Phillies Hold Off Depleted Padres
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the San Diego Padres on Friday night at Petco Park to begin a three game weekend series.
The Phillies faced a trade-depleted San Diego Padres lineup on Friday night at Petco Park, and held on for a 5-4 victory to open a six game west coast road trip.
The Padres, who dealt away stars Matt Kemp, Melvin Upton, Fernando Rodney, and Drew Pomeranz in the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the MLB non-waiver trade deadline, went into the series with really just one legitimate threat, and he made his presence known.
Wil Myers, who I highlighted in my Series Preview as that lone threat, went 3-4 on the night, blasting his 21s home run in the bottom of the 8th inning off Phillies reliever Hector Neris to make it a one-run game.
Related Story: SERIES PREVIEW: PHILLIES AT PADRES
The two starting pitchers on the night had provided their teams with innings. Jeremy Hellickson, who most never figured would be making this start for the Phillies after his name was so heavily rumored at the deadline, came through with a Quality Start.
Hellickson (9-7) delivered 6.2 innings, allowing three earned runs and six hits. He struck out three and walked two, throwing 110 pitches with 69 going for strikes. You could say that he was effectively wild. You could also say that he was fortunate the Padres don’t have many actual run producers.
On the home side, Christian Friedrich went seven innings, allowing four earned runs on five hits. Friedrich (4-7) struck out four and walked no one on the night.
The Padres jumped to an early 2-0 lead by scoring solo runs off Hellickson in the bottom of both the 2nd and 3rd innings before the Phils finally got on the board, taking the lead with a big blast in the top of the 4th inning.
Aaron Altherr got that frame started with a leadoff single, and Maikel Franco followed by reaching on a fielder’s choice grounder on which Altherr beat the throw to 2nd base.
Two batters later, Cameron Rupp stepped in against Friedrich and ripped his 13th home run of the season out to center field to push the Phillies on top by a 3-2 score.
In the top of the 6th, Rupp again got to Friedrich, drilling an RBI double to score Franco, who had singled with one out, to make it a 4-2 game.
Alexei Ramirez homered off Hellickson with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 7th, cutting the Phillies lead to 4-3 and ending the night for the Phils’ starter, who was replaced by Edubray Ramos.
Cesar Hernandez led off the top of the 8th by drawing a walk. He then promptly stole 2nd base, moved to 3rd on a fly ball, and scored on a two-out RBI single off the bat of Tommy Joseph to up the Phillies lead to 5-3.
After Myers homer had made it a 5-4 game, Jeanmar Gomez came on to close things out for the Phillies in the 9th inning. He was aided by the old pitchers-best-friend, a doubleplay following a leadoff single.
Working around two hits thanks to that twin killing, Gomez finished it out for his 28th Save on the season, and the Phillies had a win in their road trip opener. At 51-50, they are now just a dozen wins behind last season’s pace with nearly two months still to play.