8/22 Game Recap: Phillies beat Reds 4-1

“As long as they don’t face the Cubs, Blue Jays, Mets, or Rangers the Phillies are winning the World Series” that is what NBC Sports Philadelphia analyst Michael Barkan had to say after the Phillies 4-1 defeat of the Cinncinati Reds tonight. While Barkan was obviously joking, it sometimes does feel like the Phillies are sent on Roller Coaster streaks due to their inability to beat certain teams for one reason or another. The Reds however are not one of those teams, the Phillies are now 4 and 1 against the Redlegs this season and they showed why tonight.

The Phillies were certainly antsy to get out on the field and shake yesterday’s putrid 10-9 loss to the Mets away. But they would have to wait as rain rolled through the area delaying the start of the ballgame by an entire hour. Nevertheless, the Phils would get underway “right on time” at 8:03 in the words of the great Scott Franzke. Noah Syndergaard was clicking from the start tonight, Thor went 7 innings allowing just a run on 3 hits. He started off the game right with two quick innings that would lead to the bottom of the second where the Phillies offense would get to work. A red-hot Nick Castellanos would lead off the inning for the Phillies by blasting an absolute bomb to dead center field that almost went over the batter’s eye into Ashburn Alley. Bryson Stott would follow it right up with an arching shot into the second deck in Right Field. Just an inning later Castellanos would strike again sending a double down the Right Field line that would end up scoring JT after a heads-up play from Dusty Wathan to notice the laxed throw into 3rd base and send a streaking Realmuto home. Noah Syndergaard’s only hiccup of the night came in the Top of the 5th when Austin Romine blasted a no-doubter out to left field, but other than that Syndergaard proved to be a main reason as to why the Phillies won tonight. The Phillies would wrap up their scoring with a JT Realmuto double off the out-of-town scoreboard that would bring home Alec Bohm. Now as we reached the 8th inning Rob Thomson would elect to bring in Sam Coonrod for Noah Syndergaard, who granted did have a high pitch count. But at the time he was cruising and I see no reason to not give him a shot to go 8 especially when your bullpen is so depleted. But Coonrod would nonetheless get through the 8th clean and quick. Which is where I have my second bone to pick with the skipper. Thomson would bring in Andrew Bellatti who last pitched yesterday, Coonrod had a low pitch count and was on multiple days rest. This was one that left me seeing shades of Joe Girardi and questioning Topper’s bullpen management, but a win is a win and Bellatti got through it despite giving us a little scare by walking Jonathan India to lead off the inning.

2 observations I made during tonight’s game; We saw an absolute blast by Kyle Schwarber in the bottom of the 2nd which would have given the Phillies a 3-0 lead early. But the ball went just foul of the pole in right. We haven’t yet seen Kyle Schwarber regain his pre-injury power, but hopefully, this was a pre-cursor that things will return to normal for the Phillies Left Fielder soon. The second thing I noticed tonight was how much Bradley Zimmer is fighting and just how much he wants to take advantage of this opportunity he was given. You could see every time after he got out, he would be shaking his head or cursing to himself, and every time he made contact he was busting it out of the box all the way to the bag even if he didn’t have a shot to be called safe. Though Zimmer may not be on this roster past next week upon the return of Bryce Harper, I admire his fight and his want to be on a Major League roster it’s a mentality you don’t see from a lot of guys anymore.

We saw the Phillies get back on track tonight, as they should have against a last-place Cinncinati Reds team. The Phils have a lot of these games versus bad teams at the bottom of the standings and they need to capitalize on it as the playoffs quickly approach. The Phillies next few series are against the likes of the Pirates, Marlins, Nationals, Giants, and Diamondbacks (in no specific order). These are teams the Phillies should take care of, emphasis on should there. But right now all the focus of the club should be on the Reds and the next game tomorrow night back at CBP at 7:05. For now good morning, good afternoon, and good night, and of course Go Phils!