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| 2018 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #15 |
Game 103 - Friday Night, July 26th in Philadelphia
Record - 64-39, 1st Place, 9 games ahead of the Mets
One Sentence Summary: Ben Lively and the Guardians' bullpen silenced the Phillies' bats in this 3-1 series opening loss.
What It Means: The Phillies are suddenly not fun to watch. They look as if they're pressing and I'm hoping they find their groove again soon. The surging Mets are now in second place, a half game ahead of the Braves.
What Happened: Lively improved to 9-6 with six strong innings, allowing just a fifth inning solo home run to Bryson Stott. Stott had a three-hit night and Alec Bohm had a double, with the two through seven spots in the line-up going a combined 1 for 24. Cristopher Sanchez dropped to 7-6, allowing all three Guardians runs on eight hits.
Featured Card: Lively was designated for assignment in September 2018 by the Phillies and claimed off waivers by the Royals, when a roster spot was needed for Jerad Eickhoff. He's since spent time with the Royals, in Korea and with the Reds, and he's been pitching well for Cleveland this season.
Transaction: On Friday afternoon, the Phillies announced the first of possibly many trades in advance of Tuesday's trade deadline. Austin Hays (of) was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles for Seranthony Dominguez (rhp) and Cristian Pache (of). Hays is expected to see quite a bit of playing time in left field, with a likely platoon in center developing with Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh. Hays was an All-Star in 2023, and he's batting .255 with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 63 games this season.
What It Means: The Phillies are suddenly not fun to watch. They look as if they're pressing and I'm hoping they find their groove again soon. The surging Mets are now in second place, a half game ahead of the Braves.
What Happened: Lively improved to 9-6 with six strong innings, allowing just a fifth inning solo home run to Bryson Stott. Stott had a three-hit night and Alec Bohm had a double, with the two through seven spots in the line-up going a combined 1 for 24. Cristopher Sanchez dropped to 7-6, allowing all three Guardians runs on eight hits.
Featured Card: Lively was designated for assignment in September 2018 by the Phillies and claimed off waivers by the Royals, when a roster spot was needed for Jerad Eickhoff. He's since spent time with the Royals, in Korea and with the Reds, and he's been pitching well for Cleveland this season.
Transaction: On Friday afternoon, the Phillies announced the first of possibly many trades in advance of Tuesday's trade deadline. Austin Hays (of) was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles for Seranthony Dominguez (rhp) and Cristian Pache (of). Hays is expected to see quite a bit of playing time in left field, with a likely platoon in center developing with Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh. Hays was an All-Star in 2023, and he's batting .255 with three home runs and 14 RBIs in 63 games this season.
Dominguez, the team's closer at one point, appeared in at least 50 games for the Phillies in 2018, 2022 and 2023. In 230 games, he was 19-17 with a 3.55 ERA and 28 saves, with 16 blown saves. Dominguez was a huge part of the Phillies' pennant-winning bullpen in 2022, and was the winning pitcher in NLDS Game 1 against the Braves and in World Series Game 1 agains the Astros. I currently have 22 baseball cards for Dominguez in my Phillies Collection, dating back to his first appearance in 2016 in the Williamsport Crosscutters team set. (It seems as if that number should be higher, but such is the fate of a reliever in today's baseball card sets.)
Pache had a few big highlights with the Phillies, but had largely struggled at the plate since joining the team right before opening day in 2023. In 98 games with the Phillies overall, he batted .218 with a pair of home runs and 20 RBIs. I've got six Pache cards in my Phillies Collection.
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