Saturday at Citizens Bank Park did not look promising early, especially after an underwhelming showing against the rival Atlanta Braves in Friday\u2019s series opener.<\/p>\n
Zack Wheeler had backed himself into about as difficult a spot as possible in the first inning: a leadoff single, another single and a walk.<\/p>\n
That loaded the bases with nobody out for one of baseball\u2019s hottest hitters, Atlanta center fielder Michael Harris II.<\/p>\n
Wheeler, coming off a bounce-back start in Anaheim, remained aggressive. He started Harris off 0-2, then induced a soft foul out.<\/p>\n
A massive first out.<\/p>\n
Mauricio Dub\u00f3n followed and worked the count to 2-2. Wheeler fired a fastball at the top of the zone and away from Dub\u00f3n. It was ruled a ball, but J.T. Realmuto, who has the best challenge rate in baseball, disagreed.<\/p>\n
The ABS challenge system ruled it strike three.<\/p>\n
Citizens Bank Park was roaring.<\/p>\n
The Phillies\u2019 right-handed ace then went right after Ozzie Albies with two outs. Albies flew out to center on the first pitch.<\/p>\n
You could sense the sigh of relief around the ballpark. It felt like the escape relaxed the home club.<\/p>\n
A momentum shift, per se?<\/p>\n
It was in the Phillies\u2019 4-2 win over Atlanta.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the first, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner drew consecutive walks against left-hander Mart\u00edn P\u00e9rez, putting two on with nobody out.<\/p>\n
Bryce Harper skied a ball to left field. Schwarber tagged and, in typical Schwarber fashion, used his wheels and baserunning savvy to slide around Austin Riley\u2019s tag at third. Turner tagged up and advanced to second.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like, early in the game there, I wanted to put some pressure on the defense and make them make the perfect play,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s a roll of the dice, but it\u2019s a chance you want to take there.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s that momentum again.<\/p>\n
Luis Arraez, who continuously finds himself in situations to drive in runs, lined a single to right that scored Schwarber. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Realmuto worked a four-pitch walk.<\/p>\n
The Phillies had their first lead, 2-0.<\/p>\n
Bryson Stott, back in the lineup after he was a late scratch Friday for the birth of his third child, then roped a ball toward the sunny area of deep right-center field. But Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. made a lunging catch to rob Stott of a bases-clearing extra-base hit.<\/p>\n
Mattingly kept coming back to those opening two half-innings afterward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat first inning was wild and kind of the change of direction,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cYou get out of a jam like that, then we score and kind of get ourselves in the same spot with the bases loaded. J.T.\u2019s walk was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Braves\u2019 right fielder has made his share of run-saving catches at the Phillies\u2019 home park.<\/p>\n
Even if Acu\u00f1a\u2019s play sucked some energy out of the stadium, it did not last long.<\/p>\n
Derek Hill led off the second with a triple, his first of two hits, racing to third after Acu\u00f1a appeared to hold onto the ball a beat too long. Schwarber then hit a hard grounder to Matt Olson at first. Olson bobbled it, and Hill aggressively broke for the plate to score the Phillies\u2019 third run.<\/p>\n
But the Braves\u2019 right fielder wasn\u2019t done.<\/p>\n
Acu\u00f1a came up in the next half-inning and greeted Wheeler with his second hit of the night, a 450-foot homer into the second deck in left field.<\/p>\n
To the home faithful\u2019s dismay, Acu\u00f1a slowly trotted around the bases, looked toward the Phillies\u2019 dugout as he flipped his bat and did his signature step-back on his way to third.<\/p>\n
It may have been one of the loudest rounds of boos at Citizens Bank Park this season, but Acu\u00f1a had kept Atlanta within striking distance.<\/p>\n
The Phillies punched right back in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Schwarber launched a rocket that left his bat at more than 108 mph and traveled 435 feet for his 41st homer of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get one run back, and Kyle was able to push it back to three and give us a little breathing room for the bullpen,\u201d Mattingly said.<\/p>\n
Schwarber reached base four times in an encouraging all-around performance after a quieter stretch at the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when you are grinding and might not feel like your swing is where you want it to be, there\u2019s still a way to have a positive impact,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cThere are so many different things you can do that really help your team.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was enough for Wheeler, who was nearly spotless outside of the first three hitters he faced and the pitch to Acu\u00f1a.<\/p>\n
After his previous start, Wheeler said he still did not feel completely like himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to make a little adjustment, felt something in the bullpen with the split,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cI struggled with it a little bit the first couple innings, but I was able to tweak it. It had a lot more depth as the game went on, and I was able to command the fastball for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n
He again leaned heavily on his four-seamer, throwing it for a strike 73 percent of the time. He got ahead early and often with the pitch, too.<\/p>\n
It marked the second consecutive start in which Wheeler used his four-seamer at least 10 percentage points more than his season average. Both have come after he made a mechanical adjustment following a rough stretch.<\/p>\n
Wheeler gave the Phillies six innings of one-run baseball and racked up nine strikeouts, his most in a start since July 21.<\/p>\n
Arguably his biggest punchout of the night, and certainly his loudest, was his eighth. Wheeler got Acu\u00f1a swinging in the fifth, sending the crowd into another eruption, especially after his trip around the bases.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got me before,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cIt gives you a little more motivation. I really wanted to strike him out right there and kind of get him back, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jonathan Bowlan relieved Wheeler and, for the third time in his last four outings, allowed a homer. Austin Riley launched a towering solo shot that brought Atlanta within two.<\/p>\n
When the eighth inning arrived and Jos\u00e9 Alvarado allowed the leadoff runner to reach with Acu\u00f1a coming to the plate, the ballpark was filled with boos and nerves.<\/p>\n
Once again, Acu\u00f1a was involved in a major play. This time, he grounded into a double play.<\/p>\n
Alvarado, who has rarely worked in leverage situations during a difficult season, pounded his mitt. He did it again after striking out Olson to end the inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get to the seventh, eighth and ninth, every out is big because it allows you to do different things,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cIt was good to see Alvy get big outs in that inning.\u201d<\/p>\n
That got the ball to Jhoan Duran for his seventh save opportunity since the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
Duran closed it out for his 30th save, becoming the first Phillie to reach that mark in a decade and the first since Jeanmar G\u00f3mez in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday at Citizens Bank Park did not look promising early, especially after an underwhelming showing against the rival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,201779,5865,99],"class_list":["post-838005","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\/838005","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=838005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}