Don Mattingly was shagging balls in the outfield during batting practice one recent day at Citizens Bank Park when an usher leaned over the wall and offered an opinion on the Phillies\u2019 lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wanted to know why I don\u2019t hit (Kyle) Schwarber fourth,\u201d Mattingly recalled Wednesday afternoon. \u201cHe likes the traditional way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mattingly explained to the usher that Schwarber hit a key home run the day before and wouldn\u2019t have been up in that spot if he wasn\u2019t hitting in the leadoff hole.<\/p>\n
The usher nodded his approval then asked Mattingly for a ball. The Phillies skipper obliged.<\/p>\n
The anecdote proved quite timely because Schwarber\u2019s spot in the lineup came up in the sixth inning Wednesday night as the Phillies loaded the bases against Houston Astros reliever AJ Blubaugh. The Phils were up, 7-6. Make it 11-6. Schwarber clubbed a grand slam 408 feet into the right field seats for his MLB-leading 44th\u00a0home run.<\/p>\n
The Phillies went on to win the game, 11-7, overcoming deficits of 4-0 and 6-4 along the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like a lot of good things happened tonight,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cWe got punched right\u00a0away and kept responding right back. We had a lot of great at-bats.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victory was meaningful as the Phils advanced in two playoff races. They closed to within three games of first-place Atlanta in the NL East and took a 1 \u00bd game lead on the Chicago Cubs for the first NL wild-card spot. Winning the division or the first wild card would mean the Phils play the first round of the playoffs at home. There are 16 games remaining in the regular season. The Phils will look to win the series against Houston with Zack Wheeler on the mound Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Cristopher Sanchez was far from his best Wednesday night. In fact, he was hit hard at times, both in volume and exit velocity. But he managed to earn his 17th\u00a0win. With three starts remaining, he has a chance to become the Phillies\u2019 first 20-game winner since Roy Halladay in 2010.<\/p>\n
Sanchez was tagged for 10 hits, including three doubles and a pair of two-run home runs, in six innings. But his teammates showed much resilience in coming back from being down \u2013 and they didn\u2019t make any baserunning mistakes. In fact, they ran the bases aggressively, with runners in motion several times, as they stroked five singles and scored four times against Houston starter Hunter Brown in the third inning to tie the game at 4-4.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll credit to the offense,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI want to thank them for having my back tonight. It\u2019s all on them tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanchez gave up a two-run home run to Cam Smith as the Astros went ahead 6-4 in the fourth.<\/p>\n
Trea Turner started the Phillies\u2019 second comeback with a homer in the fifth before the bats went nuts against the Astros\u2019 bullpen in the sixth. Nine men came to the plate. Edmundo Sosa tied the game with a pinch-hit single and Bryan De La Cruz drew a bases-loaded walk to put the Phils up by a run and set the stage for Schwarber\u2019s 10th\u00a0career grand slam. He hit a full-count sweeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of good things happened with guys getting on base before I got in that situation,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cI was just up there looking to extend the inning, find a way to get the job done. It\u2019s not like you\u2019re up there thinking you\u2019re going to put one in the seats. You\u2019re in battle mode, trying to find your way on base and extend the inning. That was the thought there. You\u2019re not going up there thinking you\u2019re going to be a hero. It\u2019s more a fact of staying within yourself, being in the moment and having a good at-bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwarber is on a longball heater with four homers in the last five games.<\/p>\n
Turner is also cooking. He has homered in back-to-back games. He has five extra-base hits in the last four games. In addition to the homer, he had a single in the four-run third inning Wednesday night. Both hits went to the opposite field, a good sign that he\u2019s staying on the ball. In addition to the two hits, he stole a base and scored two runs. He was vintage Trea Turner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve seen the games when Trea gets going,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a different dynamic with our offense because of his speed, his power and his getting on base.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turner credited the crowd of 38,642 for its electricity in helping fuel the Phillies\u2019 four-run third inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were loud,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a lot of fun. You give up those four runs (in the top of the inning) and you feel a little defeated, like you might be out of it. To immediately respond like that and pick up Sanchie was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don Mattingly was shagging balls in the outfield during batting practice one recent day at Citizens Bank Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,201779,99],"class_list":["post-842677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842677","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=842677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}