Sunday, August 16, 2020

Game 15 - 2020 Topps Total #1 Bryce Harper

Phillies 6Mets 5
Game 15 - Friday Night, August 14th in Philadelphia
Record - 6-9, Tied for 3rd Place, 4 games behind the Marlins

One Sentence Summary:  A clutch hit from Bryce Harper and an elusive slide from Roman Quinn led to this 6-5 walk-off win against the Mets.

What It Means:  The heroics wouldn't have been needed if Hector Neris had been able to preserve a 5-4 lead in the ninth.  The Phillies closer blew his second straight save.

What Happened:  The Phillies had taken a 5-4 lead in the fifth on J.T. Realmuto's three-run home run off emergency Mets starter Walker Lockett.  Realmuto's 8th home run is the second most Phillies home runs in the team's first 15 games since Mike Schmidt hit 12 in 1976.  (Source - Sarah Langs Tweet.)  Just as impressive, his 8 home runs ties Realmuto with Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett for the most home runs by a catcher to start a season.  Hartnett did it in 1925.  (Source - ESPN Stats & Info Tweet.)

Spencer Howard didn't fare well in his second start, leaving early with a blister and giving up 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits through 3 1/3 innings.  The bullpen did its job and kept the Braves scoreless until Neris blew it in the ninth.

Featured Card:  Quinn singled to start the ninth, went to second on Andrew McCutchen's hit and came around to score the winning run on Harper's hit to right.  Quinn perfectly executed a slide to elude the tag of catcher Wilson Ramos, with the help of Realmuto who was on-deck and provided guidance to Quinn as to where to slide.  Both Harper and Realmuto were granted Topps Now cards to mark their big games.

Transaction:  In the latest round of bullpen roulette, Austin Davis (lhp) was optioned to Lehigh Valley with JoJo Romero (lhp) taking his place.  Along with Ramon Rosso (rhp), Spencer Howard (rhp), Connor Brogdon (rhp) and Alec Bohm (3b), Romero will become the fifth Phillies player to make his big league debut in 2020 once he gets into a game.  It was also announced that Enyel De Los Santos (rhp) and Trevor Kelley (rhp) had cleared waivers and were outrighted to Lehigh Valley.

2020 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2020 Season Summary Index 2020 Chachi Set Checklist

3 comments:

Jim from Downingtown said...

I haven't been paying close attention to the Phillies in recent years.

Serious question: Is Roman Quinn the new J.P. Crawford (overhyped prospect who turns out to be nothing special)?

Shlabotnik Report said...

(*sigh*) I think a player I like played a key role in every Phillies win over my Mets this weekend. In this game, I was done dirty by Roman Quinn.

Jim said...

I think Roman Quinn has quite a bit of upside if he can stay healthy. In a recent interview, Joe Girardi mentioned he was a huge fan of Quinn's because when he gets on base he "creates chaos" due to his pure speed. So if can stay healthy, get on base and play solid defense, he's going to be a big part of this team.