Early returns promising in sweep of Braves
It’s three games out of 19 against Atlanta, a miniscule drop in the bucket of the 162-game ocean that is the MLB season.
But for Joe Girardi and a Phillies team that missed ending a playoff drought by a single game last year, no one-run win against a division rival is taken lightly, whether the calendar says April or October.
“There’s a long way to go, but it’s a lot better than the alternative,” Girardi said after Sunday’s sweep-clinching 2-1 win over Atlanta. “Every game counts.”
Thanks to Alec Bohm’s eighthinning RBI and another sterling pitching performance by Zach Eflin and the bullpen, the Phillies have laid down an early marker in the National League East, a division where 40 percent of the teams have yet to play.
In 2020, that’s the boat the Phillies were in, when a disastrous first home series in July against the Marlins brought not just two losses but a wave of COVID-19 and a week on the sidelines. Whether or not the team ever fully recovered from that inauspicious start is up for debate; whether the 2020 team failed to reach its potential is not.
This year’s start is a monstrous improvement. For a third straight day, a Phillies starting pitcher put them in position to win, Eflin tossing seven masterful innings. For a third straight day, the bullpen posted zeroes, Jose Alvarado in the eighth for the win and Hector Neris in a nearly dicey ninth for the save.
That and clutch hitting is about all you could ask for to start a season.
“I think we kind of proved to ourselves that any given night, we can go out there and win a game and we’re never really out of it,” Bohm said. “Our bullpen’s for real. Every guy’s stepping up, shutting the door and they’re doing their part. Everybody’s doing their part, and three good team wins.”
Eflin showed not just maturity in his stuff, which has had him seemingly primed for a breakout season the last few years, but in his poise. He was economical in the middle innings: It took 13 pitches to retire the first two batters and 23 pitches to get out of the first inning, but he needed only 31 to get through the second
through fifth frames. He reeled off four consecutive single-digit-pitch innings to deliver the length Girardi prizes, allowing four hits, one walk and striking out eight.
Eflin used Atlanta’s aggressiveness against it, avoiding the fat part of the bat with his sinker and fourpitch mix. The Braves were retired on the first pitch five times, though the sixth first-pitch swing saw Travis d’Arnaud deposit a 77-mph curveball 384 feet away into the left-field stands.
“It was nice to go out there and pitch deep into the game for the first start and really keep them off balance and get some double plays when I needed to,” Eflin said. “It really felt like I was keeping them guessing and letting the pitches move and pitching to contact.”
“With the sinker, he’s able to go out and get early contact, and everything’s on the ground, being able to get double plays if there’s a guy on base,” catcher Andrew Knapp said. “We’ve seen him do that over the past year, year and a half where he’s able to fill up the strike zone and keep guys off balance.”
Alvarado worked a clean eighth. Neris entered against the top of the order and struck out an unhappy Ronald Acuna Jr. looking before Ozzie Albies flied out to the track in right. He pitched around Freddie Freeman but walked Marcell Ozuna before getting d’Arnaud to pop out harmlessly to right, sending the 10,773 spectators waving powder blue giveaway towels home happy.
It makes for pristine stats after three games: 11 hits, three earned runs, one walk and 24 strikeouts in 20.2 innings for starters; 7.1 scoreless from the ‘pen, with one hit, four walks and 10 strikeouts.
“Everyone did their job,” Girardi said. “The starters were really good and got us deep into games. The bullpen came in and did their job. To limit this team to as few of runs as we did is really not easy to do. That’s an explosive lineup and extremely dangerous, and we executed pitches.”
***
As good as Bohm was as a rookie in 2020, he was even better with runners in scoring position, batting .452 with 19 hits, 18
RBIs and an OPS of 1.043 in 52 plate appearances. He showed it again Sunday.
Bohm took a Chris Martin slider that didn’t slide straight back up the box, an authoritative single to score Rhys Hoskins from second.
“I know they’re trying to do something to get a groundball there,” Bohm said. “I’m expecting everything down in the zone. I didn’t panic once I got to two strikes. He still had to throw the ball over the plate. And he happened to make a mistake and it worked out for the best.”
“He’s come through time and time again, so you feel pretty good about him when he’s in that spot, and he’s not going to try to do too much,” Girardi said. … He’s been really good in those situations, and that’s why we have him in the middle of the lineup.”
*** Knapp in 2020 provided all that can be asked of a Phillies backup: Relieving the impulse to play J.T. Realmuto every day and exceed his physical limits.
The backup got 2021 started by taking Atlanta starter Ian Anderson deep, a solo homer in the second for a 1-0 lead. The dinger went off the video board in right, nearly hitting Knapp’s headshot.
“I got a little jumpy the first pitch, swung at a bad pitch,” he said. “Then I kind of reeled it and was like, let’s stay within ourselves. But once it got to 3-1, I knew he was going to challenge me. It was early in the game and I put a good swing on it, and it felt great.”
***
NOTES » The Phillies struck out 36 times in the series, including 13 times Sunday. When they put the ball in play – six of seven batters did so in the eighth; the other was an intentional walk to Jean Segura – good things happen. … The Phillies legged out three infield singles, including one by Adam Haseley, who has dealt with a groin issue all spring, and one by Knapp. … The capacity at Citizens Bank Park was raised to 11,000 Sunday, in consultation with the Philadelphia Department of Health. It had been around 8,500 the first two games. “It was awesome with fans there to be able to hear them cheer, and I think that was what this weekend was about, too, is giving them a show,” Knapp said. “We love having them back in the stadium.”