Phillies erupt in seventh to beat D-backs

Theo DeRosa

June 28 2016

By: Theo DeRosa, contributor

Final: Phillies 8, Diamondbacks 0

PHOENIX—Edubray Ramos stood in the batter's box at Chase Field and watched ball four sail by his head.

The relief pitcher, who was rushed to the plate when manager Pete Mackanin decided to let him hit for himself, walked in his at-bat in the seventh inning. Ramos' walk was just part of the six-run seventh inning, punctuated by two-run hits from Maikel Franco and César Hernández, that broke the game open for the Phillies in their 8–0 road blowout of the Diamondbacks.

Vince Velasquez pitched five scoreless innings in his return from the disabled list; Ramos held down the sixth and seventh as the Phillies took the first of three games from Arizona Monday night.

WP: Vince Velasquez (6-2, 3.38) ❖ LP: Robbie Ray (4-7, 4.69)

Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
PHI	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	0	0	8	16	1
ARI	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0

After Odubel Herrera and Peter Bourjos led off the game with back-to-back singles but the Phillies failed to score, Vince Velasquez returned to the big club after an 18-day stint on the disabled list for triceps soreness.

Velasquez pitched five scoreless innings and scattered five hits, striking out seven. He touched 97 mph on his fastball, a welcome sign after exiting his last start, on June 8, after reaching just 87 on the gun. Velasquez, who still struggled to keep his pitch count down with 84 pitches in his five frames, did look like he was almost back to normal, a good sign considering the nature of arm injuries.

Robbie Ray kept the Phillies very quiet through the first five innings, working out of a couple jams but managing to keep the Phils' bats silent. They couldn't be suppressed any more by the sixth, though, as Herrera and Bourjos reprised their roles from the first with leadoff singles, moved over on a wild pitch, and scored in turn on singles from Maikel Franco and Cameron Rupp.

Edubray Ramos entered in place of Velasquez for the sixth, erasing a leadoff baserunner with a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play and facing just three batters in the inning. He was part of a double switch that inserted Cody Asche into the game in place of Tyler Goeddel.

Asche rewarded the move by driving in César Hernández with an RBI double with no outs in the seventh. Ray left the game, helped along by a finger injury, and reliever Jake Barrett was greeted by Odubel Herrera with an RBI single on Barrett's first pitch. Bourjos followed up with a ground-rule double that would have scored Herrera, had the ball not hopped the fence and stopped the runners on second and third. After Tommy Joseph's fourth strikeout of the game, Franco drove both runners home with a sharp liner into center to make it a 6–0 game. After Rupp walked and Freddy Galvis' forceout put runners on first and third, Ramos walked to load the bases. César blooped a ball just fair inside the left-field line to score two runs and make it an 8–0 game.

Ramos pitched a 1-2-3 seventh with two strikeouts before giving way to Hector Neris, who stranded two runners in a scoreless eighth. Severino Gonzalez finished off the shutout and the win.

Jerad Eickhoff, who has been the best pitcher in the Phillies' rotation of late, will take on Zack Greinke at 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, the second game of three at Chase Field.

Back to Hub

Starting Pitchers