Phillies Hang On to Sweep Rockies
By Matt Veasey
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | |
| Rockies | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Phillies | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | x | 7 |
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Colorado Rockies on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park in the finale of a weekend series.
The Fightin’ Phils fought their way to a healthy lead in the middle innings, then held off a late rally by the visiting Colorado Rockies for a 7-6 victory and a sweep of the three game ‘Alumni Weekend’ series at Citizens Bank Park.
Lefty Adam Morgan was promoted to make the start in place of the injured Zach Eflin, and provided three innings over which he allowed two earned runs on five hits, throwing 39 strikes among 58 total pitches.
Morgan was forced out of the game with two on and nobody out in the top of the 4th when he was hit on the forearm by a line drive off the bat of Nick Hundley. He was replaced by Severino Gonzalez (1-2), who would allow just one of the runners to score.
“It kind of gets dangerous around the elbow area,” he said “But it got me pretty much in the meat of the forearm.”
With an off-day on Monday, the Phillies will see how Morgan’s arm looks and feels before determining whether or not to skip his next scheduled start.
Over the first six innings of play the Phillies offense built up a 7-3 lead, with much of the damage done by journeyman Jimmy Paredes.
Hitting out of the eight-spot in the batting order, Paredes went 3-4 and fell a triple shy of becoming the first Phils’ hitter in a dozen years to go for ‘The Cycle’ in a game.
“It’s good,” Paredes said per MLB.com contributors. “You try to help your team to win and do the best you can. That’s all. I was ready for my chances. They gave me my chance and I did the best I can.”
Paredes got the scoring started with an RBI single in the 1st inning off Rockies starter Tyler Chatwood that scored Cameron Rupp.
Chatwood (10-8) lasted four innings, allowing six runs, four earned, on six hits. He also walked five batters on the day.
A major thorn in the Phillies side the entire weekend, Rockies leadoff man and center fielder Charlie Blackmon had two more home runs on Sunday on the heels of a three-homer game on Friday night.
With the score knotted at 3-3 thanks to Blackmon’s first homer in the top of the 5th inning, the Phillies struck for three runs in the bottom of the 5th to take a lead they would not relinquish.
Rupp started it by drawing a walk, and he was immediately followed by a Odubel Herrera single. A base hit by Freddy Galvis brought home Rupp to give the Phils the lead, and Paredes followed with an RBI double, scoring ‘El Torito’ to make it a 5-3 game.
One batter later, Cesar Hernandez singled home Galvis and it was 6-3. In the bottom of the 6th, Ryan Howard led off with a single and came rumbling all the way around to score from 1st base on an RBI double by Herrera to make it a 7-3 lead.
Blackmon’s second homer of the day made it 7-4 in the top of the 7th, and then the Rockies got to Phillies’ closer Jeanmar Gomez for a pair of runs in the 9th before he was able to nail down his 31st Save of the season.
With their fourth straight victory, the Phillies moved to within seven games of the .500 mark for the first time in nearly a month. The sweep allowed them to pull within a half game of Colorado in the overall NL standings, 6.5 games back of the final NL Wildcard spot.