In the first two games of a three-game homestand against the Detroit Tigers, the Philadelphia Phillies used both pitching and hitting to their advantage.
By Chris Murray
For the Philadelphia Sunday SUN
ABOVE PHOTO: Philadelphia Phillies’ Kody Clemens, right, reacts to his game-winning hit with Bryson Stott, center, and Josh Harrison, left, during the baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Thursday, June 8, 2023, in Philadelphia. The Phillies won 3-2. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
After struggling throughout most of the first two months of the season, the Philadelphia Phillies have been struggling to find some consistency with their bats and their starting pitching.
In the first two games of a three-game set against the hapless Detroit Tigers at Citizens Bank Park this week, the Phillies looked like a team that may have done just that.
On Tuesday night, Phillies starting pitcher Taijuan Walker pitched his best game as a Phillie and shut out the Tigers by a score of 1-0. Walker pitched seven strong innings, using his split-fingered fastball to strike out eight, while allowing only two hits, to the delight of a crowd of 36,664 fans who endured the smoky air brought on by the Canadian forest wildfires.
Walker had struggled in his last outing against his former team, the New York Mets. He was looking forward to getting back on the mound.
“He’s trying to get some rhythm in his delivery. His bullpen session the other day in Washington was outstanding. I think he’s finding something and I’m kind of excited to see him pitch.
After searching for his comfort zone throughout much of the season to this point, Walker said the last bullpen session got rid of the stiffness he had been feeling all season.
“The body just feels a lot better,” said Walker, who threw 91 pitches. “I was pretty stiff the last time (against the Mets). I had a really good bullpen really loose coming into today. I was moving around a little bit more in the outfield, simulating some ground balls to get my body moving more. Just trying to be more athletic.”
Closer Craig Kimbrel picked up his ninth save and set-up man Seranthony Dominguez allowed just one hit in a scoreless eighth inning.
Walker faced his most difficult moments of the game in the top of the fifth inning when he allowed a one-out single to Detroit second baseman Zack Short, a double to future Hall-of-Famer Miguel Cabrera, and a walk to Tigers catcher Jake Rogers to load the bases.
But a resilient Walker kept his cool and somehow managed to escape what could have been a big inning for the Tigers to break the game open by striking out Detroit centerfielder Jake Marisnick and getting right fielder Zach McKinstry to line out to center to end the inning.
“I just stuck with my best pitch with the splitter and then I got the line drive out,” Walker said.
Added Thomson: “I thought he settled in, kept his poise, and got the job done. He made some pitches on Marisnick, which was good and so that puts some pressure on the hitter with two outs and he got (McKinstry). I thought (Walker) was really good.”
That resilience was important because offense for both teams was in short supply. While the Phillies scored the game’s lone run via a leadoff homer from leftfielder — and killer of June baseballs — Kyle Schwarber, the winds blowing in from Canada knocked down a bunch of balls that might have been homers on any other night.
But on Monday night, offense and pitching came together to lead the Phillies to an
8-3 win over the Tigers.
Starting pitcher Aaron Nola displayed the form that has made him a perennial Cy Young Award candidate over the last five years and was able to get his first win in almost a month thanks to a near-flawless performance.
In seven innings, Nola tied his career-high with 12 strikeouts, allowing just one hit and no earned runs. Prior to former Phillies infielder Nick Maton whacking a three-run homer in the seventh, Nola had held the Tigers hitless for six and two-thirds innings.
“I felt good,” Nola said after the game. “My fastball felt good. My command of it felt lot better than it was in my last outing. It was more on the edges than it was over the plate and my curve felt sharper, but it was out of the (strike) zone today. My fastball was my main key to work on, trying to get it down in the zone for the most part when I needed to, so tonight it was more down than it has been.”
Other than Maton’s homer, the Tigers couldn’t get anything going against Nola, who did an effective job of increasing his velocity on his fastball and making his curveball work. It was arguably his best performance of the season.
“I thought (Nola’s) stuff was really good. His velocity was good. I thought his curveball was really good except for the one he threw to Maton,” Thomson said.
Meanwhile, the Phillies’ offense, which had scored at least seven runs before Tuesday night’s game, was led by shortstop Trea Turner, who had a pair of home runs including a solo blast in the bottom of the fifth that extended a Phillies lead. For the game, Turner was for 4-for-5 with three runs batted in and three runs scored.
After struggling for the first few months of the season, Turner said Monday’s performance was more like a sigh of relief to him because he knows his capabilities as a hitter. In the first 45 games of the season. He struck out 55 times and was chasing pitches out of the strike zone.
“It was more like ‘finally’ just because I expected that out of myself,” Turner said. “I expected to have quality at-bats—whether you get a hit or not it’s more about consistency.”
Oddly enough, Turner, who is batting .243, didn’t attribute his recent struggles to anything mental like trying too hard or not being relaxed during his at-bats. He said it was something more physical and that he got help from the team’s analytics department.
“I think it’s physical,” Turner said. “My swing wasn’t where it needed to be. The analytics department found something a few days ago and I tried it the last three days and it feels like the right adjustment …A lot of things go right when your mechanics are good.”
Turner said the team’s analytics department saw something in his that he couldn’t readily see in the video and followed their advice, and it has worked out.
“When I’m struggling, I’ll try anything,” Turner said with a smile. “I’ll stand on my head. I don’t care what it looks like. It’s about getting the job done.”
After a pair of good outings by both Walker and Nola, things may be starting to come together for the Phillies.
At press time, the team had won four straight games and two straight series, with the opportunity to sweep in a game that had to be moved to Thursday due to the Canadian forest fires before facing the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are tied for second in the National League West, for a three-game series that starts on Friday.
“Those are the guys that are going to be key for throughout this whole year and the way they set the tone,” Schwarber said. “They’re going to be days when we’re going to pick them up and they’re going to be days when they pick us up as an offense and a pitching staff.”
You can catch Friday night’s game on NBC-10 at 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday’s games on NBC Sports Philadelphia, at 4 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. respectively.
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