it’s a good start and hopefully I can build on it.”
Despite his triumphant return, Velasquez (6-2) still found himself in a scoreless tie as the game headed into the top of the 6th inning. That was because Arizona lefty Robbie Ray was battling him pitch for pitch.
Ray would allow base hits to the first two Phillies hitters of the game, but would settle down to retire 15 of the next 16 batters to keep the game scoreless from his side as well.
The Phillies finally broke through in that 6th inning when the same two batters who had gotten those two game-opening hits, Odubel Herrera and Peter Bourjos, came through with another pair of singles to start the frame.
With one out, Ray uncorked a wild pitch to move the two runners over to 2nd and 3rd respectively. A line drive base hit off the bat of Maikel Franco then brought home ‘El Torito’ with the first run of the game, and Cameron Rupp followed with an RBI single to score Bourjos.
Ray would ultimately go six innings, allowing four earned runs on nine hits, striking out seven and walking none. The big damage against him was about to come in the top of the 7th inning.
Cesar Hernandez began that 7th with a base hit, and the Phils 2nd baseman rolled all the way around to score from first on a Cody Asche RBI double, making it a 3-0 game and sending Ray (4-7) to the showers.
Righty reliever Jake Barrett was brought on by Dbacks skipper Chip Hale, and would be greeted by a run-scoring single from Herrera and a ground-rule double by Bourjos that hopped over the left-center wall.
Tommy Joseph then struck out, one of four strikeouts on a ‘golden sombrero’ 0-5 night for the Phillies 1st baseman. But Franco picked him up, immediately following with a two-run single that scored Herrera and Bourjos to make it a 6-0 game.
The Fightin’ Phils still weren’t done. Barrett walked two of the next three batters, including Phillies reliever Edubray Ramos, who was making his first big league plate appearance. Hale had finally seen enough, and lifted Barrett in favor of Josh Collmenter.
Hernandez greeted Collmenter with a bloop single to center, and both Franco and Freddy Galvis came around to score the runs that made up the final 8-0 margin of victory.
In all, Barrett allowed four earned runs on three hits and a pair of walks over just 2/3 of an inning of work. The Phillies bullpen, on the other hand, shut the hosts down the rest of the way.
Ramos provided two innings of scoreless, hitless relief over which he struck out three and walked one batter, and both Hector Neris and Severino Gonzalez recorded their own shutout frames to end it.
For the Phillies, it was their third win over the last five games following their nine-game losing streak. The two losses were a pair of hard-fought, one-run games with the NL West leading Giants over the weekend.