Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Phillies

Bizarre Phillies Win Is Overshadowed After Benches Clear Late

Bob Wankel

By Bob Wankel

Published:

If I told you that a Phillies lineup missing Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Jean Segura, and Didi Gregorius tonight produced just three hits, that news would probably not come as a surprise.

If I told you that same shorthanded lineup would do enough to beat the Mets on Friday night, that probably would come as a surprise. After all, how the hell does a team win — with its fifth starter on the mound no less — with just three hits?

Ah, yes. Of course. The textbook bases loaded dropped third strike with two outs to score two runs. Classic.

That was it. The Phillies’ offense on Friday name came via an 85 mph splitter from the hand of Marcus Stroman that:

  • was whiffed on by Chase Anderson
  • crossed up Mets catcher James McCann
  • deflected off home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak
  • scored Brad Miller and Andrew Knapp

Just how they dialed it all up.

Fortunately for the Phillies, the standings don’t reflect how a team wins, the standings reflect how often a team wins. And speaking of the standings, they will, somehow, wake up on May 1 alone in first place in the National League East after a truly weird 2-1 win over the Mets.

Anderson earned his first win with the Phillies after tossing five innings of one-run baseball, a thin bullpen dodged some tense moments to work four shutout innings, and, oh yeah, I’m totally burying the lede.

That lede came during the top of the eighth inning. With two runners in scoring position and two away, José Alvarado protected a one run lead by working back from a 3-0 count to strike out Mets outfielder Dom Smith on a perfectly executed 98 mph sinker.

He then let Smith know about it — and then some.

The benches cleared. The bullpens emptied. There was a considerable amount of cursing, I’m sure, before order was temporarily restored.

In the bottom half, Mets reliever Miguel Castro ran consecutive 97+ mph sinkers well off the inside of the plate to walk Rhys Hoskins, and that went about as one would expect:

No brawls ensued, no punches were thrown, but it looks like there’s some juice brewing between these two teams, like we might be looking at the renewal of what has been a mostly dormant rivalry for more than a decade now.

So, what set off Alvarado?

It stems back to the first game of an April 13 doubleheader between the Phillies and Mets when he let a pair of pitches run tight to Mets outfielder Michael Conforto. Smith wasn’t pleased the pitches and let a disinterested Alvarado know about it.

After Friday night’s game, Smith weighed in on the most recent encounter.

Smith, who is in the midst of a 2-for-22 slump, is hitting just .206 with a .549 OPS this season. His stats aren’t particularly relevant to this situation, but, as a Phillies fan, I assume you would like to know the numbers, particularly after these comments.

Following the game, Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson, who filled in for Joe Girardi (daughter’s graduation) on Friday night, said he believes the situation is over. Either way, the suddenly contentious Phillies will go for a series win (and back-to-back wins for the first time in 23 games) tomorrow night when they send Zack Wheeler to the mound against Taijuan Walker.

We’ll see what happens.

Bob Wankel
Bob Wankel

Bob Wankel covers the Phillies for Crossing Broad. He is also the Vice President of Sports Betting Content at SportRadar. On Twitter: @Bob_Wankel E-mail: b.wankel@sportradar.com

Advertise With Us