Saturday, October 1, 2022

Game 157 - Gibson, Phils Embarrassed by Nationals

2018 Choice Lehigh Valley
IronPigs #18
Nationals 13
, Phillies 4 (Game 1)
Game 157 - Saturday Afternoon, October 1st in Washington
Record - 84-73

One Sentence Summary:  Kyle Gibson continued his disturbing September trend of crappy pitching and the Phillies offense could not keep up in this lopsided and painful 13-4 loss.

What It Means:  Flush it.  The loss in game one of the Saturday double header dropped the Phillies into a tie with the Brewers for the third Wild Card.

What Happened:  Needing to win every single game at this point, the Phillies let this one get away early.  Gibson staked the Nationals a 6-1 lead after two innings, and the Phillies made a valiant effort to claw back to within 6-4 after four innings.  Gibson left after allowing seven runs on eight hits, including a pair of home runs, in his six innings of work.  Nick Nelson and Chris Devenski couldn't stop the bleeding, allowing six more runs in their combined 1 2/3 innings.  Nick Maton had to enter the game to record the final out.  There were no errors recorded, but the Phillies defense was far from crisp.

In six September starts, Gibson is now 1-5 with a 9.73 ERA, and I have to imagine his season is done at this point.  That 9.73 mark is a result of 31 earned runs allowed in 28 2/3 innings pitched.

Featured Card:  Joey Meneses did a lot of the damage for the Nationals, going 3 for 4 with four RBIs, including a home run and a three-run triple off Gibson in the second.  Meneses made his big league debut on August 2nd with the Nationals, having spent the last decade in the minors and playing internationally.  In 2018, he played with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies' Triple-A team, and I wrote the passage below back in September 2018 when I originally featured this card.
The Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs had their season end on Saturday night when the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders eliminated them from the next round of postseason play.  Outfielder/first baseman Joey Meneses was the International League MVP this season, hitting .311 with 23 home runs and 82 RBIs.  This was Meneses' first year in the Phillies organization after playing the first seven seasons of his professional career in the Braves organization.  It's puzzling to me why the Phillies won't clear a 40-man roster spot and bring up Meneses to perhaps jumpstart a fizzling offense.

I have to imagine Meneses still remembers the September snub by the Phillies, and he exacted some revenge in this game. 

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