reCAP: Miami Marlins vs. Philadelphia Phillies

5/3/13

It’s a great day for baseball and a good time for the Phillies to come back home. They needed to come back home after getting shellacked by the Cleveland Indians this week. The Marlins are still a bad baseball team, especially since Giancarlo Stanton, their most feared hitter, was placed on the 15-Day disabled list a few days ago. Kyle Kendrick, who has been the Phillies ace in the early going of the season, started last night. Alex Sanabia started for the Marlins and he’s having a tough start to the season. The Phillies changed their lineup and we got to see what the lineup will look like with Delmon Young as the everyday right fielder (gasps). Charlie Manuel had Chase Utley hit second in the batting lineup with Michael Young hitting third. John Mayberry played in centerfield instead of Ben Revere. Revere has a swollen finger and was given the night off. Erik Kratz caught Kendrick and batted eighth. Ruiz was given the night off because Kratz has good chemistry with Kendrick. Also, Ruiz needs time off because he has to get adjusted to seeing major league pitching. He’s been use to seeing minor league pitching for the past week due to his 25 game suspension. The new starting right fielder for the Marlins is rookie call-up Marcell Ozuna. He will replace Stanton in the lineup for the next two weeks. Will the Phillies feel comfy at home or will the offense become as dormant as it was when they were in Cleveland?

The Marlins got on the scoreboard first as former Phillie Placido Polanco grounded into a double play when runners were on first and third base. Juan Pierre, who stole his 600^th career base, scored from third and it was a 1-0 game. The Phillies responded in the second inning as Domonic Brown hit a solo homerun and Ryan Howard hit an opposite field solo homerun in the fourth inning and made it a 2-1 game. In the next inning, the Phillies scored two runs. One was by an Utley sacrifice fly and the other run was scored when Rob Brantly allowed a pass ball, which scored Jimmy Rollins from third. The Marlins got a solo homerun from Justin Ruggiano in the sixth inning and that made it a 4-2 Phillies lead. The Phillies scored three runs in the eighth. Brown laced an RBI single into left that scored Howard. Laynce Nix scored on a wild pitch by Tom Koehler and Kratz knocked in an RBI single into left field that scored Brown. The Phillies won by a final score of 7-2.

I thought Kendrick was shaky in the beginning of the game. He was not locating his pitches well. He got better when he was pitching his final two innings. I thought it was somewhat impressive of him to keep pitching when he got drilled in the leg in the fifth inning because I could read Kendrick’s lips as he said “OW” to Kratz when he got hit in the leg. Kendrick pitched seven solid innings, allowed seven hits, two runs, two walks, and struck out five batters. The bullpen of Mike Adams and Jonathan Papelbon finished the final two innings of the game.

Sanabia held his own ground for the most part. He allowed two bad pitches to go out of the park and had shoddy defense. The middle innings got to Sanabia as the Phillies got to see him a second time around and knew what pitches he threw. Sanabia pitched five innings, allowed six hits, four runs (two of the four runs were earned runs), two walks, and four strikeouts. Jon Rauch pitched a scoreless sixth inning, but Koehler was the reliever that got in trouble with the Phillies. He pitched the final two innings, allowed two hits, three runs, and two walks.

Overall, this was a game the Phillies needed to win. It was against a crappy ballclub and these are the teams that you have to beat. Domonic Brown had a solid game and was hitting the ball to every part of the field. Ryan Howard has been getting his homerun numbers up as of late. He’s hit his last three homeruns in the past eight games while he hit one homerun in the first 19 games of the season. The weather is getting warm and hopefully some of those swings that Howard has had lately goes out of the park and doesn’t miss from becoming a homerun.

Was this game fools gold or will this be the standard game the Phillies should display every time they face the Marlins? Sound off and stay tuned to the second game of this four game series. Jonathan Pettibone will start for the Phillies as Ricky Nolasco takes the mound for the Marlins.