Sunday, August 6, 2023

Game 110 - Nola Can't Contain Witt and Lowly Royals

2017 Topps #660
Royals 7
, Phillies 5
Game 110 - Friday Night, August 4th in Philadelphia
Record - 59-51, 2nd Place, 12 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies fell to Bobby Witt Jr. and the Royals, dropping the first game of this three-game series, 7-5.

What It Means:  This was not a great start against a team 40 games under .500 at the start of this series.

What Happened:  A four-run sixth inning sunk the Phillies, as Aaron Nola yielded to Yunior Marte and the Royals ended up with a 6-4 lead.  Nola just hasn't been consistent this season, and his final line wasn't great, despite having eight strikeouts - 5 1/3 innings pitched, 8 hits, 5 runs, 2 home runs.  Witt hit his 20th home runs in the third, a two-run shot, making him the first player in MLB history to reach 20 home runs and 30 stolen bases in his first two seasons.  There were only a few highlights for the Phillies, including a two-run home run from Nick Castellanos in the first, and a two-run double from Johan Rojas in the fourth.

Featured Card:  The last time the Royals played in Philadelphia was way back in July 2016.  The Phillies took two out of three from that series with Nola earning the only loss, once again.  The two winning pitchers were Jeremy Hellickson and Vince Velasquez, with Jeanmar Gomez earning his 22nd save of the season for the Phillies in the first game.

Field Report:  Doug and I took in most of this game from Section 315, our first game in almost two months.  We were excited to see some new menu options from Bull's BBQ, and the highlight of the game was standing with most of the rest of 36,000 fans in attendance to offer the struggling Trea Turner our support.  Turner went just 1 for 4 at the plate, but would have a memorable night on Saturday.

Transactions:   Rule 5 pick Noah Song (rhp) was returned to the Boston Red Sox after not being placed on the Phillies active roster.  Andrew Vasquez (lhp) was claimed off waivers by the Detroit Tigers.  In 30 games with the Phillies, all in relief, Vasquez actually did fairly well.  He was 2-1 with a 2.27 ERA in 39 2/3 innings pitched, striking out 34 and walking 14.  He'll likely never appear on a mainstream Phillies baseball card.

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