Turner takes off, Mercado shines in first major league game originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
CHICAGO – Two weeks ago, Michael Mercado was in Allentown starting against the Norfolk Tides.
Taijuan Walker was healthy. Spencer Turnbull was healthy. The idea of Mercado meeting at Wrigley Field for his first major league game against the best team in baseball just two Tuesdays later would have seemed far-fetched.
Yet there he was for the Phillies’ series opener against the Cubs, making the first of five starts leading up to the July 30 trade deadline.
The 25-year-old rookie allowed rough contact here and there — mostly with Cody Bellinger — but had a promising introduction to the Phillies’ rotation by allowing just one run on two hits in five innings in a 6-4 win, a job well done for the fifth starter on any team.
Mercado had two strikes with two outs and a 2-0 count on Ian Happ in the first inning, but recovered to strike him out.
He threw 28 pitches in the third inning and allowed an RBI double with two strikeouts, then walked the fourth and fifth.
“The most important thing is to have composure and still compete and not get rattled,” Trea Turner said.
“That tells you a little bit about its composition and balance,” added manager Rob Thomson. “He threw strikes, the fastball had good velocity, seemed to have good movement. Cutter was really effective and hit the ball enough to keep them away from everything else. I thought he was pretty good.”
Mercado didn’t even start the year on the Phillies’ starting pitching depth chart. They acquired him in November from the Rays, who had no room on their 40-man roster, and he began the season as a reliever at Triple A.
But the struggles of starters like Kolby Allard, David Buchanan and Mick Abel, among others, gave him an opportunity.
“It was actually (assistant pitcher) Brian Kaplan who came up with it because we had some guys who weren’t playing well in Triple A at the beginning of the season,” Thomson said. “Just the repertoire with high speed, the shooting ability and the way he can throw the ball, the effectiveness of that, he thought he could be a great piece for us in terms of depth. idea because it really worked well.”
The end of Mercado’s first start was especially impressive. He retired the last seven batters he faced and needed just 21 total pitches to get through the fourth and fifth innings before turning the ball over to the bullpen, which retired nine in a row until José Ruiz allowed all three batters he faced in the ninth. entry for scoring.
“Both times I felt like I was more nervous just warming up before the game,” Mercado said of his first relief appearance and his first start. “It’s like making my debut, it’s one of those things you dream of doing in such a historic place. It was a great victory for the team too. I’m very happy to be able to contribute.
“I think just the confidence I have in myself and the confidence the guys at this club have in me. We’re back to what we’ve always done, and for me, that’s launching. another game is huge.”
It helped that the Phillies supported him from the start. Garrett Stubbs, who prides himself on the game planning and strategic element of catching, walked Mercado through the start and helped him further with a two-run double down the third base line in the second inning.
Turner hit a solo homer to left center in the top of the third, then brutalized a 94 mph fastball from Hayden Wesneski in the fifth, hitting it 439 feet from the stadium on Waveland Ave for a two-run shot. . Two innings later, Turner fell behind in the count 1-2 before hitting an opposite-field RBI single with two outs.
“Oh, absolutely,” Thomson said of the positive impact of the early support. “But it can also work the other way. It can put more pressure on a guy because he’s in the lead and doesn’t want to give up. But he stuck with it. He was great.”
Turner had the only two-run victory on Sunday and will be even more crucial than usual over the next week to 10 days as the Phillies await the returns of Bryce Harper (hamstring strain), Kyle Schwarber (groin strain ) and JT Realmuto (surgical recovery of the right meniscus). All three injured Phillies are progressing. They each ran on the field Tuesday, Realmuto did catching drills and took batting practice on the field for the first time since his June 12 surgery, and Harper and Schwarber hit in the cage indoors.
Harper and Schwarber could be back on July 9th. Realmuto’s return may have to wait until after the All-Star break, though Thomson hasn’t closed the door.
“We’ll see,” the Phillies manager said Tuesday afternoon. “He’s a quick healer.”
The Phillies are 11-9 without Realmuto and are 3-1 since Harper and Schwarber went down. They received great contributions from Turner and Nick Castellanos, and also from Stubbs.
Stubbs treats his offense as the “icing on the cake,” but he has held his own since Realmuto’s surgery, batting .275 in 10 of the 11 games he has played.
The next man up mentality for the 2024 Phillies has been more than just lip service.
“A lot of guys want to play,” Turner said. “Everyone is excited about the opportunity and that is very important. I don’t know if it’s always like this, but I feel like the guys are eager to play and that’s really cool. , and besides that we have a lot of good players. That combination is what you’re seeing.”
The Phils are 56-29, a season-high with 27 games over .500. The Braves lost to the Giants, so the Phillies’ division lead returned to nine games. The teams face each other this weekend for the first time since the first three games of the year.
But first, they will try to take at least two of the three from a Cubs team that has lost six of seven series and 16 of the last 24 games. Zack Wheeler will climb the hill on Wednesday night and Cristopher Sanchez will leave on the afternoon of July 4th.
