Only one day after blowing an easy series sweep against the Reds, the Phillies got back on track by smoking the Marlins 15-3 on Monday. Facing off against reigning Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara, Phillies fans expected it to be tough sledding. However, Phillies hitters absolutely pummeled one of the best pitchers in the game en route to a drubbing of the Fish.
Jake Cave kicked things off in the bottom of the third with an absolute moonshot off the right field scoreboard, his first homer of the year. The hit parade then began in earnest, as Trea Turner drove in Bryson Stott with a single, Nick Castellanos brought in two more with yet another double, and Alec Bohm continued his early season breakout with an RBI knock of his own.
The track meet resumed in the bottom of the fifth when Castellanos collected another RBI on a single the other way, and Bohm followed up with the same. Brandon Marsh crushed a double to right to drive them both home, and the rout was well and truly on with the Phils up 9-0. Castellanos started things up again in the next frame with another RBI single, and Bohm cranked his third homer of the year deep into the left-center field seats.
The much-maligned Cristian Pache got in on the action in the bottom of the seventh with a run-scoring single to left field, making it 14-3 Phils. Brandon Marsh finished off the Phillies’ offensive explosion with a bang, smoking a home run way out in left-center field.
The Fish were able to scratch across three runs in the top of the seventh on a Yuli Gurriel longball, a wild pitch from Andrew Vasquez and an RBI knock from Garrett Cooper. That was all they would manage though, as this one was all Phillies from start to finish.
After some truly horrific losses to open up their National League championship defense, it’s great to see the Phillies break out in such a big way. Every member of the starting lineup notched at least one hit, sans Kody Clemens. It wasn’t just the offense that was spectacular either, as swingman Matt Strahm put together another fantastic outing after being forced into the rotation by injuries. Strahm went 5.0 scoreless innings and surrendered only four hits and one walk, while punching out six Fish.
With Alcantara out of the way, the Phillies will hope to ride this heater into Tuesday’s matchup against Jesús Luzardo. Aaron Nola will be back on the bump looking to secure the series win, and give Zack Wheeler an opportunity to sweep the Fish on Wednesday afternoon.
I really enjoyed watching yesterday’s game!! I thought that it was going to be hard for the Phillies to win against the Marlins, but maybe that was just in the past. The Phillies certainly crushed the Marlins yesterday and I hope they can do the same today. Yesterday’s game was very exciting!! Feel free to come visit my blog: https://sophiakd4.wordpress.com