Thursday, September 7, 2023

Game 137 - Offense Provides Enough Cushion for Bullpen

2022 Bowman Heritage #84
Phillies 9
, Padres 7
Game 137 - Monday Night, September 4th in San Diego
Record - 76-61, 2nd Place, 14 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies offense scored often and early and the Phillies bullpen squashed a late comeback attempt by the Padres in this 9-7 win.

What It Means:  Where did the summer go?

What Happened:  Taijuan Walker was the beneficiary again of the run support, as he won his team-leading 15th game.  Walker battled through five innings, allowing four runs on five hits and three walks.  Craig Kimbrel and Jose Alvarado made it interesting in the end, walking a combined four batters over the final two innings but not allowing any runs.  Alvarado earned his seventh save.

Edmundo Sosa, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber all homered in the win.  Alec Bohm plated three in the first with a bases-clearing double and Cristian Pache added an RBI triple in the third to make it 7-1 Phillies.  Sosa's RBI double drove home Pache and gave the Phillies a 8-1 lead that seemed, and fortunately proved to be, insurmountable.  Bohm had three hits and Bryson Stott tallied a four-hit day, raising his average from .289 to .294 over the course of the game.

Featured Card:  Stott gets the card here for his 4 for 5 day, although Bohm, Turner and Sosa all had multi-RBI performances.  As of this writing, Stott is leading the Phillies with a 4.3 bWAR mark.  Topps has decreased its unique, non-parallel set output again this year, so I've not added as many Phillies baseball cards to my collection in 2023 as I have in years' past.  Here's a 2022 Bowman Heritage card that's 2022 in name only, as it was released in March 2023.

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