By Cameron Williams-
The Philadelphia Phillies set out for a 7 game road trip this week, the first four coming in a series against the single-digit win Colorado Rockies. The Rockies sit at a mesmerizing 8 total wins on the season, currently on pace to do worse than the Chicago White Sox, who broke the all-time loss record last season.
The Phillies collected the first three wins in the series, giving them yet another series win on the year. Recently, with the New York Mets struggling with a lost Juan Soto, the Philadelphia Phillies have overtaken first place in the NL East for the first time since the beginning of the season.
The Phillies sent out Ranger Suarez, who would be competing for his 3rd win on the season, after spending the first half of the season thus far on the injured list. Phillies starting pitching has allowed them to top the NL East thus far, especially with their major bullpen issues. On the road, the Phillies bullpen ERA is up to a whopping 4.37 and has blown 5/10 saves on the road so far. But so far, in the series, the Phillies pen has held up.
Suarez topped the mound for 6.2 innings, surrendering only 6 hits while giving up no runs. He had a little trouble commanding his pitches and got into some deep counts while walking 3 men. Nonetheless, the Rockies couldn’t find any holes against him, and credit to Suarez, he struck out 6 men. This was a complete rubber match, but the Phillies did manage to score a run in the fourth to give an ever so slight padding for Suarez to pitch a little more comfortably. While German Marquez had zero run support to show. Marquez tossed 7 innings and only surrendered 4 hits on 1 earned run to the star-studded lineup from the Phillies. He struck out 5 Phillie batters and only walked 1. It was a rough day for hitters in Colorado today, but the Phillies batters prevailed and scored two runs on 4 hits to win the game.
We saw an early double from Harper in the fourth to get a run across the board, and later in the game, Kepler hit for a double as well. Phillies DH, Kyle Schwaber, had another great day at the plate going 1-2 with a pair of walks. Schwaber made an early stab at being an all-star starter and possibly in the MVP race.
The Rockies plated zero runs on 7 hits, with Brenton Doyle, Jordan Beck, and Ezequiel Tovar had two hits each.
A very solid bounce back from Jordan Romano in his last 9 appearances has not given up a run, and that streak continues today as he struck out 2 batters in the ninth and gave up zero hits in a 3 out save. The two time all star had a very shaky start to the season, leaving many fans questioning his abilities and strength, but since discovering him tipping his pitches he has been unhittable and has looked very pois on the mound.
The Phillies head to Sacramento to take on the Athletics in a 3 game series. Zack Wheeler, CY young candidate, is set to take the bump. The A’s are on a 9 game losing streak and are now calling up centerfielder Denzel Clarke. He is one of their top prospects, says Jeff Passan of ESPN. Clarke, who is 25, is slashing .286/.436/.419 in Triple A, and is a flashy defensive player. The A’s are looking to snap their losing streak against the Phillies and Zack Wheeler tomorrow. Throughout Wheeler’s career, he has struggled vs. the A’s posting a 6.27 ERA in 18.2 innings versus them. But he looks to change that and move forward, as the Phillies have won 7 games in a row and will look for number 8 tomorrow (May 23 at 10:05pm EST).
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