The Honeymoon Is Over: The Phillies Returned To 2016 Form Last Night
What a roller coaster last night night was. And by roller coaster I mean the one you would mod in Roller Coaster Tycoon that would go 100mph off the tracks and kill everyone on board. But those are the breaks when you are a Philadelphia Phillies fan. It’s a long and lonely road of loneliness. I mean 4 hits? 4 goddamn hits. I know I shouldn’t drop the GD bomb with it being lent and all, but it’s ok, no one is reading this anyway.
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The game plan was simple: make Brandon Finnegan throw as many pitches as possible. The Phillies did just that in the first inning forcing Finnegan to throw 25 before he worked out of trouble. Finnegan then had his way the rest of his outing, retiring the next 19 straight Phillies before being relived in the 8th. I mean 5-first pitch outs against a guy with the 2nd highest walk rate in all of baseball last year is just stupid baseball. Especially when he couldn’t buy a slider in the zone all night. The dude was able to beat us with just his fastball. Gotta respect it.
17 in a row by finnegan pic.twitter.com/wDdfqIR0NZ
— Tbyrd (@PhillyTByrd) April 6, 2017
Jared Eickhoff who had thrown only 66 pitches through 6 was in control. His curveball wasn’t as crisp as I have seen it, but he made up for it locating his 2 and 4-seamer and working in his reformed change here and there on a damp night. Then in the 7th inning, he made the mistake of hanging a curveball to someone you really shouldn’t do that to.
And that was really all the Reds needed. Adam Duvall went on to double in a run a few pitches later, before Joely Rodriguez relieved Eickhoff after 6 and 2/3.
There is literally nothing positive I can take from the Phillies in that game. Especially, when 3 of their hits didn’t even leave the infield. They continued their lack of run support for Eickhoff who recieved only 3.58 runs per start last season, 2nd worst in the NL. I could mention the fact that we had 1st and 2nd with no one out in top of the 8th and instead of attempting to move the runners into scoring position, Freddy Galvis and Michael Saunders went down swinging before a Cesar Hernandez ground out. Or that Odubel was almost caught stealing 2nd to end the game, down 2, before replay overturned it. I won’t do that though. The season is still too young and we’ll just go ahead and blame this one on the weather.
Pat Neshek made his Phillies debut last night. Fresh off his electric moments at the WBC, he strutted onto the mound donning a Phillies uniform in an empty Great American Ballpark. Aside from Gomez, this bullpen has been really exciting to watch so far. If only the lineup knew how to get on base.
We got a 12:35 game today. Nothing better than some afternoon baseball.
Go Phils