It felt like every early moment of Thursday night\u2019s game included a Phillie standing on second base.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia, coming off an extra-inning loss, faced veteran right-hander Miles Mikolas, who entered with a 5.67 ERA.<\/p>\n
Most of the Phillies\u2019 lineup, with the exception of rookie Justin Crawford, came in batting over .300 against the 37-year-old. If that offered any hint of what was coming, it turned out to be a pretty good one in their 7-3 win over the Washington Nationals.<\/p>\n
In the first three innings, the Phillies tallied seven doubles off Mikolas.<\/p>\n
Seven two-baggers. Seven different hitters.<\/p>\n
It tied the most doubles through the first three innings of a game in Phillies history. It has happened just three times since 1920, and not since May 4, 2000.<\/p>\n
Mikolas is an old-fashioned, pitch-to-contact starter who lives in and around the strike zone. The Phillies got pitches to hit, and they did not miss them.<\/p>\n
That was the key to doubling their way to a win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice to see you guys swinging the bats,\u201d Don Mattingly said. \u201cEverybody contributed. Getting out there early was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
PUT IN PLAY<\/p>\n
Mikolas\u2019 velocity was down Thursday night, and that did not bode well for the Nationals.<\/p>\n
He threw 93 pitches and allowed six runs over five innings. The Phillies swung and missed on just four of their 42 swings against him.<\/p>\n
That is a 9.5 percent whiff rate for Mikolas, who entered with MLB\u2019s worst swing-and-miss rate at 14.7 percent.<\/p>\n
The Phillies had not swung 40-plus times against a pitcher this season and whiffed fewer than five times. The last time they did it was July 7 of last year against Giants right-hander Landon Roupp, who allowed just one run over five innings that night.<\/p>\n
This was a much different kind of game.<\/p>\n
Of those 42 swings against Mikolas, the Phillies put 23 balls in play. Eleven were hard-hit. They were routinely out in front, but still found space around the foul lines and kept piling up extra bases.<\/p>\n
They hit it where it was pitched.<\/p>\n
The Phillies also got an encouraging night from Kyle Schwarber, who snapped a six-game hitless streak with two hits. He doubled, drove in a run and looked more comfortable as the game went on.<\/p>\n
Mattingly has never been one to sound concerned about Schwarber for long.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going to catch fire again,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cTonight was good. He looks better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwarber, who has been hitting on the leadoff spot, is confident in this being the start of him getting back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the spot where I hit is going to help,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cI think just being able to continue to do the work and keep finding the small adjustments that you need to find are going to be the key things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillies needed that kind of offensive night because the game was not clean in other areas. They had two runners thrown out at the plate, cutting off chances to stretch the lead earlier.<\/p>\n
But when a lineup produces 16 hits, eight doubles and seven runs, there is plenty of room to survive a few mistakes.<\/p>\n
NOT TYPICAL S\u00c1NCHEZ<\/p>\n
Cristopher S\u00e1nchez did not have his best stuff Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Some of that came from Washington\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n
The Phillies left-hander threw 98 pitches over five innings of two-run ball. As usual, he leaned on his sinker against a right-handed-heavy lineup, and he threw it for strikes at a 70 percent clip.<\/p>\n
But the Nationals did damage against it.<\/p>\n
They put 11 sinkers in play. Five were hard-hit. Similar to the Phillies against Mikolas, the Nationals swung and missed at just one of the 23 sinkers they offered at.<\/p>\n
Most of the contact stayed on the ground, including a double-play ball. S\u00e1nchez did not record a fly-ball out.<\/p>\n
The command was not as sharp with his changeup or slider, either. S\u00e1nchez threw just 57 percent strikes, his second-lowest rate of the season behind only his last start in Baltimore.<\/p>\n
He is now second in the majors in innings pitched, but the crispness that fueled his scoreless innings streak has not been there lately.<\/p>\n
Mattingly saw it the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed like he was just a tick off,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cHis stuff is always pretty consistent each time. We feel good about him. It\u2019s not like we\u2019re worried about him or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fifth inning was the key stretch. Two runners on and one out. He found a way through it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing about Sanchie, he\u2019s been giving up some hits and some guys on base, but he always hangs in there,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cHe\u2019ll get a double play. It\u2019s a strikeout when he needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez said pitching coach Caleb Cotham’s mound visit helped him slow things down in that moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was just more staying calm with my breathing,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cIt was really hot outside, so I think he kind of knew that I needed a breather there, and then luckily he got out there and got me a few seconds of rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, S\u00e1nchez limited the damage and left with the lead.<\/p>\n
That was enough for his MLB-leading 15th win.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmazing,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cFeels incredible. I\u2019m always thinking about the team first, but I have my personal goals as well, and to accomplish them little by little, I think that\u2019s something that\u2019s very rewarding and exciting for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
ARRAEZ, CRAWFORD GO AGAINST THE GRAIN<\/p>\n
Luis Arraez and Justin Crawford are two of the more old-fashioned hitters in baseball.<\/p>\n
They do not need to barrel the ball to find success.<\/p>\n
Arraez raised his National League-leading average to .326 with a two-hit night. He entered Thursday with just four barrels this season, and his 0.9 percent barrel rate was the fifth-lowest in baseball.<\/p>\n
Crawford was not far behind. He entered with three barrels and a 1.2 percent barrel rate, the seventh-lowest among 251 qualified hitters.<\/p>\n
They put the ball in play. They limit swing and miss. They force the defense to make plays.<\/p>\n
That is a different look for a Phillies lineup that has leaned heavily on power in recent Octobers. Adding Arraez and Crawford to a core built around power, contact and speed gives the offense a better mix.<\/p>\n
Schwarber can already see how Arraez changes the feel of the lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis skill set and his tools are going to play really well in our lineup,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cThe way that he has his at-bats, and the way that he\u2019s able to control where he wants to go with the ball, I feel like it\u2019s just going to be a tough out.\u201d<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez is glad he no longer has to face him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the greatest hitters that are out there right now,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cI\u2019m super happy and super excited to have him here. He\u2019s got this type of energy that\u2019s contagious to others.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillies\u2019 lineup looked that way Thursday night. Longer. Tougher to get through. <\/p>\n
Less reliant on one big swing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It felt like every early moment of Thursday night\u2019s game included a Phillie standing on second base. Philadelphia,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,201779,5865,99],"class_list":["post-805433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-phillies-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}