Just last Sunday morning the Phillies were coming off back to back horrendous loses to a very bad Pittsburgh Pirates team, sitting 4.5 games back of the Mets for 1st place in the National League East. The Phillies offense woke up for the first time all series scoring 15 runs in a blow out victory in the final game of the series. They haven't looked back since.
The Phillies have won 7 straight games, their longest streak in 9 seasons, and now sit 1.5 above the Mets for 1st place in the division. Ranger Suarez completed his second start since entering the rotation, pitching 2.2 innings surrendering 0 runs on 0 hits. Suarez struggled with command early in Saturday's game, walking 3 batters. To Suarez's credit, some of his pitches barely missed the strike zone, and some of the pitches easily could've been called strikes. Nonetheless, Suarez was on a 60 pitch count limit as the Phillies look to stretch him out slowly throughout his next few outings. Suarez has now pitched 5.2 hitless innings as a starter with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts.
The Phillies offense struggled to get going until they exploded for 4 runs in the bottom half of the 5th inning. Brad Miller started off the inning with a solo HR to right center field, followed later in the inning by an Odubel Herrera 3-run shot to the second deck. Brad Miller wasn't done. He later added another insurance run for the Phillies with an opposite field solo HR in the 8th. Today marks Miller's second multi-home run game for the Phillies in the past month. Coincidentally, Javier Baez was on the opposing team for both games, first with the Cubs and now with the Mets.
The Phillies will look to sweep the Mets tomorrow with their Ace Zach Wheeler on the mound to try and add another game to their in the standings.
-Mike Devlin
@mikedevlin12
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