The Philadelphia Phillies won their season opener on Monday, taking down the Reds 4-3.
Pitching
- Jeremy Hellickson got the win, allowing one run on six hits over five innings. Hellickson walked one and struck out only one batter.
- Hellickson pitched out of several tough james during his start. During the bottom of the third, the veteran allowed back-to-back singles to start the inning, and made a foolish mistake trying to throw out the runner at third on a bunt attempt, resulting in a bases-loaded situation with no outs. However, the only damage would come on a sacrifice fly, as Hellickson would force Jose Peraza into a double-play to end the inning.
- In the bottom of the fourth, Hellickson gave up a single, hit the following batter with a pitch, and walked the third man to load the bases with one out. However, the righty managed to escape unscathed, forcing two fly balls to end the inning.
- Hellickson came out to start the sixth, but gave up a leadoff double to Adam Duvall and was lifted for Joaquin Benoit.
- Benoit struck out the first two batters he faced, and forced a fly ball to end the inning, stranding Duvall in scoring position.
- Edubray Ramos had a bit of a shaky appearance in the seventh inning. After walking the leadoff batter, Ramos was the beneficiary of a great defensive play by Tommy Joseph, who caught a linedrive and then doubled off the runner. Ramos gave up a triple to the next batter, but struck out the fourth man he faced to retire the side.
- Hector Neris turned in a strong eighth inning, recording a strikeout and two pop outs in a 1-2-3 showing.
- Jeanmar Gomez recorded the save, but it wasn’t pretty. Gomez gave up a single to the leadoff man, and with two outs, surendered a two-run homer. He ended the game with a fly out, but his performance didn’t do much to solidify his hold on the closer’s role.
At The Plate
- The offense generated four runs on 10 hits, three of the runs came in the first two innings.
- Cesar Hernandez got the game started with a great at-bat. After falling behind 0-2, Hernandez worked the count full, and then drove the eighth pitch he saw out of the yard. It was his lone hit in five at-bats, but he did work another deep count in his second plate appearance.
- Howie Kendrick had a strong debut, going 3-5 out of the two-hole with a double and two singles.
- Odubel Herrera grounded into a double play in his first at-bat, but doubled later in the game and worked two walks.
- Maikel Franco went 1-4 with a single and scored a run, he also worked a walk.
- Michael Suanders also impressed in his debut with the team, doubling home Franco in the first inning.
- Rough day at the plate for both Tommy Joseph and Cameron Rupp, with each going 0-4 with two strikeouts.
- Freddy Galvis supplied a spark at the bottom of the order, going 2-4 with a double and a home run.
- Jeremy Hellickson tripled home an insurance run in the sixth inning.
- Brock Stassi worked a walk in his debut as a pinch hitter.
Final Thoughts
One of the most impressive things about the Phillies’ performance on Opening Day was the amount of patience the hitters showed at the plate. The offense was willing to wait for good pitches to come their way, and weren’t quick to swing away at any junk outside of the strikezone. Whether or not this becomes a consistent theme remains to be seen, but a team that has a patient approach often finds themselves with plenty of opportunities to generate runs, which can help a team that is lacking in offensive firepower.
Impressive work by the bullpen, holding the lead for four innings. I’m not sure how long Jeanmar Gomez will be able to hold on to the closer’s role. Gomez did an admirable job last season, but his skillset is more that of a sixth or seventh inning guy, and the Phillies have more viable options for the role than they did a year ago when it was Gomez by necessity.
I love benoit depending where we all at trade deadline teams should be interested in him, but I would rather have nerls as closer
A Nice Team Win to Start the Season for the Phillies..
The Phils have a good chance for a good Start to the Season as the young. Play Trevor Rebuilding Reds for opening 3 Games and then have 18 Games vs the NL East Division Teams which outside the Nationals, the Phils should compete well vs the Mets,Marlins & Rebuilding Braves
The Key will be their Starting Rotation and in particular their #4-#5 Starters (Nola & Velasquez) who collectively both need to make that next next step
as consistent MLB Starting Pitchers
Their Bullpen is experienced and deep and should be a much more stronger Unit this Season starting out..
I see no reason that the Phillies Win 80-82 Games in 2017 and maybe more if they can get off to a good start and get their Confidence going as we have seen some young Teams do in recent Seasons like the Cubs, Astros, Indians, Royals who all improved ahead of Schedule per most Baseball people .. Winning and Success as a Young Teams just feeds into more confidence where Players can line up and Play and not overthink the Game too much..
Either way the Phillies will be a Fun Team to watch and root for and the Organization from President McPhail to the GM & Scouts right down to the Coaching Staff all seem to be on the same page and the Phillies are definitely trending in the up and up direction and building a Winner the right way..
They have a set lineup which is something they’ve not had in awhile. They also have internal competition at just about every spot and huge money to spend (which is another form of competition). They have 3 middle infielders at the minor league level that can compete and push galvis and hernandez– 3 OF, 2 catchers a first baseman, several pitching prospects– the only one not being pushed is Franco BUT if he is a bust then they spend big on Mochado
Paul, you are right about the pitching since Eickhoff looks like a solid MLB pitcher and Bucholz and Hellickson are not long for the organization. If Nola and Velasquez don’t work out, then they are in trouble when it comes to pitching. They have some guys on the farm but none of them look to be difference makers at this point.
In Flyers news, yes they are out of the playoffs, but tonight is the debut of Morin at the NHL level. Dude looks just like Primeau. Hopefully, he can play like him too. They are also debuting their new C just signed out of college, Mike Vechionne who may end up winning the Hobie Baker award. Something to look forward to in this awful season.
The flyers? Wow that’s a blast from he past! They used to play here in philly, right?
I think Valesquez and Eichoff will be horses and I hope Nola can be sneaky good… For him it’s painting corners, changing speed. Right now a poor mans Greg Maddux… Let’s hope he’s more like Greg and less like Mike.
Do the Phillies have any promising Left-Handed Starters down in their System anywhere?
Nope. Cupboard is bare when it comes to lefties at this point. Anybody on the cusp is a RHP and even the next level are RHP.
The phils will probably buy an arm or two at some point. The interesting thing is what hitter they will buy and who will it block from within the system. I predict Galvis will be a trade deadline sale– with Crawford taking his place- I think Galvis may bring in a decent prospect as he could stabilize a team defensively at SS.
Agreed. This is where they will spend the money as they have a lot in the farm system for positional players.
Crazy to think that you are probably right about Galvis. If he hits bombs like did last year coupled with his defense, he could definitely has some value.
The Question remains is Galvis if he becomes a Solid .240 Hitter with his Power #’s (15-20 HR’s and with 50 to 60 RBI’s) become more Valuable than maybe the better Defensive Player in JP Crawford, but who hasn’t proven that he can Hit Big League Pitching yet or shown any Power relative to Galvis?
Could the Phillies actually get more by Trading the Highly Touted JP Crawford instead ?
crawford hasnt shown that he can hit minor leaguers at any level
Correct Mhenksi, which is why the Phils will probably have to hang onto Galvis until he Crawford Proves that he can hit which is still at least 1 Year Away …Presently Crawford is Rated around the #6th Overall MLB Prospect, but if he has only an Average Season Hitting wise at AAA level in 2017, then his Value will Drop so the Phils may want to move him while his Value is very High if they feel that’s he’s not going to be a consistent Big League Hitter that many projected him to be … He’s just Turned 22 in January so they will give him another Year or 2 before having to make that Call, unless he has a Hot Start and couple of months at AAA this Season, but sooner or later, JP Crawford is going to have start Hitting if he ever wants to see a Major League Field and meanwhile if Galvis is producing as he has, then he’s the SS for the short-term..
Crawford has a low average, but still over .30 higher than Galvis in the minors and Freddy also had an OBP of .291 because he never walks.
Compare that to Crawford’s career .372 OBP and I see him as a better beginning of the lineup guy than Galvis. Crawford’s OBP did dip at AAA, but he is a patient hitter that gets on base. I would look to see improvement there before I let him go unless you get a Chris Sale offer for front end SP that blows you away. Otherwise this guy is my #2 hitter of the future after Quinn and before Herrera.
If anyone thinks galvis will block Crawford you are mistaken. Crawfords approach at that plate has everyone going gaga. As someone pointed out his OBP pushes 400. While galvis barely pushes 300. In a season that equates to about 60 more times on base….