Phillies Feast on Fish
By Matt Veasey
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | |
| Marlins | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Phillies | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | x | 8 |
The Philadelphia Phillies destroyed the visiting Miami Marlins on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park behind an early offensive burst and strong starting pitching.
The Phillies have put an end to any longshot hopes that the NL East-rival Miami Marlins may have had of reaching the postseason, taking the first two games of their weekend series after a huge Saturday night 8-0 blowout of the Fish.
The Marlins are now two games below the .500 mark and six games back in the NL Wildcard race, with their ‘elimination number’ now down to just nine games.
While the Phillies themselves have not been officially eliminated, that could happen as soon as Sunday afternoon.
The Phils elimination number is holding at just two, and with 13 games still remaining in the regular season, that is simply a matter of time.
The Phils’ bats exploded for five 1st inning runs, and the club rushed out to that 8-0 lead after just 4 innings. The team then coasted home behind the outstanding effort of starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson.
The pending free agent Hellickson (12-9) has been a veteran rock for the majority of the season in the youthful Phillies pitching rotation. Last night he delivered his finest performance of the year.
Hellickson shut the Marlins out on just three hits, striking out five and walking no one and firing 73 strikes over his 106 total pitches.
“That’s what we’re trying to do every time out,
” Hellickson said
.
“It wasn’t something I was thinking about, but I definitely knew when the last time was. It’s been a long time. It was nice to get to go back out there in the ninth and finish it.”
That “last time” had come all the way back on September 4th, 2011 when he went the distance for the Tampa Bay Rays against the Baltimore Orioles.
This was also Hellickson’s first complete game shutout since earlier that same year.
The righty shutout the same Orioles club in allowing four hits on May 13th, 2011 by a 3-0 score at Tropicana Field.
He got all the offensive support that he would need on Saturday night while there was still light in the sky from the now rapidly-setting sun on a gorgeous mid-September evening.
The Phillies ripped Marlins’ starter Jose Urena for five hits, three of them run-scoring doubles, to roll out to that early 5-0 lead.
Cesar Hernandez led off with a single, and he rolled home on a one-out double off the bat of Odubel Herrera.
After a Tommy Joseph single, Maikel Franco doubled to score Herrera for a 2-0 lead.
After Urena intentionally walked Freddy Galvis he struck out Aaron Altherr, and had a chance to get out of the inning without too much damage.
But with the bags loaded and two outs, A.J. Ellis ripped a double to left field that cleared the bases.
When the dust cleared from all of the Phillies runners flying around those basepaths, it was a 5-0 game.
In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Roman Quinn drew a one-out walk, and then Joseph blasted his 20th home run of the season to up the early lead to 7-0, effectively ending the competitive portion of the contest.
Urena (4-7) would allow seven earned runs on seven hits and two walks over just two innings.
In the bottom of the 4th, Quinn and Herrera delivered one-out hits, with Quinn scoring two batters later on a Franco ground out to complete the scoring.
Despite being in the same division, these two teams didn’t meet this season until May 6th, but they have seen a lot of one another since, having met 18 times since that point.
The Phillies have clinched the season series with the Marlins, having already taken 10 of the 18 games between the two clubs over the last four months heading into their final 2016 meeting on Sunday afternoon.