The Miami Marlins' Henderson Alvarez has been dominant against the Phillies this season. In his three starting appearances against the division foe, Alvarez has allowed just four earned runs in 19.2, pitting his earned run average at 1.88 and placing his record at 1-0. His last outing, in fact, was against the Phillies, a 6.2 inning performance that saw him allow just a single earned run. After being swept in a four game set by the Atlanta Braves, the Phillies are in an absolute downward spiral, and need some sort of momentum if they look to have a positive close to the second half of the season. It began tonight in Miami, where the aforementioned Henderson Alvarez would take on former Fish A.J. Burnett.
The Game: The Phillies were able to capitalize early, stringing together a couple of baserunners to score the game's first run. Despite Ben Revere leading off with a ground out, Jimmy Rollins picked him up with his fourteenth double of the season. Following next would be one Chase Utley. His single out to center fielder Marcell Ozuna would allow J-Roll to score and open up the Phillies to an early 1-0 advantage against a guy who has handled them this season.
Marlon Byrd led the fourth off with a single of his own, and would move to second on Cody Asche's groundout. In his second at bat of the evening, Domonic Brown would single as well, scoring Byrd and giving the Phils a 2-0 lead. Philadelphia seemed to have everything going their way, at least until the bottom of that inning. Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna each drew walks, and in the middle, Casey McGehee singled to load the bases against A.J. Burnett. A single off the bat of catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia brought home both Stanton and McGehee, and the Marlins quickly tied things at two a side.
Burnett was able to escape that inning without another run scoring, but the same couldn't be said about the fifth. Christian Yelich collected the leadoff single and stolen base in that fifth frame. With one away, Giancarlo Stanton recorded a base knock to score Yelich. Burnett would get McGehee to ground out, but could not stop Stanton from moving up to second. The following walk to Garrett Jones then put two runners on, and a ball past the glove of Cameron Rupp advanced both Marlins into scoring position. To his credit, Burnett did manage to strike Ozuna out, put the pitch went bouncing away from Rupp. Stanton reacted and crossed home plate, moving Miami's lead to 4-2.
It seemed as though the Phillies were destined to lose another game in dull fashion, that was until the eighth. Kevin Gregg was summoned into the ballgame to face the 3-4-5 batters in that eighth. He retired both Utley and Ryan Howard fairly quickly. The fourth pitch to Marlon Byrd, however, was sent incredibly deep into center field, and it hit off of the Marlins' dramatic home run statue. Byrd's sixteenth home run brought the Phillies to within one with four outs to play with. They needed only to wait for the next batter, though, as Cody Asche helped record the team's first set of back-to-back home runs since May 18th. The second pitch of the at bat was sent flying into right field for Asche's fifth such hit of the season, tying the game at four runs a side.
With the game remaining tied into the ninth, Ryne Sandberg chose Antonio Bastardo to pitch the inning. He'd set down both Yelich and Ed Lucas on just a handful of pitches, but was forced to unintentionally intentionally walk Giancarlo Stanton. When Stanton then moved to second on a wild pitch, Bastardo intentionally walked McGehee. A second wild pitch advanced both runners, and Bastardo now faced Garrett Jones with two men in scoring position. After falling to 3-1 against Jones, Bastardo recorded the check swing strike out to end the ninth and send the two teams into extra innings.
Justin De Fratus pitched a scoreless tenth inning, and was sent back out for the eleventh. A lead off single by pinch hitter Jeff Baker seemed to get the train rolling. Christian Yelich, on his third attempt, was able to get down a sacrifice bunt to move Baker to second. After a five pitch at bat, Ed Lucas broke through with a looping single over the head of Ryan Howard and into right field for the walk off RBI single. The Phillies exited with a 5-4 loss.
Impact: The disappointing season continues to hand us some difficult-to-swallow games. While they were down 4-2 at one point, the back-to-back home runs by Byrd and Asche in the eighth gave fans some hope. Alas, it was not meant to be. Speaking of Byrd, the right fielder is on a tear. His batting average is now up over .270, which includes sixteen home runs and 49 RBIs. You can bet his name will come up in the trade rumors.
Up Next: Cole Hamels will look to finally earn a victory after a recent stretch of dominant pitching. Facing him will be Tom Koehler, who made his first start against the Phillies just last week. Game Time is set for 7:10 in Miami tomorrow night.
Andrew Gillen, Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com
