Phillies Shutout the Padres
By Matt Veasey
Final. 0. 127. 3. 6
The Philadelphia Phillies used another strong pitching performance to register a victory over the San Diego Padres.
On a cool night at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia, veteran right-hander Charlie Morton took the mound trying to make amends for a poor outing last week in his first-ever regular season start in a Phillies uniform, a drubbing at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds.
Morton made his amends and then some, shutting out the Padres on three hits over 6.2 innings. He struck out seven and walked four batters in evening his personal record up at 1-1 on the 2016 season.
When manager Pete Mackanin turned to his bullpen, the trio of Hector Neris, David Hernandez, and new closer Jeanmar Gomez did the job. As a group the three allowed just one hit over 2.1 innings, striking out two and walking one batter.
San Diego also received a strong starting performance, this from Robbie Erlin who went six innings, allowing just three hits while striking out seven and walking one. However, his offense could give him no support against the strong Phillies pitchers.
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The Phils’ offense provided that strong pitching with a solo run in the bottom of the 6th inning and a pair in the bottom of the 8th inning. In the 6th, rookie Rule 5 draftee Tyler Goeddel opened the frame with his first big league hit, a ground single into left field. Three batters later he scored his first run, chased home by an Odubel Herrera triple to right.
“It felt like it had been a year since my last hit, so to finally do it, I’m happy about it,” Goeddel said per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki.
In the 8th, Cedric Hunter led off pinch-hitting for Goeddel, and drew a full-count walk. Padres’ reliever Kevin Quackenbush then walked Emmanuel Burriss. pinch-hitting for Hernandez. With the two runners aboard, Cesar Hernandez failed to advance them by popping up a bunt attempt right to the 3rd baseman.
The Padres changed arms again, bringing in Brad Hand, but couldn’t much change the results as Hand walked Herrera to load the bases. Maikel Franco then bounced into a force out, but it scored Hunter first with a run that made it 2-0. Then on the same play, an error on 2nd baseman Cory Spangenberg allowed Burriss to score the run that made it the 3-0 final.
The Phillies raised their record to 3-5 on the young season with the victory. They’ll send Jerad Eickhoff to the mound on Wednesday night, trying to pull within a game of the .500 mark after starting the season with four straight defeats.