Phillies Again Lose to Fish in Extras
By Matt Veasey
The Philadelphia Phillies lost in extra innings to the visiting Miami Marlins for the second straight night.
The Phillies and NL East Division rival Miami Marlins hooked up in a long one last night in South Philly. But for the second consecutive game, the visiting Fish came out on top, this time by a 2-1 score in 10 innings.
Phillies starting pitcher Vincent Velasquez delivered a strong performance, allowing just one earned run on three hits over seven innings, with five strikeouts and four walks. He threw 60 strikes over his 105 pitches.
But Velasquez was virtually matched by Marlins starter Jose Urena, who allowed the same one earned run. Urena gave up four hits while striking out five and walking one over 5.2 innings.
Miami went on top with a solo home run off the bat of Christian Yelich in the top of the 4th innings, and the Phillies got that run right back in the bottom of the frame when Tommy Joseph blasted his 13th homer of the season.
That 1-1 score stood through the rest of regulation as the two bullpens engaged in a stare-down. Over the final 4.1 innings, David Phelps, Nick Wittgren, Mike Dunn (2-1), and A.J. Ramos (31st Save) shutout the Phillies bats.
The Phillies setup man and closer, Hector Neris and Jeanmar Gomez, got the game into extras without allowing a run as well.
But in the top of the 10th, David Hernandez allowed a leadoff double to Marlins’ shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, then walked Martin Prado with two outs.
At that point, skipper Pete Mackanin went to lefty Daniel Stumpf, fresh off a PED-related suspension, to face the lefty swinging Yelich. On a full count, Yelich dumped a ball into left field for an RBI single that scored Hechavarria and put the Fish in front by 2-1.
Ramos faced the top of the Phillies order in the bottom of the inning, and set down Odubel Herrera, Peter Bourjos, and Maikel Franco in turn to nail down the victory for the visitors, who opened up a 1.5 game lead for the final NL Wildcard berth with the win.
The biggest positive for the Phillies to take away from this was another strong performance by one of the club’s young starting pitchers.
“I got my full rest in,” Velasquez said per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. “If I’m refreshed, I would expect to at least go seven innings, at least more than five. I was pretty happy with the outcome today.”
The Phillies had to be happy with his outcome as well, though everyone involved on the home side, from the front office to the team to the fan base, would have been happier with a different outcome on the scoreboard.