By: Matthew Mack
As the season comes to a close. The Philadelphia Phillies faced the Baltimore Orioles.
The first game did not go as well as they planned. Baltimore scored the only runs in the game in the first inning when Pedro Severino drove home two on a line drive single to center. Even though Phillies starter Ranger Suárez gave up those runs in the first, the pitching staff kept them in the game. The downside was that the offense could only get four hits all night. Orioles took the opener in this one.
Tuesday night, the Phillies had another bullpen game. Baltimore started the scoring in the fourth when Ramon Urias drove in a run. Finally, in the sixth, the Phillies put a run on the board in this series when Andrew McCutchen hit an RBI double to tie the game. The contest went to extra innings. Baltimore brought a run home in the tenth when Austin Hays hit an RBI double to take the lead. The Phillies thundered back when Realmuto hit one to right to score Ronald Torreyes and Bryce Harper who would not be denied a chance to score the winning run. Phillies win in extra innings.
In the series finale, Zack Wheeler was mowing down the O’s through the majority of his outing. In the six innings pitched, he struck out nine while walking two, giving up one run on four hits. McCutchen stepped up in the bottom half to tie the game with a home run to give the Phillies the lead. Baltimore tied the game in the next inning with Trey Mancini grounding out to Didi Gregorius up the middle to score the run. In the bottom half, Jean Segura hit a sacrifice fly to send home a run and Realmuto bringing in a run on a single to left. Though the O’s scored another run in the eighth, Ian Kennedy threw 31 pitches in the ninth to get the win and his 25th save of the year.
Winning this series is very important. It Doesn’t matter who you play. The thing is though the Phillies are three games back in the division, they are still within arm’s reach of the Atlanta Braves. The margin of error is getting thinner. As they face the Pittsburgh Pirates for a four game series, every game is important. The Braves play the D-backs for one more on Thursday and then they face San Diego for four with a home-and-home series on the weekend. The Phillies still must take care of business if they want to get to the playoffs.
