Phillies Rookie Battered by Cardinals

The Phillies (8-13) called up 22-year old Severino Gonzalez to make his MLB debut tonight in Saint Louis vs the host Cardinals (13-6), hoping that the AAA strike-thrower could give the club a quality 5-6 innings and keep them in the ball game. He didn’t.

The Cards rocked Gonzalez for 7 earned runs on 10 hits and 2 walks, chasing him with two outs in the 3rd inning. I don’t know if Gonzalez will ever pitch again in the major leagues, but after this absolute disaster of an outing, it probably won’t be any time soon.

Thing started badly for Gonzalez (0-1), and never let up. In the bottom of the 1st, he retired the first batter he faced. That was his only chance to celebrate. Matt Carpenter cracked a one-out triple to center field, and Matt Holiday followed with an rbi double to center. When Matt Adams grounded an rbi single to center, it was 2-0. Gonzalez got out of further trouble with a double play ball.

In the bottom of the 2nd, Jason Heyward led off with a single to right field and was followed by a walk to Yadier Molina. When Kolten Wong then singled to left, Heyward bolted for home, but was out at the plate on a throw by Ben Revere, with Carlos Ruiz making a nice play on the ball in foul territory and then applying the tag.

Ruiz and Gonzalez were working the game together as the first-ever Panamanian battery in MLB history. That was about the only positive history on this night for the pitcher. When Cards starter Michael Wacha (4-0) grounded out, Molina scored and made it 3-0. Jon Jay followed with an rbi single, scoring Wong to up the lead to 4-0.

The Phils put a dent in Wacha’s armor in the top of the 3rd, getting a pair back to cut the Saint Louis lead in half. Freddy Galvis singled, and then moved up to 2nd when Gonzalez successfully bunted him over in his first-ever MLB plate appearance. After a 2nd out, Odubel Herrera came up with yet another big hit, doubling home Galvis to make it 4-1. Herrera then scored on a base hit by Chase Utley.

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With his team getting back in the game, Gonzalez promptly put them out of it once again. Holliday led off the bottom of the 3rd with a single, went to 3rd when Adams doubled, and then scored on a sac fly from Jhonny Peralta. Following a walk to Heyward, Molina’s sac fly scored Adams to make it 6-2. Wong and Wacha then followed with back-to-back singles, bringing home Heyward to make it a 7-2 lead, finally chasing Gonzalez.

Dustin McGowan then came on for the Phillies. He settled things down through the 4th, and the Phils again started to chip away. When Galvis led off the top of the 5th with his 2nd hit, and was followed by walks to Sizemore and Revere, the Phils had the bases loaded with nobody out. Herrera grounded out to 1st base, scoring Galvis, and then Utley grounded out to 1st base, scoring Sizemore.

In the bottom of the 5th, Jake Diekman came on to pitch for the Phillies. He walked the first batter he faced in Heyward, but then Cody Asche made a tremendous play at 3rd base to absolutely rob Molina of a hit. With two outs, Diekman made the cardinal sin of walking the opposing pitcher Wacha.

Diekman paid for it when the speedy Jay beat out an infield single that Galvis made a nice diving play on, Heyward scoring on the play to up the Cards lead to 8-4. It was the 3rd Cardinals batter to score after reaching via a walk.

Carpenter then drove a ground-rule double to left center out of the reach of the diving Herrera, upping the lead to 9-4 and bringing home Wacha with the 4th Cards run scored by someone who had reached via a walk. It wouldn’t be their last.

Revere led off the top of the 7th with his 2nd hit, and came around to score on a 2-out rbi double off the bat of Andres Blanco, who was up pinch-hitting for Diekman. Once again, the Phils bullpen lefty struggled mightily. In two innings he allowed 2 earned runs on 2 hits and 3 walks, and his ERA now sits at a disastrous 10.00 on the season.

The Cards decided to tack a couple more on for good measure in the bottom of the 8th. A walk, a hit, an error, and a stolen base by a pinch-runner, all within the first two batters of the inning, put runners at 2nd and 3rd. The Cards typically don’t waste those kinds of scoring opportunities, and they didn’t here. A sac fly from Adams and a 2-out rbi single from Molina stretched the lead out to the final score of 11-5.

On Wednesday night, the Phils will send their best starting pitcher thus far in the early going, righthander Aaron Harang, to the mound. The Cardinals will counter with talented youngster Carlos Martinez.