What a mess it could have been.
The Phillies could have been swept at home on Wednesday afternoon by Gabe Kapler’s Giants. They could have again squandered an early lead in an excruciating loss. They could have wasted Mickey Moniak’s first career home run, a stellar start from Zach Eflin, three hits from Nick Maton and monster efforts from Bryce Harper and Brad Miller.
They could have, but they didn’t.
Unlike the previous night, the Phillies overcame a late-game inning from hell, this time punching back against the Giants in a wild 6-5 win that moves them back to .500 before traveling to Colorado this weekend.
Down 5-4 after a mess of a seventh inning (much more on this below), Harper pumped up a deflated bench with a game-tying solo shot:
“Just having a guy like that to fire us up and get us going was huge,” Moniak said of Harper after the game. “It’s early in the year, but today was a big win for us after the last couple games against them. Going into an off day and a get away day just makes it that much better.”
The homer was yet another huge swing in what was a scorching-hot homestand for Harper. In five games played, he went 11-for-17 with five walks. After reaching base in 16 of 22 plate appearances, Harper raised his batting average from .231 to .357 and his OPS from .798 to 1.118.
Not to be overlooked, the Phillies received seven key outs from the combination of Spencer Howard and Hector Neris to set the stage for the late-game victory.
With two on and one away in the ninth, Andrew Knapp delivered the Phillies’ second walk-off win of the season:
The hit kept the postgame focus on Moniak’s milestone moment and big days days at the plate from Harper, Maton (three hits) and Miller (four hits). Perhaps more important for the Phillies, however, is that it kept the postgame focus away from the nightmare scenario of a Kapler-led team completing an embarrassing sweep at Citizens Bank Park.
After the game, Phillies manager Joe Girardi noted the importance of the win, regardless of the opponent.
“The bottom line is winning games. We probably should have won two out of three in this series. You end up going 4-2 on a homestand, that’s pretty good,” Girardi said. “You end up going 2-4, that’s not good, so we were able to salvage today. I think it’s big of our guys to come back, to get a huge home run by Harper and then a big hit by Knappy. I think it was important for our team.”
Moniak is just checking off the boxes now.
On Tuesday night, he put to rest the Phillies’ embarrassing two-week center field hitless streak. On Wednesday, he launched his first career home run, giving the Phillies an early 3-0 lead.
Afterward, Moniak confirmed that he was able to get the home run ball, although there was one minor complication with the family that caught it.
“I noticed that they had two little kids,” Moniak said. “One was trying to eat it, so I’m just glad it’s intact, and I’m very grateful that they gave it back.”
Any bite marks?
“There definitely could be, and, honestly, I really hope so,” he said with a smile.
Miller and Harper combined for six hits in the middle of the order, but the Phillies also received a rare jolt from the bottom of the lineup in this one.
Moniak (homer), Knapp (game-winning single) and Maton (three hits) combined for five hits and 4 RBIs.
Okay. The win was nice, but we can’t overlook the absolutely brutal top of the seventh inning.
With the Phillies holding a 4-1 lead and Zach Eflin through six innings at just 86 pitches, Girardi elected to pinch-hit for his starter in the bottom of the frame with the newly-recalled with Scott Kingery.
On the surface, the decision to pull Eflin seemed curious. But both Girardi and Eflin explained after the game that the pitcher needed to throw during the 43-minute rain delay to remain loose and stay in the game.
Factor in those tosses on top of his 86 pitches and the workload looks quite different.
Still, Girardi’s move to pinch hit with Kingery didn’t work out — on several levels.
With runners on the corners and two away, Kingery struck out to end the threat. As was frequently the case in Florida last month, he was soundly beaten by a steady diet of low-90s fastballs. But the real damage came in the top of the seventh when Brandon Kintzler relieved Eflin and failed to protect a three-run lead.
Kintzler, who now has a 7.50 ERA through six games with the Phillies, allowed a pair of hits to Wilmer Flores and Brandon Crawford before getting Mauricio Dubon on strikes for the first out.
That’s when Darin Ruf (yes, Darin Ruf) came to the plate and hit a shocking yet very predictable three-run homer:
Unlike last night, Girardi went to the mound and got his reliever following a potentially backbreaking blast. The move to go with JoJo Romero would have been the right one, except, well, then this happened:
Two batters later, Alex Dickerson delivered another big hit to put the Giants in front with a run-scoring single.
There is a lot to unpack here, so let’s rewind and break it down.
Kintzler simply has to execute better. Part of the reason he is on this team is because he’s a veteran guy who knows how to execute in big spots late in games. Guys are going to give up hits, home runs, fail to hold leads. Things happen, but to miss that badly with an 0-2 belt-high sinker in a high-leverage spot is cause for concern.
With that note out of the way, this where the line gets blurred on a manager’s role, and I’ll argue that two things can be true.