Phillies Bats Break Up Pitching Showcase
By Matt Veasey
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Atlanta Braves in an MLB trade deadline showcase game on Saturday night at Turner Field.
This was supposed to be a showcase for the two starting pitchers as the Phillies and Braves took the field on Saturday evening at Turner Field.
With the MLB non-waiver deadline for deals looming at 4pm on Monday afternoon, both Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson and Braves starter Julio Teheran were hotly rumored to be on display in front of at least 7-8 scouts from rival organizations.
Turns out that neither pitcher particularly shined, though neither should have done anything to really hurt their reputations either. Both have a lengthy, well-established track record of performance which should be the ultimate decisive factor.
In the end, the Phillies bats and the Braves overall sloppiness and ineptitude were the stories on this night in a 9-5 victory for the visitors. With the win, the Fightin’ Phils gave themselves a shot at finishing 5-5 on this long road trip with a win in the Sunday afternoon finale.
Hellickson went 5.2 innings, allowing nine hits while striking out two and walking one batter. He minimized the damage, allowing just three runs, and threw 58 strikes among his 91 pitches.
He was forced out of the game thanks to a bruised hand suffered on his two-run double in the top of the 5th that put the Phillies on top 3-2.
“Still not really sure what it is,” Hellickson said per MLB.com contributors. “A bruise. Or I popped something in there. But I felt fine, though, after I did it.”
Teheran lasted five innings, striking out four and walking one while allowing three earned runs on five hits. He threw 56 strikes over 86 total pitches on the night.
Both Cameron Rupp for the Phils and Freddie Freeman of the Braves registered three-hit nights to lead the respective offensive attacks, which left the Phillies with a 5-3 lead entering the 8th inning.
But in that bizarre 8th, the Phillies would bat around and score four times to put the game away. Incredibly, they did all the damage without the benefit of a single base hit.
The decisive frame began with reliever Hunter Cervenka on the mound for the hosts, and he promptly walked four of the first five batters that he faced, forcing in a run to give the Phils a 6-3 lead.
That prompted a pitching change to Ryan Weber, and prompted the Braves fielders to begin exhibiting butter fingers. Consecutive errors by Adonis Garcia and Erick Aybar resulted in two more runners scoring.
With the Phillies now up 8-3 and with the bases still loaded, Weber then hit Aaron Altherr with a pitch to force in yet another run without benefit of a hit, and the lead was up to a 9-3 margin.
The “rally” finally came to an end when the Braves finally figured out Rupp, getting the Phils’ catcher to ground into an inning-ending doubleplay.
Severino Gonzalez came on for the Phillies and yielded three hits, including a pair of doubles, resulting in a pair of Braves runs that cut the Phils’ lead down to what would prove to be the final 9-5 score.
This long road trip, prompted in part by the DNC in Philly over this past week, will come to an end this afternoon. Winning a series like this one is important to show that the Phillies are indeed moving forward in a measurable way.