Following their Tuesday night loss to the Mets, the Phillies’ bats again looked juiceless in the midst of an early-season power outage.

Through its first five games, the offense plated just 3.6 runs per game and generated only 10 extra-base hits over its first 162 at-bats. Fast-forward to Wednesday afternoon’s first inning, and it became immediately clear that nap time was over.

Check out this sequence of events over a nine-pitch sequence from the left arm of Mets starting pitcher David Peterson:

  • Rhys Hoskins: home run
  • Bryce Harper: double
  • J.T. Realmuto: walk
  • Alec Bohm: home run

To recap, the Phillies produced just two homers over their first 162 at-bats of the season before producing two homers in the span of three official at-bats. In the process, they exceeded their season average for per game run production — all before Peterson could record a second out.

The second-year lefty would recover to hold the Phillies scoreless for three innings, giving the Mets a chance as Phillies starter Aaron Nola flirted with disaster (more on that in a bit), but a second wave of trouble arrived in the fifth inning.

Hoskins got things started with a double to record his third extra-base hit of the game – the second time in his career he achieved the feat. Harper then followed with a bunt single to put runners at the corners:

“That’s playing the game, to me. I think it’s important that you always try to play the game, and he took advantage of a situation, and it led to a big inning,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said. “You don’t always have to hit doubles and home runs to be productive, so, to me, it was really smart and he executed it well.”

Joe is right — he did. I loved the execution by Harper here, but I didn’t love the outstretched arm going into first base. The phrase “4-6 weeks” immediately entered my brain as his hand dusted the bag.

Regardless, Harper averted injury and his single ended Peterson’s day. He was replaced by reliever Jacob Barnes, who was promptly greeted in rude fashion by Realmuto:

By the time Realmuto’s three-run blast cleared the right field wall, the Phillies had produced more homers (three) through the first five innings of this game than they had in their first five games of the season (two).

The Phillies also finished the day with seven extra-base hits (three doubles, three homers and a triple) after producing just 10 extra-base hit through those first five games.

Baseball, man.

More importantly, their second multi-run outburst of the day was enough to close the door on a potential Mets’ rally as the Phillies would eventually build an 8-1 lead with Connor Brodgon and Archie Bradley combining to work three innings of one-run baseball.

After yet another stellar performance from Phillies relievers, the bullpen ERA sits at 3.27 through six games. For a point of comparison, the Phillies bullpen had an 11.88 ERA through six games last season. A comparison:

  • 2020: 16.2 IP, 26 H, 22 ER, 9 BB, 15 K, 11.88 ERA
  • 2021: 22 IP, 15 H, 8 ER, 11 BB, 26 K, 3.27 ERA

Amazing.

Nola Just Stopping By

Of course, the bullpen needed to unexpectedly work five innings because of an uncharacteristically inefficient effort by Nola.

He failed to complete five innings for just the eighth time in 48 starts dating back to the start of the 2019 season despite being staked to an early four-run lead.

“Yeah, he had to grind through. His location and stuff wasn’t really sharp today is the way I saw it, but he found a way to get through four innings with a very good lineup, with a high pitch count, with traffic all day, and only give up one run,” Girardi said. “To me, that could be the mark of a really good pitcher, when you have the ability to do that because his command just wasn’t very good today.”

Nola spent most of his brief four-inning appearance under siege as Mets hitters put multiple men on base in each of his final three innings. After yielding a run in the third, Nola then loaded the bases in the fourth. With his pitching count rapidly rising, Nola escaped further damage when he spun his 92nd and final pitch of the day — a 79 mph curveball– to strikeout Conforto.

Despite allowing six hits, two walks and a hit batter in just four innings of work, Nola somehow held the Mets to a miserable 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, stranding nine runners as he danced into and out of trouble.

Ultimately, credit Nola for bearing down to limit the Mets to just a single run, although his short outing wasn’t exactly well-timed. Both of the team’s long relievers, Vince Velasquez and David Hale, were shelved after multi-inning appearances on Tuesday night.

What’s Next?

The Braves rebounded from their unexpected 0-4 start with a double-header sweep of the Nationals on Wednesday afternoon. They will look to ride that momentum into their home opener and score some revenge against the Phillies following last weekend’s sweep.

For the Phillies, it will be Zack Wheeler, who struck out 10 Braves hitters over seven innings of one-hit ball last Saturday. He will be opposed by Charlie Morton, who started strong in that game but ran into trouble in the fifth.