Phillies 13, Twins 2
Game 117 - Friday Night, August 11th in Philadelphia
Record - 65-52, 2nd Place, 9 1/2 games behind the Braves
One Sentence Summary: The Phillies offense continues to heat up, banging out 15 hits and three more home runs in this 13-2 series opening win.
What It Means: The Phillies have won nine of their last 12 games and six of their last seven. They have a 4 1/2 game lead in the Wild Card race, 2 1/2 games ahead of the second Wild Card team, the Giants.
What Happened: The Twins scored first, with Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler hitting two quick home runs off Cristopher Sanchez in the second inning. But the Phillies powered back in the bottom of the second, plating six runs. Bryson Stott, J.T. Realmuto, Johan Rojas, Kyle Schwarber, Alec Bohm and Trea Turner all knocked in runs in the inning. Turner would add an RBI-double in the fourth to make it 7-2 Phillies, and Nick Castellanos singled home Turner for another run. Bryson Stott and J.T. Realmuto hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth, and Rojas capped the scoring with his first big league home run in the eighth, off Twins' left fielder, Jordan Luplow. Luplow had imitated Phillies' closer Craig Kimbrel before delivering the pitch to Rojas, arm bent at an angle prior to entering his "windup." Sanchez was the beneficiary of the run support, pitching six solid innings and earning his first win of 2023.
What It Means: The Phillies have won nine of their last 12 games and six of their last seven. They have a 4 1/2 game lead in the Wild Card race, 2 1/2 games ahead of the second Wild Card team, the Giants.
What Happened: The Twins scored first, with Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler hitting two quick home runs off Cristopher Sanchez in the second inning. But the Phillies powered back in the bottom of the second, plating six runs. Bryson Stott, J.T. Realmuto, Johan Rojas, Kyle Schwarber, Alec Bohm and Trea Turner all knocked in runs in the inning. Turner would add an RBI-double in the fourth to make it 7-2 Phillies, and Nick Castellanos singled home Turner for another run. Bryson Stott and J.T. Realmuto hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth, and Rojas capped the scoring with his first big league home run in the eighth, off Twins' left fielder, Jordan Luplow. Luplow had imitated Phillies' closer Craig Kimbrel before delivering the pitch to Rojas, arm bent at an angle prior to entering his "windup." Sanchez was the beneficiary of the run support, pitching six solid innings and earning his first win of 2023.
Featured Card/Field Report: All four of us were there, enjoying the offensive outburst from Section C of the Diamond Club. Pregame, I was happy to catch up with a former college suite mate of mine visiting with his family from Milwaukee. It was also cool to watch Hall of Famer Jim Kaat throw out a ceremonial first pitch to his former catcher, Bob Boone. This was the first night of Alumni Weekend, and we'll be back tonight, hoping to add as many autographs as possible to Doug's growing collection.
I achieved a personal milestone at this game. The Twins were the only one of 30 MLB teams I had never seen in person until last night. With the Twins off the list, I've now seen all 30 teams live in action.
Congrats on completing the "Full Mike Morgan". Actually, I think he only played for 13. I need to try to figure out whether I have seen all 30. I had A's partial season tickets in 2002 and saw a bunch of AL teams then, so I may have hit all 30 already.
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