Final: Phillies 7, Cubs 5
WP: Ken Giles (6-2, 1.45 ERA) LP: Hector Rondon (5-4, 1.70 ERA)
Philadelphia, PA – For the majority of Saturday evening's matchup against the Chicago Cubs (82-59), the Philadelphia Phillies' (55-88) bats were silenced.
The Phillies trailed 1-0 entering the seventh inning, with the only run of the night coming off the bat of left fielder Kyle Schwarber.
A two-out fielding error by first baseman Anthony Rizzo, however, extended the inning for the Phillies' offense and ultimately was their downfall in the third meeting of the four-game weekend set at Citizens Bank Park.
Coming off the bench for the 64th time of his career, Ryan Howard took advantage of the Chicago misplay by sending a RBI-double, his 29th of the season, to deep right field. This clutch hit tied Howard for fourth place on the Phillies' franchise list for extra-base hits.
Two walks and a double later, the Phillies would score four more runs in the frame to grab a four-run lead. Their lead quickly disappeared, however, as the Cubs scored four runs on three hits and a walk in the top of the eighth to even the game at five.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, following a walk by catcher Erik Kratz, pinch-hitter Cody Asche came through with his second career walk-off home run.
Strange But True: Cody Asche has hit 2 career walkoff HRs. One was Sept. 12 last year. The other was Sept. 12 this year. It's a crazy sport
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) September 13, 2015
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Cubs | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 1 |
| Phillies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 0 |
After walking two batters in the top of the first, Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff would go on to retire seven straight before allowing his first hit of the night in the third, a two-out, solo blast to right field by Cubs' left fielder Kyle Schwarber.
This was Schwarber's third home run of the series, and the 16th of his rookie season over 52 games.
After the first six innings of tonight's game, the Phillies had just three baserunners to reach: a double by third baseman Andres Blanco in the second, and singles by second baseman Cesar Hernandez and center fielder Odubel Herrera in the third and fourth innings respectively.
Coming out of the bullpen in the fourth, Trevor Cahill tossed three perfect innings on 38 pitches to earn his first victory of the season. Even though he entered the game with the lead, he was awarded the victory by the official scorer.
The Cubs' second hit of the game, following the solo home run in the third, did not come until the top of the seventh as catcher Miguel Montero singled to right with one out.
The next batter, shortstop Javier Baez, singled to left to put two runners on for the first time of the night for either side.
Eickhoff retired the next two batters, however, to end the Chicago scoring threat. He threw seven innings of one-run baseball tonight, allowing just three hits and three walks.
With two outs in the bottom of the seventh in opposition of RHP Justin Grimm, the first Phillies' baserunner since the fourth inning reached base, as rookie right fielder Aaron Altherr walked for the fifth time in his career over 24 games.
During the next at-bat, a fielding error by first baseman Anthony Rizzo that allowed Blanco to reach base, proved to be costly.
A career .293/.349/.690 hitter off the bench over 63 plate appearances, Ryan Howard came through when his team needed it the most by hitting a RBI-double to deep right field to tie the game at one.
According to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, this was Howard's 643rd extra-base hit with the Phillies, which ties him with Hall of Famer Chuck Klein for fourth in franchise history.
Back-to-back walks by pinch hitters Brian Bogusevic and Darnell Sweeney brought home the second run of the night for the Phillies
Their rally didn't end there.
With the bases loaded and still two outs recorded, southpaw Zac Rosscup entered to try to prevent further damage. He failed, as his first thrown pitch of the night was a bases-clearing double to Hernandez to give the Phillies a 5-1 lead.
Entering in relief of Eickhoff, RHP Luis Garcia took the mound in the eighth.
With two runners on, right fielder Chris Coghlan laced a two-RBI double to right field.
RHP Jeanmar Gomez then took over, but he hit the first batter he faced, Rizzo, to put two runners on for rookie slugger Kris Bryant. Bryant delivered, hitting his 24th double of the season to pull the Cubs within one run.
The next batter, Montero hit a sacrifice fly to center field to even the game at five.
Things got interesting, as Baez followed by grounding to second base. Hernandez threw home to newly-entered catcher Erik Kratz to prevent the go-ahead run from scoring. The runner was called out, and upon further review the ruling by home plate umpire Ryan Blakney stood as called.
RHP Ken Giles recorded the final out of the inning by striking out pinch hitter Addison Russell.
After Giles threw 1 1/3 shutdown innings, the Phillies' offense came through in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, pinch hitter Cody Asche hit a walk-off, two run shot off the right field foul pole to secure the team's 55th win of the season with 19 left to play. A walk by Kratz the batter prior was critical in continuing the inning.
Tonight's Cubs' starter, southpaw Travis Wood, was pulled after tossing three shutout innings on 53 pitches. The six-year veteran allowed three hits, and struck out five of the 12 batters he faced.
After seeing the forecast, and the subsequent 50-minute rain delay that followed, Cubs manager swapped-out probable starter RHP Dan Haren in favor of Wood.
Wood was not expected to last long, as he threw 13 pitches out of the bullpen in the second game of Friday's doubleheader. Tonight was his first start since May 14.
Haren, who turns 35 years old on Thursday, will now start in Sunday afternoon's series finale matinee against RHP Aaron Harang, who leads all of baseball in losses (15).
Starting Pitchers
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travis Wood | 3.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 4.20 |
| Jerad Eickhoff | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 3.90 |
- Wood: ND; 53 pitches, 39 strikes; 1 groundout, 2 flyouts; 12 faced batters
- Eickhoff: ND; 95 pitches, 61 strikes; 7 groundouts, 2 flyouts; 27 faced batters
Out of the 'Pen
Cubs
- Trevor Cahill (4th-6th): 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR, 6.61 ERA
- Justin Grimm (7th): 0.2 IP, 1 H, 5 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR, 2.27 ERA
- Zac Rosscup (7th): 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR, 3.96 ERA
- Pedro Strop (8th): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 3.15 ERA
- Hector Rondon (9th): 0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 1 HR, 1.70 ERA
Phillies
- Luis Garcia (8th): 0.0 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR, 3.75 ERA
- Jeanmar Gomez (8th): 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR, 2.99 ERA
- Ken Giles (8th, 9th): 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 0 HR, 1.45 ERA
At the Plate
Cubs
- Kyle Schwarber: 1-4, 2 R, HR, RBI, BB, .267 AVG
- Chris Coghlan: 1-4, R, 2B, 2 RBI, BB, .250 AVG
- Kris Bryant: 1-4, 2B, RBI, .271 AVG
Phillies
- Cesar Hernandez: 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI, .272 AVG
- Ryan Howard: 1-2, R, 2B, RBI, .228 AVG
- Cody Asche: 1-1, R, HR, 2 RBI, .247 AVG
What's Next:
- Sunday, September 13, 2015: vs. Chicago Cubs, 1:35 pm
- RHP Dan Haren (9-9, 3.73 ERA) vs. RHP Aaron Harang (5-15, 5.02 ERA)
- TV: CSN; Radio: 94 WIP, 1210 WPHT, WTTM 1680 (Sp.)
Matt Rappa (@mattrappasports) is managing editor of Philliedelphia.com.
