More early offense and another big start in Phillies 6th straight win originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
The White Sox took their only lead of the weekend with three hits in Sunday’s series finale, when Eloy Jimenez hit a 92 mph Aaron Nola fastball over the wall in left center for a two-run home run.
Within 20 minutes, the Phillies were back in front, where they remained with an 8-2 victory that ended an 8-2 home game.
The Phils’ first-inning response began with Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner working on walks against rookie Nick Nastrini. Bryce Harper scored in a run, then was caught on a groundout between first and second when JT Realmuto struck out. The White Sox are terrible in all phases of the game, including defense, so it worked for the Phillies. Turner broke for the plate and second baseman Lenyn Sosa threw an errant throw, allowing a run to score and for Harper to reach second, eventually scoring on Brandon Marsh’s RBI hit.
The Phillies have scored multiple runs in the first inning of four of the last five games, 12 total. It was against the White Sox and Rockies, the two worst teams in baseball, but that doesn’t mean they were half wins. They all count the same.
The Phils are 14-8 after six straight wins.
“You go into a series and you’re playing a team that’s not playing well, I’m a little scared of how you’re going to react, and our players responded really well,” said coach Rob Thomson. “I just have to keep going.”
Schwarber walked three times, hit a solo home run and a sacrifice fly.
Turner kept a 10-game hitting streak alive during which he was 18-for-43 (.419).
Harper drove in two runs.
Alec Bohm, who had two more hits with runners in scoring position, is batting .355 with RISP since the start of last season.
Realmuto, Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas singled and stole a base. The only Phillie without a hit was Nick Castellanos, who was instrumental on Saturday night with three.
The offense will look to continue the next four games at Great American Ballpark, the most hitter-friendly ballpark outside of Coors Field.
Nola sailed after Jimenez’s first-round bomb. He scattered just two hits and one walk the rest of the way, throwing eight hyper-efficient innings on just 91 pitches.
The excellence of the Phillies’ rotation this week allowed them to rest a bullpen that worked hard the first two weeks. Nola allowed three runs on eight hits in 15⅓ innings this week, and these were the Phillies’ worse two matches.
“It’s been cool, it’s been really fun to watch,” he said. “I love watching our guys, they’re studs and nasty too. I love watching them dig deep into games. We know how important it is to save the bullpen for later. It’s a long season, not every series will be like the last two , but we’re feeling good right now and it’s fun to watch these guys.”
Jeff Hoffman and Seranthony Dominguez pitched once in six days, Gregory Soto once in seven days, Orion Kerkering once in eight days, and Matt Strahm once in nine days. José Alvarado has appeared three times in the last nine days, but two of those games have gone one and two pitches.
“You don’t want them to be taxed, but look at (Yunior) Marte today, he was a little rusty,” Thomson said. “And in the last few days, when our guys have had three, four days off, five days off for (Ricardo) Pinto, they can get a little rusty. bullpen.”
Ranger Suarez is on fire Monday night for the series opener at Cincinnati with an extra day of rest following his second career shutout last Tuesday.
