Smyly tosses gem to lift Phillies over Giants
PHILADELPHIA — Nights like this used to be common for Drew Smyly.
Pitch into the seventh inning? No problem. He did it in nearly one-third of his starts from 2014 to 2016. Don’t give up any runs? Sure thing. He held an opponent scoreless nine times in that span. It’s the reason Smyly was the centerpiece of the package that the Tampa Bay Rays received in a trade-deadline deal for David Price five years ago. And it explains why the lefty was tapped to pitch for Team USA in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
But then came the elbow injury, and Tommy John surgery, and two seasons without pitching in a big league game, and that unsightly 8.42 earned-run average in 13 games for the Texas Rangers this season, and ... and ... and ...
Imagine, then, how it must have felt for Smyly to walk off the field at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night after completing seven innings and blanking the San Francisco Giants. And as much as Smyly needed that, the Phillies needed it even more. They hadn’t gotten at least seven innings in a game from a starter other than Aaron Nola since Zach Eflin gave them eight on June 12.
On the eve of the trade deadline, with starting pitching remaining the Phillies’ biggest weakness, a starting pitcher led them to a 4-2 victory in the opener of a threegame series that could have wild-card implications. Let that sink in for a moment. It doesn’t happen often.
When Smyly allowed one run in six innings in Pittsburgh on July 21, it was chalked up even by Phillies officials as one promising start. Now Smyly has offered a companion performance. He allowed four hits and one walk, struck out five batters, and went seven innings for the first time since Aug. 15, 2016.
And he provided a reason to believe he might finally be coming around to being the pitcher he used to be before the injury.
For the second consecutive start, Smyly threw his cutter in to right-handed batters. He threw 37 curveballs and got nine swings and misses. He didn’t allow a runner to reach second base and was always in command.
When he finally yielded to newly minted setup man Nick Pivetta in the eighth inning, the Phillies held a four-run lead. Pivetta gave up solo home runs to Brandon Belt and Stephen Vogt to make things interesting, but closer Hector Neris pitched a scoreless ninth inning and the Phillies improved to 2 1/2 games better than the Giants in a bunched-up wild-card race.
The Phillies did all their scoring in the fourth and fifth innings against Giants starter Tyler Beede.
J.T. Realmuto and Cesar Hernandez opened the fourth with back-to-back singles. Realmuto scored from third on a groundout by Maikel Franco, then Hernandez trotted home on Adam Haseley’s double that split the gap in right-center and rolled to the wall.
Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins teamed up for the fifth-inning runs. Harper worked a one-out walk, and Hoskins crushed a tworun home run to left field, giving Smyly a 40 lead.
Kings general manager Vlade Divac announced Tuesday the team has signed Isaiah Pineiro, an Auburn native who was a part of the organization’s summer league squad.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a league source said the Kings signed Pineiro to an Exhibit 10 contract. Pineiro’s contract doesn’t guarantee him a roster spot beyond training camp, but it extends his opportunity with the organization and helps the Kings fill out their 20-man training-camp roster.
Exhibit 10 contracts are oneyear, minimum deals with no salary protections. A team can convert the deal into an NBA contract or a two-way contract, or let it expire and make the player a free agent when training camp ends. A player on an Exhibit 10 contract can earn a bonus of $5,000 to $50,000 if he is waived by an NBA team, signs a deal with that franchise’s G League affiliate and then remains with the affiliate for 60 days.
Pineiro, a 6-foot-7, 215-pound forward, appeared in all three games at the California Classic, averaging 4.0 points and 1.3 rebounds in 7.4 minutes per contest. He appeared in five games in the Las Vegas Summer League, where he averaged 4.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in 14 minutes per game.
Pineiro starred at Placer High School in Auburn. He went undrafted out of San Diego after averaging 18.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists as a senior last season. The first-team All-West Coast Conference selection scored 677 points to set a single-season school record.