The Philadelphia Phillies came home to Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday to start their final homestand of the season. They faced the third-place Miami Marlins in game one of a three-game series.
Phillies vs Marlins recap
Cristopher Sánchez got the start for the Phillies. In his second-to-last start of the regular season, Sánchez did what he's done all season: pitch like an ace. The 28-year-old lefty reached a couple of milestones during the game. In the second inning, he notched his 200th strikeout of the season.
It's the first time in his career that he's hit that benchmark. With Jesús Luzardo, Sánchez became just the 7th pair of lefties to strike out over 200 batters in a season for a team. Ironically, four of those teams were also based in Philadelphia. Rube Waddell and Eddie Plank did it for the Philly A's in 1904 and 1905, while Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee did it for the Phillies in 2012 and 13.
In the fifth inning, Sánchez struck out the 500th hitter in his career. He threw seven total shutout innings against the Marlins, striking out seven. He allowed just three hits and a single walk. His season innings total now sits at 196.1. He'll have a chance to eclipse 200 IP on the final day of the season.
The Phillies' offense came exclusively against Marlins' starter Edward Cabrera. In the first inning, Kyle Schwarber tanked a high fly ball out to the second deck in right field for his 54th home run of the season. He's now just four home runs behind Ryan Howard's club record of 58 from 2006.
In the bottom of the second, rookie Otto Kemp hit a 2-run home run, scoring Weston Wilson. The Phillies' hitters record just a single hit until the 9th inning. Five of their hits came against Cabrera, who pitched just four innings.
David Robertson got the call for the 8th inning to relieve Sánchez. He gave up the first run of the day on a solo home run by Griffin Conine. The second run of the day scored on a throwing error by Harrison Bader, allowing Otto Lopez to score. Tanner Banks had to come into the game to clean things up. With two outs and the tying run on first, Banks struck out Jakob Marsee to end the inning.
A rainstorm rolled through, starting in the bottom of the 8th. The Phillies recorded their first hit since the 4th inning on a single by Harrison Bader.
Many Phillies fans stayed through the rain to see a Jhoan Duran entrance. They got that. What they didn't get was a save from the hard-throwing closer. On a 101 MPH fastball, rookie Heriberto Hernández homered to left center field. During the inning, JT Realmuto took a 99 MPH Splinker off his hand.
To start the bottom of the 9th, Rafael Marchan pinch-hit for Realmuto. He singled. After two bad bunt attempts by Max Kepler, the game entered a rain delay.
After a little over an hour, the game resumed at 10:32 PM. Kepler started again with a 0-2 count. After seeing 6 more pitches, he struck out swinging. The Phillies couldn't bring Marchan home, so extra innings ensued.
Orion Kerkering got the assignment for the 10th inning. Coming into the game, he had allowed an ER in each of the last three games in which he pitched. That continued as he allowed the ghost runner to score and allowed a second run on an RBI groundout.
The Phillies got an opportunity in the bottom of the inning. After the Marlins intentionally walked Schwarber, Alec Bohm found a single to drive in the ghost runner Brsyon Stott. The Marlins made a pitching change to bring in lefty Josh Simpson to face Brandon Marsh. Nick Castellanos got the call to pinch-hit. After a battle, he tied things up again with a RBI single.
With the score evened up, Lou Trivino came in for the 11th inning. He was immediately greeted with a line drive off his shoulder. Nick Castellanos made a nice play to record the first out on a liner to right field. The ghost runner scored on the sac fly, making the score 6-5 Marlins. Trivino struck out two Marlins to end the inning with just one run scored.
The Phillies got the tying run to third but could not bring him home in the 11th. Bryson Stott made the final out on a grounder to the pitcher. The Phillies lost 6-5. The game lasted 3:27, not including a 1:09 rain delay.
After the game, Manager Rob Thomson expressed some frustration with the play from the Phillies. "There's a little bit of sloppiness that we need to clean up, and it's been the last couple of days."
