Philadelphia Phillies (52-44) at Cleveland Guardians (47-49)
Game 1 – Phillies fall behind again, and the comeback falls short to lose 6-5 – W: Stephan (5-4, 3.21), L: Suarez (2-5, 4.07), S: Clase (26)
For the seventh game out of eight since the All-Star break, the Phillies fell behind early. In the first inning, Ranger Suarez got two very quick outs but proceeded to give up two singles, a double and another single that scored two runs and the Phillies were in a hole. The Phillies loaded the bases in the top of the second but recently called up Jake Cave struck out to end the inning. In the third, however, Phillies cut the lead in half when Castellanos grounded out but scored Turner who had just tripled. In the top of the 4th, Phillies had more RISP with Cave up again and this time he singled but Bohm was nailed at the plate from Guardians center fielder Myles Straw. Schwarber was able to work a walk to load the bases again but Turner struck out to end the threat. To make matters worse, in the bottom of the inning, the Guardians led off with a double and after a sacrifice bunt, a ground out, and walk, Steven Kwan hit a clutch 2-out single to extend the lead to 3-1. Suarez, who was not his sharpest, got into some trouble again in the 5thand allowed another run pushing the lead to 4-1. The Phillies continued to fight through and in the top of the 6th had something cooking. A Stott single and three consecutive walks scored one and Turner was up with the bases loaded and one out. He struck out swinging on a pitch way outside and Castellanos flew out to left field and the threat was over. Yunior Marte relived Suarez and was credited with two runs and only getting one out. He surrendered a single, double, and single that scored one and then Strahm came in and allowed a single to score one more. The Cleveland lead stood at 6-2. As the Phillies have done so often, they fought back. Hitting back-to-back homeruns, JT hit a 2-run moonshot to left field and Stott followed it up with his own solo shot to right. The score was 6-5 but that’s how it would end. The Phillies would go down in order the next two innings and the comeback fell just shy.