Luis Arraez Makes An Impression in HIs First Phillies Series

The Philadelphia Phillies got the bad taste out of their mouths last night after the tough extra-innings loss on Wednesday. Luis Arraez again set the tone and has made quite the impression on his teammates, especially Bryce Harper! #RingTheBell #PhiladelphiaPhillies #MLBonX 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Ai, pega a lupita, quanto quero la costa fita, full fordata da bollita, pingo loco topita, ai fuck the pantalon, full pantoni the fetchita, just pick up the malit, you the banner to keep. I look wet, I put me dumps and good beat, I put me dumps and good beat, I put me dumps and good beat, I put me some good beat.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Welcome back in, ladies and gentlemen, to yet another episode of the 610 Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Hollyhan, coming to you before tonight's first pitch as we open up the three-game series here against the Toronto Blue Jays, but we're going to be talking about last night's 7-3 victory for the Phillies against the Washington Nationals getting the bad taste out of the extra inning 10-4 loss the previous night out of their mouths. And the Phillies hitting eight doubles last night, most ever in a game at Citizens Bank Park. Saw that last night on the NBC Sports Philadelphia post-game live production that stat put up. Couldn't believe it myself. Eight doubles most in a game at CBP. Most in a game in the years that, you know, you had Ryan Howard and Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins and Jason Wir and Raul Labanez and all those and all the names, you know, Placido Polanco, too. I mean, it's just Carlos Ruiz. I mean, it's kind of Shane Victorina. I can go on and on. It's amazing that Bryson Stott and Alec Boehm and J.T. Romuto and Trey Turner, you know, Brandon Marsh, not that these guys are any slouches, but obviously we hail those great Charlie Manual teams, uh, obviously high and above, you know, up there with some of, if not the best, in terms of offensive talented teams ever to play for the Phillies. Now yesterday's win against the Nationals, it was I think exactly what the doctor ordered. I I mean they talked about it after the game. It's fun to see home runs, but it's also fun to see the offense click the way they did. And it started off with the twenty-fifth double of the year and yet another knock for Luisa Rise as he made it a one-nothing game in the bottom of the first. Trey Turner scored, then Alec Bohm comes up, hits his 17th double of the year to plate two more, or to plate one more rather, and it's two to nothing. That's when uh Luis Arise was out at the plate uh trying to score from third. Phillies take that two-nothing lead. Jacob Young hits an RBI single. Christopher Sanchez 2-1, two outs, change up, that was away, and just a good piece of hitting, I suppose, by Jacob Young to make it two-one. Then Justin Crawford's RBI single made it three-one in the bottom of the second, so the Phillies back up by two. Then the Phillies would explode for three in the third, Brandon Marsh, a RBI double, four to one, JT Romuto, RBI single, five-one, and then Bryson Stott, first of his two doubles on the night, made it six-one. Now in the top of the fourth, the Nationals will get one more back. Andrew Pink Pinckney, his first home run in his career, six-two. Then Keyboard Ruiz in the top of the sixth made it six-three as traffic got on, uh, as Orion Kirkering would come into the game. Sanchez only won five innings. Kirkering pitching in the sixth, unable to get out of that frame clean, and the Phillies would deploy a lot of their top bullpen arms, kind of again showing I think a lack of faith to be able to say, hey, it's six to two, let's get three outs with you know, a Tim Mesa or a Kyle Backus here in the sixth, they go with Orion Kirkering. And I again I think it just shows kind of where the bullpen is. Now, granted, a lot of guys had to pitch the day before against the Nationals, so some guys may have been down, but obviously you go to Kirkering, he's able to get out of it, and it remains a six-three game. Kyle Schwaber adds one more to make it 7-3. Jose Alvarado is able to find the plate last night. He has a clean frame in the seventh. Jonathan Bolin, clean frame in the eighth, and then Johan Duran a clean frame in the ninth. And the Phillies win seven to three. The Padres beat the Diamondbacks, so the Phillies lead for the fifth spot in the wild card is at a game. Padres, though, are a game out of potentially holding a wild card spot. You got the Cubs who are five games up on the Phillies, and they look nice and cozy up there. Uh Phillies certainly needing to put more pressure on them and bite into that, but one day at a time here. The Padres will be taking on this weekend. They welcome in the Houston Astros, and for the Diamondbacks, they play host to the Dodgers. Philly's playing the Blue Jays, who are three and a half games out of a wildcard spot, and we're we're not buyers at the deadline. Philly's certainly in good need of really putting some space between themselves and the other two. The Marlins will be playing host to the Angels. Marlins are very much in the thick of things. They're three games back of a wild card spot, but they are sitting there at 58 and 58. Now the Phillies, 31 and 28 home record. The Blue Jays on the road are 26 and 31. Phillies saw Toronto earlier in the season. We remember that series out in Toronto that unfortunately saw Adolis Garcia be lost for the remainder of the season as he blew out his arm there in early June. The Phillies took two of three from Toronto. It was a good series for the Phillies offense. They put 14 runs. They outscored the defending AL champs, the Toronto Blue Jays. They outscored them 14-9. So hopefully we can see more of that here coming up for the Phillies in these next three games and build off of the offensive output that they put together against the Nationals. Now here's your starting pitching preview. Game one tonight, Zach Wheeler on the bump. 10-2 with the 2-4-9 ERA. Pitched six innings in June, allowing one run on six hits with five strikeouts. He's four and one with the two seven-four ERA this year and seven starts at home. Hopefully, we'll see Zach Wheeler. We saw him for just two innings on Sunday. That was the rain shortened game. And the start prior was the rough outing against the Marlins. So back-to-back short outings. Hopefully, tonight we can see a little length out of Wheeler, and hopefully Wheeler will put up the kind of production in a full start that we're used to seeing out of Wheels. Jose Soriano will take the mound for Toronto. 9-6 this year with a 3-2-9 ERA. He pitched seven innings last year against the Phillies, allowing two runs on six hits with five strikeouts and two walks as an angel. He's six and four with a two-eight eight ERA and twelve starts on the road. Interesting that the Blue Jays were not looking to deal Soriano off because, I mean, heck, I know a team that plays baseball in the city of Philadelphia that could have uh potentially used a starter like that, although that may have been a little hefty more hefty of a price, but there could have been a lot of teams out there looking for some starting pitching help, and I think Soriano would have been a good, a potential good fit for a suitor out there. Now, game two tomorrow we'll see Aaron Nola take the mound. 3-9 with a 5-5-5 ERA. Gave up four runs on nine hits with seven strikeouts in five and two thirds innings in 2024 in his last start against Toronto. He's 0-4 with a 6-4-7 ERA and 11 starts at home. Now, before I said Aaron Nola's name, you may have heard me uh giggle a little bit. Well, that's because Nola will be facing off with Max Scherzer. Now, Max Scherzer is 1-4 with a 7-9-2 ERA this year. He gave up five runs on five hits and three and a third innings with four strikeouts and three walks. He's allowed three runs on nine hits and eight and two thirds innings with five strikeouts and four walks against or on the road this season. And when you kind of look at the two names, Aaron Ola Mac Scherzer, we go back, if we go back seven years ago, if we go back hell, four years ago when Scherzer was on the Mets and these two would match up, you'd say, Man, this is gonna have to be a game where Nola's gonna have to be in low in tow, in line with Scherzer pitch for pitch. He's gonna have to give you a big start. He's gonna have to, and you would expect him to look like Aaron Ola that's gonna go six innings, maybe even into the seventh, and will hopefully keep it a two-run game, and the offense will have scratch to run, and then you can get into the opposition's bullpen with Scherzer out there. Well, for these two teams, they're hoping to get into the bullpen by like the fourth inning. So it's kind of unfortunate and interesting to see how things have changed. Uh game three, Jesus Sozardo on the mound, ten and five with a three-three six ERA. He allowed a run on four hits and five and two thirds innings with eight strekeouts and four walks earlier in this year against Toronto. He's four-and five with a four-eight five ERA this season and eleven starts at home. He's been pitching better and better at home, and hopefully that continues. Shane Bieber, who's 3-2 with a 5-1-1 ERA, he hasn't faced the Phillies since 2019, which is his lone start at CBP, where he gave up two runs on seven hits in seven and a third innings with seven strikeouts as a member of Cleveland. He's one-and-two with an 8-4-0 ERA and four starts on the road this year. So hopefully the Phillies, we won't see that same adage in terms of guys they haven't seen in a while and they struggle. Hopefully, there's enough memory with Bieber throughout the years. There's uh obviously enough scouting report out there that they can go off of to put up the type of run production they need to to put up a Kirk a number against Bieber and come away taking two of three and hopefully sweeping. Because and I know the bottom line is just win the series, but sweeping would be, of course, very exciting to see. Let's put it that way, and really get the fans juvenated. Now Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, they have been heating up lately. Schwarber, not as much as Harper, not as more recent than Harper. Harper started to get going on the road trip. But Schwarber has started in yesterday's game, swinging the bat better, a pair of hits, that RBI knocked to put the Phillies back up by four runs. Let's hear from Don Mattingley and Kyle Schwarber on hopefully things really turning around for Schwarber and uh an interesting note on Harper.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

I mean, I think it's just a matter of time with him, like the other guys are gonna go through stretches where you know they're not locked in or not feeling perfect. Um yeah, I'm not really he's not one of the guys that I sit there and think about worrying if he's gonna bounce back or not. Um he's gonna he's gonna catch fire again uh tonight was good. He got drove in that room with the guy in third, put the ball in play. He looks better. I think Harp's been patient. Uh I thought right before we picked up Luis, he started swinging the bat uh at the end of the trip. And you know, he had been kind of struggling. And so you know guys like that, once they catch their feel, they all of a sudden they're back uh in a big way. So more than anything, I think it's just Harp kind of protecting himself, not not chasing. Uh obviously Luis back there behind him and guys on base in front of him is gonna help everything. Is it is a sign that you're turning the corner?

SPEAKER_03 12:16

Yeah, I do. You know, I feel like uh you know, once I got into third, fourth bat there, and uh, you know, even the fifth bat, even though it did result in the strikeout, you know, I feel like that um I was starting to get into the position the positions that I wanted to get into and the fuel that I wanted to get into. Um, you know, the first two are still a little bit uncomfortable, but started to feel the feels that you want to feel so that when you are out there, you're not thinking about anything else. You're just thinking about how you might beat this guy out there throwing the ball against me.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Do you think it's only a matter of time before you start getting on that home run streak?

SPEAKER_03 12:50

That's the that's the grand question, it seems like, but uh, you know, we'll see. Hopefully, uh, you know, uh it's not like you you go out there and you want to predict that you're gonna try to you know hit a bunch of homers, but um, you know, I just want to try to have the best of bats I can, keep the quality of contact there, keep the chase to a minimum, and find a way on base for our guys.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Well, we've seen, I mean, you know, Schwerber's this is his fifth season here. We know when he gets hot and he goes on those home run barrages, he can carry an offense. But we know when he's cold, I don't want to say he's ice cold, but he has a tendency to go through those kinds of up and down spells. And it was a lot more than, you know, remember, this was a guy who in his first two years here was hitting sub 200, but would have like 40 plus homers, and obviously that production, and would also get on base at the top of the order to lead off a game, that type of production was obviously so oh so valuable for the Phillies team, and obviously the Phillies offense specifically. But when we talk about kind of the why in it all, and I remember Don Mattingley saying this about two weeks ago about how he didn't think it was maybe not the best idea for Schwarbern Harper to compete in the home run derby, and that kind of seems to be what we're seeing here. Now there are guys out there who are also struggling post-home run derby, Ben Rice, Jordan Walker, they have not looked really all the same since the all-star break. And it's the old adage of the home run derby doing it to you, and I think it's at times it does ring true, especially I think the further you go in the home run derby. Remember, Schwarber competed in twenty-two, and he lost in the first round to Albert Polhos, and when Schwarber bowed out, he didn't have the start to the second half. I mean, the Phillies start to the second half wasn't great. I remember they got swept by the Cubs, but him personally, he wasn't off, let's put it that way. And I know last year they had a swing off in the All-Star game, but that's different than having to go through that home run derby because you do have to prepare for it. Now you remember Alec Bohm in 2024, he wasn't the same hitter the second half of the year. Hell. Alec Bohm since the home run derby that year hasn't been the same hitter uh since he competed in the last couple years. But for Schwerber, hopefully this is a sign of him starting to get back to simplifying his swing and then hopefully getting back to being you know the Kyle Schwerber that's hitting tanks. Now, Bryce Harper spoke last night after the game on Luis Horiz. He gave his thoughts on Horizon and uh I think it's an interesting point to bring up. So here was Harper.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Yeah, he's incredible. I mean, just the the bounce of ball scale. I mean, you don't see that in the game, you know, a lot now, and a lot of guys are trying to obviously spin rate or uh, you know, back spin balls, get under it, hit homers, all that kind of stuff, hit it hard. Um, but he's just he's a throwback, man. He goes out there and hits all sides of the field, and you know, they they call him a sprinkler, man, because he's he's always hitting, you know, left center, right center, dead center, down the lines on both sides. I mean, it's uh it's very impressive, and uh what a what a guy to get at the deadline.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Well, Harper brings up kind of the Tony Gwynn aspect of everything with Luis Arise, and it's a true point. He's a different player. He's not someone that's gonna look to hit homers. It was kind of it was kind of ironic. He hit his fifth the other night, and everyone's talking about oh, he's a slap hitter, singles hitter, a guy that can set the tone for a team by just getting on base, not totally needing to go yard. But the one thing that Arise does, and I think it's something that the Phillies had years ago with Gene Segora, is obviously not a guy who's gonna go yard, but a guy who can also help tutor the younger guys. Not in the same extent to where he needs to be a slap hitter because he has more power, but Bryson Stott, the way that Luis Arise gets to the plate and he's just gonna take he's not gonna swing at anything bad, and he's gonna make the pitcher work. You may he may ground out, but he's gonna take about 10 pitches off of that starter and really drive that pitch count up. That's something that we want to see more out of Bryson Stott. We saw him last week against the Orioles, he had that like 14-pitch a bat against Shane Bass, where he was just fouling off pitches, fouling off pitches, and finally got on base. But I think also Justin Crawford could be a similar hitter like Luis Arise in looking to not have double-digit home run numbers, hit maybe you know, eight in a season, something like that, but really have the production of just getting base hits and being a table setter, and hopefully we'll see the Phillies really uh bear some serious fruit off of that as they can really use Luisa Rise in this offense in many different ways, and hopefully we continue to see that as we begin the three-game series tonight against the Toronto Blue Jays. So, with that, we thank everyone for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.

SPEAKER_05 18:12

Anyone know Robert Dream.