Philly Front Office

The Phillies just wrapped their second series of the season with a sweep of the Rockies. We won 3 games against a bad team, but this was an absolute roller coaster.

COLORADO ROCKIES

Game 1 – Christopher Sanchez did his regular Christopher Sanchez thing, cruising at home, but gave up a solo homer to backstop Hunter Goodman in the 6th. Apparently only catchers can kill the Phillies this year as Goodman picked up right where Keibert Ruiz of the Nationals left off. The two combined for 4 dingers in 6 games against the Phils. Thankfully, this was the start of the Edmundo Sosa show. Despite going against a righty, Sosa was called into action due to Trea Turner’s back injury. The Rockies pulled starter German Marquez after 6 shutout innings despite throwing only 83 pitches. In the 7th, firmly in “one of those games” territory, Kepler singled only to be erased by Castellanos. Then Stott doubled, Turner worked a pinch hit walk after going down 0-2, and then Sosa cranked a double against a righty to give us the lead. Schwarber then hit a tank shot to dead center to put us up 4-1. Kepler and Castellanos went yard back to back the next inning. Curiously, Rob Thompson put in Jose Alvarado to close it out despite the 6-1 lead.

Game 2 – Facing a tough lefty in Kyle Freeland, the Phillies couldn’t do much but got a little lucky. After a Bohm single in the 4th, Kyle Schwarber poked an opposite field double to left scoring Bohm. He was then moved over by Castellanos and scored on a JT ground out, barely beating the delayed throw. Then things got annoying. Sosa singled and moved to second on a pickoff error. Johan Rojas landed a perfect bunt and then stole second. Turner beat out an infield hit to load the bases for 3-4-5. 14 pitches later, despite only 3 of them being in the zone, Freeland struck out the side stranding all 3 runners. That’s maddening, but we only struck out 4 times in the game overall, they just happened to be at the worst time. For the series, there were only 14 Ks, this after striking out 19 times on Opening Day.

Wheeler pitched 7 strong innings and struck out 10. Afterwards, he thought he had a bad outing because his pitches weren’t where he wanted them. Colorado was just swinging at them anyway. Alvarado closed his second game in a row.

Game 3 – TAIJUAN WALKER!!! Who in the world saw this coming? The much-maligned Walker went 6 shutout on only 74 pitches. Normally I am team “keep him in” but why risk it? That had to feel good for the guy who was booed during Opening Day intros. He cruised. On the field, nothing seemed to go right for anyone. Kepler was out at home in the 3rd on what looked to be an accidental perfect block of the plate by the hated Jacob Stallings. In the 5th, old friend Mickey Moniak tripled but couldn’t score. In the bottom half, Moniak dropped a sure fly out to put Kyle Schwarber on second. He would score on a Bryce Harper double. Brandon Marsh screwed up a great scoring chance in the 6th by getting caught stealing with 2 on, 2 out and Schwarber at the plate. Schwarber would launch one the next inning. Come on guys!

The real problem in this game was Rob Thompson’s bullpen usage. He called upon Jose Alvarado AGAIN to close this one out. After pitching 2 out of 3 days already, he was not sharp here. He started walk, single, run scoring single, strikeout, and another single to load the bases. This one was about to slip away due to poor bullpen management. Thankfully Alvarado struck out the last two and saved Thompson’s ass. I am not one of those people against Thompson, but I do not understand why he pitches some guys sometimes. There was no need for Alvarado to pitch all 3 of these games – in April – against the Rockies – with the Dodgers coming to town! He threw 71 pitches in 3 games. WTF!

LOS ANGELES DODGERS

The Phillies start the series with a bit of luck in that phorever Phillie killer Freddie Freeman has hit the injured list and will not play. I don’t want anyone to be hurt, but I’m not exactly upset we don’t have to face him. Even without him, the Dodgers are still absolutely crushing it. They are 8-0 and getting contributions from everywhere. Tommy Edman and Will Smith have been the biggest bats so far with 4 dingers for Edman and Smith featuring an OBP of .600+. Then there’s still Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani who are being their regular superstar selves. Last we saw Ohtani, he hit a walk off homer against the Braves on Wednesday

This is our first taste this season of two regular annoyances: Michael Conforto and Miguel Rojas. Conforto is in his first year with the Dodgers. He missed two games last week seemingly due to the possibility of facing tough left handers. The Braves threw a bullpen game at them on Monday followed by Chris Sale the next night. This might mean we only see Conforto on Saturday against Aaron Nola. Rojas, from my understanding, is simply an a-hole. Not just to us either, as he regularly hazed young players in Miami. No one ever cared because 1. it was the Marlins, and 2. the young players would only be around for a couple years before leaving. Anyway, don’t be surprised if he’s the guy to get a late crippling hit.

The Dodgers are only throwing righties this series, so look for the regular lineup without early season superhero Edmundo Sosa. Probably the same lineup each day with the exception of Sunday. The Phillies already said JT will sit that day. Expect Rafael Marchan to hit 9th.

• Kyle Schwarber
• Trea Turner
• Bryce Harper
• Alec Bohm
• Max Kepler
• Nick Castellanos
• JT Realmuto
• Bryson Stott
• Brandon Marsh

Friday, April 4 at 6:45p (Apple TV) – Jesus Luzardo (L) v. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (R)

Yamamoto made us think ever so briefly that he might come to Philly as we apparently bid $300m+ for his services. It wasn’t meant to be. He was as advertised last year in his 18 starts: he strikes out a decent number of hitters while not issuing that many walks. So far this season he has pitched twice going 5 innings each. The first was in Japan where he could have gone much longer and crushed it, but the second against Detroit he threw a ton of pitches to get his 10 Ks. He’s good, but at least the Phillies can counter by going lefty heavy.

Luzardo had a similar debut to that of Yamamoto’s second outing. 11 Ks in 5 innings, but needed 95 pitches to get it. The stuff was filthy though. The Dodgers lineup is much weaker against lefties. Not that Ohtani or Betts will have a problem, but this means we will see Kiké Hernandez, Rojas, Andy Pages, and Chris Taylor at the bottom of the order.

Saturday, April 5 at 4:05p – Aaron Nola (R) v. Roki Sasaki (R)

Sasaki has struggled with walks so far, two games into his career. His first outing in Japan was cut short after 3 innings due to 5 walks; his next only lasted 1.2 thanks to 4 more free passes. The Phillies are not exactly known for their patience, so this will be an early test of their new philosophy of laying off crap outside the zone.

Things are a little different in Dodger town against righties. Expect Michael Conforto and Max Muncey to be in the lineup only against Nola and possibly as pinch hitters late. As always, Nola was cruising in his last outing until he wasn’t. It took a random hit by pitch in the ole Rav 4th Inning to start the snowball this time. A walk and a Josh Bell homer later and we were down 3-0. Every time. It is baffling how Nola can look so good and so bad all in the same game so predictably.

Sunday, April 6 at 1:35p – Christopher Sanchez (L) v. Tyler Glasnow (R)

Glasnow is a strike throwing monster. His biggest weakness as a pitcher is his notably poor health. At some time every year, he goes down. Just how bad it will be is anyone’s guess, but it is going to happen. His career high in innings was last year’s 134 when he missed 10 starts. That doesn’t matter for Sunday though. Last time out he went 5 on 79 pitches, struck out 8 and walked 3, giving up 2 hits and no runs. That’ll play.

Sanchez didn’t even look that good in looking great in his debut on Monday. The fastball was hanging around 97 and the changeup was solid, but that has become the regular Chris Sanchez. He lasted 5.1 innings and struck out 7. He is notably much better at home. This should be a hell of a pitcher’s duel. Again, going against the weaker right handed Dodgers lineup in this one, like Friday.

NEXT UP: at Atlanta Braves

• Monday, April 7 – No Game
• Tuesday, April 8 – Wheeler v. Sale
• Wednesday, April 9 – Walker v. Schwellenbach
• Thursday, April 10 – Luzardo v. Smith-Shawver