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Vince Velasquez takes the mound on Wednesday afternoon
The Philadelphia Phillies (53-48) will try to accomplish their goal when this quick two-game series began, putting the finishing touches on a sweep of the Detroit Tigers (30-66) with a win on Tuesday afternoon at Comerica Park.
Last night, the two teams battled through 16 long, arduous, frustrating innings before it finally ended with a 3-2 Phillies victory in the early morning hours of Wednesday.
The Phillies will also be attempting to move to six games over the .500 mark for the first time since a seven-game losing skid nearly knocked the rails off their season back in late June.
Following this game, the Phillies will have their second off-day of the week. It will be a travel day, with the club returning to Citizens Bank Park.
This weekend, the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves will roll into South Philly at the start of what will be a pivotal nine game home stand for the Phillies, one that will carry the club up to and through the July 31 trade deadline.
A day off for Bryce Harper, and Phillies manager Gabe Kapler gets Realmuto out from behind the plate, playing him at 1B for just the second time this season. Hoskins will appear at a position other than 1B for the first time this season, serving as the DH. He appeared four times as a DH a year ago, his only career Designated Hitter appearances. Kingery will appear in his 10th game at shortstop this season. He has played in 39 games in center field, 13 at third base, nine in left field, and just five at his natural position of second base.
Realmuto leads all big-league catchers in hits, runs and doubles. Is 3rd in AVG, 5th in RBIs/OBP/OPS.
Hoskins is 2nd in OBP, 6th in OPS, 8th in HR, 9th in RBIs among all MLB first basemen.
Harper is 2nd in doubles, 4th in RBIs, 5th in OBP among all big-league right fielders. He is 4th in doubles among all MLB players.
Zimmermann has not faced the Phillies since September 25, 2015, when he was still a member of the Washington Nationals rotation. He has pitched in 44 games, 43 as a starter, in his career at Comerica Park, compiling a 14-22 record with a 6.26 ERA over 233 IP with 161 strikeouts. In six home starts this season, Zimmermann is 0-5 with an 8.16 ERA over 28.2 IP with 21 strikeouts.
Cabrera now has 2,765 career hits, four shy of Johnny Damon for 54th place all-time in MLB. He has 470 home runs, three shy of tying Carlos Delgado for 33rd all-time. His 1,672 RBIs are four short of Gary Sheffield for 26th all-time.
Castellanos drilled a pair of doubles in Tuesday night’s ball game, giving him 36 doubles, most in Major League Baseball this season.
Beckham played in the 1,000th game of his MLB career in late April, becoming the 78th active player in the big-leagues to appear in 1,000 career games. This season marks his 11th in MLB, and he has played in 1,041 career games. He is nine hits shy of 800 for his big-league career.
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Rhys Hoskins delivered the game-winning hit in 15th inning
The Philadelphia Phillies (53-48) edged out the host Detroit Tigers (30-66) by a 3-2 score in 15 often frustrating innings on Tuesday night at Comerica Park.
The victory, which came in a game that began nearly 40 minutes late due to rain and ended six innings late due to the failure of both offenses to produce with runners in scoring position, was the Phillies fourth in five games. It also moves them to five games over the .500 mark for the first time since July 2.
The Phillies had a couple of chances to put some distance between themselves and Detroit in regulation play, the first coming in the very first inning when Rhys Hoskins singled and Bryce Harper doubled with one out. Both would end up stranded.
In the home 1st inning, rookie Tigers second baseman Harold Castro reached on an error by Scott Kingery, who continues to be played out of position by the Phillies on a nightly basis, this time at shortstop. Nola than hit Miguel Cabrera with a pitch. Castro moved to third on a ground out, and then raced home to score the game’s first run when Nola bounced a wild pitch in the dirt that J.T. Realmuto couldn’t block.
In the top of the 2nd, the Phillies went on top via an unlikely source. Roman Quinn powered up, blasting his first home run of the season out deep to left field, a two-run shot to put the Phillies up by a 2-1 score.
That score remained into the 6th inning when, in a nod back to that 1st inning, the Phillies blew a huge opportunity only to see the Tigers score. In their half, the Phillies put the first two runners on, and had the bases loaded with one out. But Adam Haseley and Quinn each popped out to end the threat.
In their half of the inning, the Tigers tied it up. Castro led off with a double and came around with the tying run when Nicholas Castellanos doubled one out later.
That was all the scoring in regulation play. Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola would go 7 strong innings, and Tigers starter Matthew Boyd pitched around all the trouble over 6 innings as numerous scouts watched the trade deadline target from the stands.
Both bullpens then did a fantastic job. None was more effective than former Phillies starting rotation member Nick Pivetta. He came on with one out in the bottom of the 8th inning and tossed 3.2 hitless shutout innings, walking one and striking out five batters.
Both teams blew opportunities to win it, and it took a great defensive play to keep the Tigers from walking it off in the bottom of the 14th. Castellanos led off with a double. After a strikeout and intentional walk, pinch-hitter Brandon Dixon rolled a base hit to left field.
Castellanos came racing home with appeared to be the winning run. But Brad Miller, who had entered the game as a defensive sub in left field in the 12th inning for Nick Williams (who himself had been pinch-hit for by Jean Segura), fielded the ball and came up firing. Realmuto snared the ball on the first base side of home plate, and dove back to apply the tag to the sliding Castellanos for the second out. Alvarez then struck out John Hicks, and the Phillies went to the 15th inning for the first time this year.
The Phillies finally pushed the key run across in the top of the 15th inning. Scott Kingery started it off by slashing a triple into the right field corner. When Rhys Hoskins followed by slinging an inside-out base hit to right field, the Phillies finally had the lead at 3-2.
In the bottom of the 15th, Jose Alvarez tossed a second shutout frame to earn the victory. The Phillies bullpen ended up tossing eight innings, allowing three hits and walking three batters. Now the two teams will get a short night sleep, with the series finale set for a first pitch just under 13 hours from the time this one ended.
The biggest hit of the game may have actually been Scott Kingery‘s triple to lead of the top of the 15th inning. That put someone in scoring position for Hoskins to drive in for what proved to be the game-winning run. But Kingery was 0-6 with four strikeouts prior to that.
Another player who has to be mentioned is Pivetta, who went 3.2 scoreless innings. He allowed no hits, walked one, struck out 5 batters. Then there was Brad Miller with his great throw. And J.T. Realmuto with a fantastic tag on that play. Jose Alvarez got the ‘W’ with two shutout frames.
But it was Hoskins who came through in the clutch when so many had failed in that situation for a long time in this game. His RBI single ended up the winner, and the Phillies first baseman had two hits and two walks while batting out of the two-hole in the lineup.
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Phillies and Tigers face off in Tuesday night opener at Comerica Park
The Philadelphia Phillies (52-48) and Detroit Tigers (30-65) open a quick two-game Interleague series at Comerica Park with a Tuesday night match-up in Motown. The two clubs met previously at the end of April, splitting a two game set at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies have won three of their last four games as they fight to stay in the National League Wildcard race. The club is currently tied with the Milwaukee Brewers, a half-game behind the Saint Louis Cardinals in the battle for the second of two NL Wildcard playoff berths.
Losers in 16 of their last 20 games, the Tigers are suffering through a season in which they are challenging only for the top pick in next year’s MLB Draft. It is a season and a period in Tigers history that is absolutely reminiscent of a place where the Phillies found themselves about four years ago.
As a sidebar to the actual baseball taking place on the field, the MLB trade deadline is looming, just eight days away. Tonight’s starting pitcher for the Tigers is one of the most talked about arms as that deadline approaches. Phillies general manager Matt Klentak will be in the ballpark, believed to be scouting a number of Detroit players for possible deals.
Back on February 28 in the immediate aftermath of the Bryce Harper signing, the Phillies moved into the top five MLB teams in World Series betting odds. Per the site SportsBettingDime.com, the Phillies dropped out of the top ten by early July and have now been passed by the Nationals as the third betting choice from the NL East.
The Tigers actually have a worse record at home (13-34) than on the road (17-31) this season. They are just 23-54 against right-handed starters, and 5-13 in Interleague contests this year.
These two franchise’ have met just 20 times in their long histories, with Detroit taking 12 of those. The Tigers are 5-4 against the Phillies during their meetings at Comerica Park.
Castellanos recorded the first walk-off hit and homer of his Tigers career on Sunday. His day also included his MLB-leading 34th double of the season. With two extra-base hits on Sunday, he now ranks tied for sixth in the American League with 48 XBH. Dating to June 2, Castellanos has hit safely in 35-of-40 games, batting .314/.389/.513 with 16 doubles, five home runs and 14 RBI.
Jones had two hits for the Tigers on Sunday, including a solo home run, his 10th of the season. Since May 24, Jones is hitting .320/.374/.586 with 12 doubles, two triples, six home runs and 17 RBI in 36 games
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Phillies hope there won’t be too much partying this week in Motown
The Philadelphia Phillies (52-48) have won five of their seven Interleague contests thus far in the 2019 MLB regular season.
The club will try to add to that winning record over the next two nights at Comerica Park as they take on the host Detroit Tigers (30-65) in Motown for a quick two-game set.
Back on April 30 and May 1, the Phillies and Tigers split another two-gamer. That one was held at Citizens Bank Park in what may have been a perfect microcosm of this 2019 Phillies season to date.
Four Detroit hurlers held the Phillies to just four hits as the Tigers won that opener by a 3-1 score. The very next night, the Phillies offense exploded for 15 hits in a 7-3 victory. It has been that kind of roller coaster year for a team that is now involved with a half-dozen other clubs in a chase for an NL Wildcard playoff berth.
The Tigers are not chasing anything, other than the top pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. Their record is the second-worst in all of Major League Baseball, just a few percentage points better than the Baltimore Orioles 31-68 mark.
The Tigers offensive attack and pitching staff both rank as next-to-last in baseball in key categories. Their hitters have produced just 3.65 runs per game. The pitchers have a combined .273 batting average against.
Frankly, this is a series that the Phillies need to sweep. The Tigers are down and out, already playing out the string with more than two months left on the schedule. However, as our look below at the starting pitchers who they will be throwing at the Phillies in this series shows, it won’t necessarily be an easy task.
Miguel Cabrera: The great Miggy has become somewhat a shell of his former MVP self as he ages with a losing ball club. Cabrera is slashing .283/.346/.373 with 18 extra-base hits and 37 RBIs. Basically, Cabrera can still hit, but he seems to have lost his power almost completely.
Cabrera has enjoyed a storied 17-year big-league career since debuting as a 20-year-old third baseman with the Florida (now Miami) Marlins back in June 2003. The young Miggy helped lead the Fish to their second World Series crown that year as a rookie, finishing fifth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Cabrera would go on to five consecutive NL All-Star Game appearances with the Marlins, winning a pair of Silver Slugger Awards at the hot corner and finishing 5th in NL MVP voting twice.
Then in December 2007, Cabrera was traded away to the Detroit Tigers along with pitcher Dontrelle Willis in exchange for a six-prospect package that included outfielder Cameron Maybin and pitcher Andrew Miller.
With Detroit, Cabrera would elevate his game to another level. He was an AL All-Star for seven consecutive seasons, and won five more Silver Sluggers. Cabrera was the American League Most Valuable Player in back-to-back seasons, edging out Mike Trout in both 2012 and 2013. In that 2012 campaign, Cabrera became the first AL triple crown winner in 45 years when he led the league in home runs, RBIs and batting average.
Now age 36, Cabrera still has four years and $124 million guaranteed on a contract that runs through the 2023 season. It’s a deal that likely makes him untradeable. That is especially so now that he has been diagnosed with chronic knee issues that will limit him almost exclusively to the Designated Hitter position.
SCHEDULED STARTING PITCHERS
TUESDAY – Matthew Boyd (28/LH): 6-8, 4.13 ERA, 3.56 FIP, 1.133 WHIP, 112 hits over 120 IP across 20 starts with a 160/24 K:BB. Boyd has become the subject of intense rumors as the trade deadline approaches. With three seasons of team control remaining, the southpaw would not come cheap. The Tigers would be looking for multiple young pieces to help in their rebuild. The Phillies have been seriously linked, and this appearance makes for an interesting showcase.
WEDNESDAY – Jordan Zimmermann (33/RH): 0-7, 7.51 ERA, 4.59 FIP, 1.686 WHIP, 76 hits over 56.1 IP across 12 starts with a 40/19 K:BB ratio. Zimmermann, who missed the bulk of the 2009-10 seasons while with the Washington Nationals after undergoing Tommy John surgery, had elbow pain earlier this year. That condition drove him to the IL, causing him to miss the entire month of May and much of June. Since returning he has not been good. Over his last three starts, the veteran has allowed 28 hits over just 11 innings with a 9/4 K:BB. His season results say that he won’t last long, won’t register many strikeouts, and is likely to be hit hard. He has faced the Phillies 16 times in his career, most of those with the Nationals, with a career 4.17 ERA and 1.316 WHIP in those outings. The Phillies have to hope that he doesn’t somehow turn back the clock to his 2013-14 NL All-Star past in this one.
THE SKIPPER
Ron Gardenhire: The 61-year-old is a native of Germany, born to a U.S. military family stationed at Butzbach in what was then West Germany back in October 1957. He became a 6th round choice of the New York Mets in the 1978 MLB Draft out of the University of Texas, and played for the Mets over parts of five seasons from 1981-85, spending 1982 as their starting shortstop.
After his retirement, ‘Gardy’ was hired as a manager in the minor league system of the Minnesota Twins, serving there from 1988-90. He then served for 11 years as the Twins third base coach, after which Gardenhire was given his first shot as a big-league skipper by Minnesota in 2002.
Over 13 seasons he guided Minnesota to a 1,068-1,039 record and six division championships. It was nearly seven, as his 2008 club lost a one-game playoff to the Chicago White Sox after the two clubs finished the regular season in a tie for first. His first 2002 team lost the ALCS to the Angels in five games.
In April of 2014, Gardenhire became the 60th skipper in big-league history to win 1,000 games, just the 10th to do it with one team. However, over his final four seasons the team deteriorated to big losing campaigns, finishing in last place three times and ending his tenure.
Gardenhire spent the 2017 season as bench coach with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and during the season also underwent prostate cancer surgery. After the season was over he was hired to guide the Tigers rebuilding program in October 2017.
Gardnehire’s son, Toby, was drafted by the Twins in 2005 and rose through their system to the Triple-A level. After his retirement as a player, Toby Gardenhire was given an opportunity at managing. He is now skipper of the Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernels in the Minnesota farm system.
THE BALLPARK
Comerica Park: Opened in April 2000 to replace historic Tiger Stadium, the team’s previous home from its own 1912 opening, Comerica Park has a seating capacity of just over 41,000 fans. Tigers are everywhere you look. Not just talking about the players here. There are no fewer than nine statues of the animal spread around the ballpark, including a giant 15-foot tall cat at the main entrance and a pair of Tigers on the left field scoreboard whose eyes light up when a Detroit player cranks a home run.
Field dimensions are 345 and 330 feet down the left and right field lines respectively. It is a deep 420 feet out to dead-center field, 370 to left-center, and 365 to right-center field.
Nick Castellanos, a pending free agent who is a hot trade target as the deadline approaches, recently called the ballpark a “joke“:
“This park is a joke,” Castellanos said, per the Detroit News. “It’s to the point where how are we going to be compared to the rest of the people in the league in terms of power numbers, OPS, slugging and all that stuff when we got a yard out here that’s 420 feet straight across center field? I mean, they can move in center and right-center field. There’s no reason I hit a ball 434 feet off (Nationals right-hander) Anibal Sanchez and it goes in the first row.”
SERIES WEATHER REPORT
TUESDAY: There is a 30% chance of isolated thunderstorms at the 7:10 PM EDT first pitch, but this will not be a rainout, nor should there be any significant delays, if any at all. Winds will be almost non-existent, and temps will drop from the low-70’s into the upper-60’s during the game.
WEDNESDAY: Mostly sunny for the 1:10 PM EDT scheduled first pitch and throughout the game. Winds will remain light, and temps will range from the mid-upper 70’s.
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Niko Goodrum’s homer powers Tigers past Phillies
The Detroit Tigers (13-14) came into Citizens Bank Park and escaped with a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies (16-13) on what was an extremely frustrating Tuesday night for the hosts.
On a night when the Tigers starting pitcher kept handing them scoring chances, the Phillies just couldn’t make him pay.
The host Phillies broke through first by scoring in the bottom of the 1st inning. Andrew McCutchen led off with a base hit off the glove of Tigers second baseman Ronny Rogers. A wild pitch by Detroit starter Spencer Turnbull and a ground out by Bryce Harper move McCutchen to third base.
Then with two outs, Rhys Hoskins beat out an infield single to Rogers, scoring McCutchen. Rogers threw the ball away on the play, allowing Hoskins to reach second, but he was stranded there when Turnbull struck out J.T. Realmuto.
In the top of the 3rd inning the Tigers put up a crooked number, partially thanks to some shoddy defense. After Phillies starting pitcher Vince Velasquez struck out Jeimer Candelario to start the inning, Nick Castellanos lifted a pop-up that second baseman Cesar Hernandez didn’t handle. Castellanos rolled to second base with a double on the play.
Miguel Cabrera cashed in when he followed that up with an RBI single. Niko Goodrum then drove his third home run of the season out to right field to give the Tigers a 3-1 lead. It would ultimately prove to be the difference in this ball game.
Velasquez struggled with his command all night in what was by far his worst outing of the season. The right-hander would be pulled with two out in the 4th inning after throwing 99 pitches and walking three batters.
A parade of relievers would keep the Tigers off the board the rest of the way: Edubray Ramos, Juan Nicasio, Seranthony Dominguez, Adam Morgan and Hector Neris combined to allow just one hit and one walk over the final 5.1 innings. They gave the Phillies offense a chance to come back, but that offense continually failed.
For Morgan it was his 15th consecutive appearance without allowing a run to tie the Phillies franchise record. It has been done previously three other times: Ed Roebuck (1964), Rheal Cormier (2006) and J.C. Romero during the 2008 championship season. Should Morgan hold a team scoreless in his next outing the record would be his alone.
Turnbull would shut the Phillies down over six innings, allowing just three hits with two walks while striking out five batters. He was followed to the mound by relievers Victor Alcantara and Joe Jimenez, who kept it the lead at 3-1 into the 9th inning.
Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire brought in his top reliever, closer Shane Greene, for the bottom of the 9th inning. Greene came into the game as one of the top closers in the game this season with 11 saves and a 1.38 ERA over his first 13 games.
Realmuto greeted Greene with a base hit to start the frame. But the Detroit closer then struck out Williams, Hernandez and Franco to end the ball game. It was yet another frustrating night for a Phillies offense that began the year on fire, but has noticeably cooled off in recent weeks.
Turnbull kept the Phillies off the board after the 1st inning and allowed just 3 hits over 6 innings. However, he also walked two, threw three wild pitches, and hit two batters. The Phillies just never made him pay for all of the base runners.
It was Goodrum’s home run that stood up and proved the difference in this one. He was 1-3 with a walk, a run scored, and two RBIs.
NEXT GAME
Wednesday May 1 at 7:05 pm vs the Detroit Tigers at Citizens Bank Park
