After blowing an early lead in Game 1 of their series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Phillies were back in action Tuesday night to try to even the series. All-Star Cristopher Sánchez took the hill for Philadelphia while the Dodgers sent Clayton Kershaw to the mound.
Through the first four innings, it was a bit of a pitchers’ duel. The pair kept the game scoreless, allowing just five hits combined.
Kyle Schwarber would open up the scoring for Philadelphia, singling to center and bringing Austin Hays home from second. Schwarber is quietly in the midst of what is arguably his best season as a Phillie. While he’s not mashing the ball as often as in previous years—not that 24 homers through the first week of August are anything to sneeze at, Schwarber’s batting average is up over .250, an impressive improvement over last season, where he finished the season as a .197 hitter.
What’s different for Schwarber this season? The most noticeable change is that Schwarber is staying on top of the ball as opposed to getting under it. His average launch angle is also down to 16 from 19 over the past two seasons. There’s a clear correlation between that and his downtick in home-run production, as the ideal launch angle for a home run is around 25 to 30, but by lowering his launch angle while improving his hard-hit rate from 48.8 percent to 53.7 percent, Schwarber has been able to reintroduce the concept of small ball to his game.
Schwarber’s ground ball and line drive percentages are both up over last year, and his fly ball percentage is down. This has helped create more quality at-bats for the Phillies slugger, led to his impressive increase in batting average, and allowed him to maintain a similar RBI rate to his previous seasons in Philadelphia. That’s enough analytics for now, though. Back to the game itself.
After Schwarber drove in the first run in the top of the fifth, the Phillies continued to press the Dodgers in the very next inning. Following an Alec Bohm single and a JT Realmuto walk during the ensuing at-bat, Nick Castellanos performed his best Schwarber impression, singling to center field and driving Bohm home from second. As the inning would continue, it would be Edmundo Sosa who drove home both Realmuto and Castellanos after singling into right field. The Phillies would take a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth, but the Dodgers were not done yet.
Teoscar Hernández would lead off the inning with a double into right field and would quickly be moved to third, then home, following back-to-back ground balls by first baseman Freddie Freeman and catcher Will Smith. Hernández would again touch home after he blasted a leadoff homer 424 feet straight away to center field to open up the bottom of the eighth.
The Phillies would respond well in the top of the ninth, however as Sosa and Schwarber would go back-to-back with home runs into right field. With a four-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, trade deadline acquisition Carlos Estévez would take the mound and seal the win for Philadelphia. Since coming to the Phillies from the Los Angeles Angels, Estévez has yet to allow a run in four and two-thirds innings of work.
It’s a small sample size, but so far, it’s been smooth sailing for Philadelphia’s new closer.
Up next for the Phillies
The Phillies will wrap up this series tonight with a 10:10 p.m. finale as rookie and South Jersey native Tyler Phillips will take the mound against the Dodger’s Gavin Stone.
