On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Baltimore Orioles to take the series against the American League East leaders and put themselves in the National League Wild Card hunt.
By Chris Murray
For the Philadelphia Sunday Sun
ABOVE PHOTO: Edmundo Sosa rounds the bases after his home run. Photo by: Webster Riddick
For the second straight night, another Philadelphia Phillies pitcher found himself in an early hole only to pitch his way out of it and give the team’s potent offense a chance to get them back in the game.
But this time, the Phillies (55-47) didn’t need any last inning heroics to help them emerge victorious.
The Phillies defeated the Baltimore Orioles (64-40) by slugging their way to a 6-4 victory in front of 40,235 fans at Citizens Bank Park. Taking two out of three games from one of the best teams in the American League made Phillies manager Rob Thomson a happy man.
“It was a good series. We just lost two series in a row,” he said. “It’s good to get back on the winning side against a really good club. I felt we played well.”
With the exception of a third inning he’d rather forget, Ranger Suarez went on to have a good night on the mound. In his six-plus innings of work, Suarez had six strikeouts with just one walk while allowing just four runs for the win.
“I thought he was better tonight than he was in the last couple of outings,” Thomson said. “His velocity was good; his changeup was really good. He threw good curveballs that they went down and got. I thought he was very good.”
The Orioles jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning on a three-run homer by Orioles designated hitter Adley Rutschman.
“Honestly, [I] felt pretty good at the beginning of the game,” Suarez said through team interpreter Diego Ettedgui. “Obviously, it was a costly mistake when I left it over the plate, but my mindset was the same. You just try to help the team to win the game and go as deep as possible to give us a shot at winning the game.”
The Phillies cut the Orioles lead to 3-2 on an RBI double by left fielder Jake Cave that scored Brandon Marsh, who walked and went to second on a wild pitch by Orioles starting pitcher Kyle Bradish and an RBI single by Nick Castellanos that scored Cave from second.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Phillies took a 4-3 lead on a double to left by J.T. Realmuto that drove home third baseman Alec Bohm and second baseman Bryson Stout, who had both singled to start the inning.
One of the biggest plays in this game came from Cave in left field. With two outs in the top of the sixth inning and the Orioles with a man on second. Ramon Urias hit a long fly ball that seemed destined to carom off the wall or to leave the park. But Cave had other ideas, leaping up and snatching the ball before it hit the wall and ending Baltimore’s efforts to keep the inning alive.
“It’s one of those situations where you have to think about what could happen there. You had two outs, runners in scoring position,” Cave said. “What am I going to do if the ball is hit here? Then the one over your head, you just can’t think about. You just have to react.”
But Baltimore managed to even things up in the next inning thanks to an RBI single from Orioles left fielder Austin Hays that brought home James McCann. Every time Baltimore made a charge, the Phillies fought back.
“(Orioles) only scored in two innings, but we answered in the next half and that was big,” Thomson said.
Edmundo Sosa celebrates his homer with his teammates. Photo by Webster Riddick
In the Phillies half of the seventh, Edmundo Sosa hit a two-out solo home run to put the Phillies ahead 5-4. The Phils added another run in the inning on an RBI double by Bryce Harper.
The Phillies bullpen tandem of Craig Kimbrell and Gregory Soto shut the door on Baltimore in the game’s final two innings.
With this win, the Phillies are now in possession of the third wild card spot in the National League. Despite the loss, the Orioles remain in first place in the American League East thanks to the Miami Marlins defeating the Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the day.
The Phillies now head up the Pennsylvania Turnpike to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-game series that begins Friday night at PNC Park. You can catch the action on NBC Sports Philadelphia, starting at 7:05pm.
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