Phillies SALVAGE A Victory Vs Blue Jays

Derek Hill was the hero in a 12-inning, nail-biting win for the Phillies, as they salvaged a win in the 3-game series vs the Blue Jays and will now look to tighten up the bullpen on the road, first stop St. Louis. #RingTheBell #PhiladelphiaPhillies #MLBonX #OrionKerkering #DerekHill 

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Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome into another episode of the Six Ten Podcast. Yes, as you heard yesterday, the Philadelphia Phillies, they salvaged a game against the Toronto Blue Jays. We're going to talk about that. You just heard the radio call from the great Scott Franski, courtesy of Nick Picone's Twitter page, and the hero was Derek Hill. So that leads us to talking about yesterday's comeback win for the Phillies. I guess you can put an asterisk over comeback or quotation marks over comeback. They did come back down a run in the bottom of the 11th, but it was the Blue Jays who came back against the Phillies. As you went into that game needing to salvage a game from the series, coming away from the homestand, a seven-game homestand in which with the win yesterday, the Phillies finished four-three. With a loss, they would have been three and four. And what was a really positive homestand from starting off with funny enough, the Derrick Hill go-ahead grand slam on Monday to taking three of four from the Nats, and then into the Wall of Fame weekend, alumni weekend for the Phillies against the Blue Jays, you had to come away with it with a come away from it with a positive. And the Phillies were able to take that win. But it was like pulling teeth. Kyle Schwarber, who had been on a homerless drought, puts the Phillies on top in the bottom of the third, three to nothing. Jesus Lazardo pitched extremely well. He gives up a run in the top of the fourth and another in the top of the fifth to make it 3-2. Then in the bottom of the fifth, Schwarber with one out, 2-0, and Bieber gives him a breaking ball that when Schwarber hits it, it's actually low for a ball. But he muscles it like only Kyle Schwarber can over the right field wall and way, way out of here, as the Phillies would lead 4-2. They'd add another run in the sixth. Alec Bohm with the RBI single. A nice knock for Bohm into right or into center rather, but uh obviously that would not be the last time we would be talking about Alec Bohm on the day. And after going seven strong innings for Jesus Lazardo, pitching extremely well, giving up two just two runs on forehead, striking at 12, one walk, his ERA lowering to 3-3-2, an excellent start for Jesus Lazardo. Don Mattingley turns to Orion Kirking out of the bullpen. So we're in the eighth. Kirkering comes in to take out Lazardo. And quickly, quickly, now, he gets the first two outs. First play, first pitch of the inning, Brett Bateman lines out to Derek Hill. Good start. And then it's Vlad Guerrero, you know, the guy that it's like, hey, we want you in for righty on righty matchup. And what does he do on four pitches? Gets him to fly out to Bryce Harper. And everyone's going okay. We're four outs away from a win. We're finally going to get a win here on alumni weekend. This is going good. I mean, I don't know if you really think that with or want to give that type of uh affirmation, you know, making it a hundred percent the case with someone like Kirkering on the mound, but you feel confident. Two outs on five pitches, and here comes Alejandro Kirk. And base hit and a right. Okay. Gonna have to bear it down here from the stretch. Then Okamoto gets into a seven-pitch battle and ends it with a base hit in to left. Two on, two out, and the tying run coming to the plate in Ernie Clement. And Ernie Clement on a 1-1 sinker that's way inside, he sends it 328 feet out to left. Now, originally with the with the way the camera was going, you thought it was gone. You thought the game was tied right there. But he hits his 28th double, and it's a 5-3 game. And at this point, I am livid. Get him out of the game, bring in someone else, bring in Mesa, bring in someone, bring in Brooks Rayleigh. We need to keep this at a 5-4 Phillies lead. And he's facing Andres Jimenez, a tough out, and he singles Blue Pitt to right, and the game is tied. He finally gets Miles Straw to ground out to Luisa Rice. Um and at this point, you're just going total Monday morning quarterback, but for good reason. For good reason. You can sit there and say it's Monday morning quarterbacking the situation, but why not Jonathan Bolan? I mean, Orion Kirkering has done nothing to earn himself the eighth inning. Jonathan Bolan, as of right now, from the ERA perspective, next to Johan Duran, who's your closer, so you know, he doesn't even really count. Bolin is your next best righty. Kirkering now has a 388 ERA. Bolin has a 281. Why is it Kirkering time in the eighth? Bolin, I would have understood it more had he pitched three days in a row. He hadn't. He went August 5th and 6th against the Nets, pitching an inning each, not allowing a hit, allowing one walk. He pitched on August 8th, the Saturday night before against the Blue Jays with a clean inning. Let him take the eighth. If he makes a mistake, I understand that more than at this point putting Kirkering out there. He stinks. He's so far in his head. He is so far in his head. He has every time he goes out there, he's gripping the baseball too hard. And all he wants to do is throw that stupid sweeper. And I'm sorry, man, if you're going to be a top setup man in the bigs, in the bigs alone, forget about the fact wanting to be on a team that has its eyes set on the postseason. You're going to have to do more than that. And Don Mattingley should know that. And whoever, whether it's him, whether it's someone that's upstairs going, hey, I want Kirkering in for the late innings, they should know that too, and shame on them. Because if that's the way this thing is being managed, which I can't imagine it is, because with I thought the way Rob Thompson managed the bullpen, majority of the time it's going off of the gut while also paying attention to the numbers, and it's not someone from the front office making the call downstairs. I believe there are other baseball organizations that are ran that way, but I don't think the Phillies are, and I don't think Don Mattingley would want would agree to manage that way. Although it wouldn't surprise me if there is input, but that's neither here nor there. The Phillies Bullpen has to be managed better. And you know what the biggest problem I have with this? The Phillies bullpen has been really taxed. Earlier in the year they weren't. When Mattingley first turned took over, remember, the starting pitchers were told you guys can go as long as you want. You're going to pitch into the eighth some nights. And that's what happened. Christopher Sanchez would go hell. We saw Christopher Sanchez pitch complete games. We saw Zach Wheeler go into the ninth. We saw the bullpen not need to be taxed. Guys were given two days off and three days off, and they were fresh. Well, now the innings have caught up to Christopher Sanchez and Zach Wheeler. You're not going to get seven innings out of Nola or Painter anytime soon. Although I would love to see that. But Lozardo went out there yesterday and gave you seven innings. He gave the bullpen a day off. He said, hey, don't worry about it today, guys. I'm going to go seven complete innings. We're going to have a three-run lead, and I'm going to trust that we're going to put the best guy in the best position out of the bullpen, and it's going to be minimum two guys. Hell, could be if they had a big enough of a lead. Maybe someone goes two innings. Whatever it is, we're not going to need to tax the bullpen. And what happened? We're tied at five going into the eighth. Marsh with a one-out single. Bohm walks. They intentionally walk Kyle Schwarber. And then Trey Turner, unfortunately, pops out to Ernie Clement against Trevor Rogers. Similar situation, sort of, to what happened Friday, but this time the Phillies could not play any runs against them. And then to the ninth, we went. Josh Smith, leadoff walk against Joan Duran, then Nathan Luke's single, and give Duron credit because he came back to get Brett Bateman, and then Vlad Guerrero Jr. hit into a double play, fortunately. Trey Turner, who had a tough time fielding the ball from Luisa Raiz at second base, was able to make sure he touched second, get the out of first, and on to the ninth. We went. One, two, three for the Phillies. And we go to the tenth. And Tim Mesa, you know, it's almost a guarantee a run's going to score. It always feels like it. A run's going to score in the top of the tenth, especially with the way the momentum of the game was going. But give Tim Mesa all the credit in the world. Gets Kirk to fly out to Derrick Hill. Moves George Springer to third. Springer who pinched Ran for Vlad Guerrero Jr. Then Okamoto works a walk, so it puts runners at the corners. Alright, well, runners at the corners, hopefully he can get a double play. Didn't need it. Got Ernie Clement to strike out on three pitches, and then gets Andres Jimenez to strike out on five pitches. A terrific job by Tim Mesa to get to the bottom of the tenth. And in the bottom of the tenth, it's almost like, hey, we gotta win. You go out there and you win the game. You want to be the team that goes to the postseason, you win the game. Bryson Stott, Zach Bunts, JT to third. Then they intentionally walk Brandon Marsh, and they get to Alec Bohm. Similar situation to Friday. As Brandon Marsh got to second on defensive indifference. So it's double plays out of the order here. All Boehm needs to essentially do, essentially, is put one where they're not, put one in play, but hit it hard enough that the run from third will score. The runner from third will score. You know, hopefully it sneaks through into the outfield. And what does Boehm do? On a 2-0 pitch, a slider that's actually away, middle, middle away is how I'll call it. He pops out into foul territory to Josh Smith right in front of the Blue Jays dugout. Are you kidding me? See, four years ago, three years ago, hell, five years ago, Alec Bohm would have thought the other way. He would have done what was needed, got the ball in the air to deep right, and Marsh would have scored. And the game would have been over. But he doesn't. And unfortunately, Derek Hill on a first pitch slider flies out to Nathan Lukes. Hill can't pick him up. And you're going, oh my god, this is unbelievable. Now we got to go to the top of the 11th and Brooks Rayleigh comes in. But this is ridiculous. And give Brooks Rayleigh just as much credit as you give Tim Mesa. First pitch to Mallow Straw, he bunts it in the air. Now, granted, Bohm does make a good defensive play. Diving to his right, comes in and makes the catch. Makes up, made up for it, but not really, because the game shouldn't still be being played. Makes the catch. Then Josh Smith grounds out to Brooks Rayleigh. Uh going, it was actually a swinging bunt. Brooks Rayleigh made a terrific play coming off the mound, going to his right, sets his feet, fires to Bohm in time for out number two, and then Nathan Luke's flies out to Derrick Hill with Jimenez moving up to third after the swinging bunt. And you go, wow, that's two innings of getting three outs without allowing a run to score. You know how hard that is to start with a runner at second? That was a terrific job by Brooks Rayleigh and Tim Mesa. And we go to the bottom of the 11th, he'll starts off at second. They intentionally walk Schwarber. But then Trey Turner squares to bunt. And he does a horrible job. He bunts it in the air back to Fisher, who drops the ball, gets the lead runner at third, so Trey's able to reach. Kyle Schwarber busts it to second. I mean, he was moving to second. Just like he was moving to tag out Vlad Guerrero Jr. earlier in the game on that tackle. But regardless, it puts runners at first and second. But honestly, Trey, you know how to bunt. It's not that hard to put one on the ground. To get runners at second and third. Harper walks to load the bases. Go that bat against Fisher. Walks on seven pitches, and he puts it in the hands of Luis Arise. And as Garrett Stubbs comes in to pinch run for Kyle Schwarber on the first pinch, Luis Arrise swings at a fastball up and in and drives it to right, but does not drive it deep enough as Nathan Luke makes a damn good throw to the plate. Garrett Stubbs, who tries to slide head first into Alejandro Kirk. Kirk does a good job not blocking the plate. He didn't block the plate. I know the Phillies challenged afterwards, but he didn't. Gets Stubbs out at the plate, and to the 12th we go. And I think I can speak for everyone when I say this was just about as over as you could get. This game was all she wrote at this point. Because I'm there's no way they're not going to give up a run here in the third inning in a row, with the opposition starting off with a runner-in-scoring position at second base. Caleb Killian comes in, gives up a base hit to Bateman, runners at the corners with nobody out. Then actually, I said earlier that the challenge was in the ninth. The challenge was actually in extras with Trey Turner on whether or not he stepped on second as Jesus Sanchez grounded into the double play and a run scored. So apologies there, I had that mixed up. It was actually in the 12th that Trey Turner bobbled the ball, then stepped on second, and went to first and made sure he got Jesus Sanchez, and there were two outs. Alejandro Kirk pops out to Alec Bohm. Now, off the mound, so that ends the inning, but off the mound, Caleb Killian was grimacing in pain. Cole Hammels gives you a little insight as Killian appeared to injure his, it looked like his oblique. Now, it's been announced that Killian has a strained left oblique and is now on the 15-day IL. Chase Schugert is coming up from AAA. Schugert was sent down for Alan Ron Hell after after having to pitch in extra innings the other night. But Sugert's going to take his place. Now, Cole Hamill said basically diagnosed the injury right away as he saw what Killian was feeling. Kind of a no-no for broadcasters, but hey, it's alumni weekend. Cole Hamill's in the booth. Gives you a little insight there, and you go, great. Yeah, here we go again. You know, that's a huge bummer. Not that Killian's someone that is relied heavily upon out of the bullpen, or at least didn't have that distinction of being someone that would be relied heavily upon out of the bullpen when the Phillies traded for him on Monday, but you don't want to see anyone go down, especially someone with as much big league experience as he has. But to the 12th we went. Luisa Rye starts off at second. And JT Remuto. How many times did we hear throughout the years when we got to this position in extra innings and JT would be at the plate, and they would ask after the game, Rob Thompson, hey, did you think about sacrificing with JT there? And Rob would say, I don't think he's ever sacrificed bunted. I don't think he's ever bunted in his big league career. Well, what does he do here? He squares to bunt and he bunts it beautifully down the third baseline for a base hit, mind you. Moves a rise over to third, and not an out is recorded as JT hits an infield single off the bunt. Singles on a bunt. 28.7 mile per hour, goes seven feet. It went the length of Joel Embiid. And the runners at the corners for Bryson Stott. And Bryson Stott on a 3-2 pitch gets a fastball up and he pulls it into right field for a base hit. Brandon Marsh sacks up JT to third, and then they intentionally walk Alec Bohm. Now Alec Bohm looked like he turned and said something to the Blue. I couldn't tell if he turned and said something to the Blue Jays or if he turned to Derek Hill. And basically because the Phillies, anytime they're intentionally walked, they take it personally. If they honestly, and it's I mean, I'm sure anytime this happens for any big league team, you take it personally. But this started with Gene Segura in September of 22 against the Marlins when they intentionally walked the batter ahead of Gene, I can't remember who it was, to face Gino, and he had a base hit in the right, and it scored Bryce Harper, and the Phillies won in extras. If you ever go back, I mean I I suggest going back and looking at it, it's pretty funny. Turns to the camera, he curses at the camera. He cursed at the Marlins, which is ironic because Tom Paddingley was the manager, but he goes and curses at the Marlins. He said an expletive that I cannot say without being bleeped. But that's what the and if they looked up to him that much, because Boehm has talked about it in the past, if they intentionally walk someone ahead of you, you swing at the first pitch. I don't know why they just don't have Gene Segura as an assistant coach. They should do it. But regardless, Derek Hill, I guess, follows in that same distinction. Now the first pitch. He swung at was actually center cut. It was a slider. He fouled it off. Then on the 0-1 pitch, low in the zone, not at a center cut, but out uh, you know, low and uh down the middle. He swings and drives it past Andres Jimenez into center field, and the Phillies win 7-6. Big moment, big celebration uh behind second base, and a big relief from the Phillies as they win a game that, as I described on social media as such a painful win. I mean, one of the most painful wins you'll ever see, and I have to say this, that this team is really infuriating right now. Because I talked about it on my previous episode. When you think about the last 13 games, so since the first nine out of the All-Star break, where they won three and six at home, you think about the three games in Miami that they were swept, the three games against Baltimore that they took two of three, and then this past homestand where they took three of four from the Nationals and salvaged a game yesterday against the Blue Jays. If the bullpen does its job in the last 13 games, think about this. Dating back to the last game they won against the Yankees, so they won that game, that final game against the Yankees two weeks ago. If Duran saves that game against the Marlins, in which the Phillies offense did a brilliant job coming back for Zach Wheeler, they could have had two wins in a row. Now, I'll give Miami the following game with Sandy on the mound. I'll give them that. The 1-0 loss, Nola pitched, Nola actually did a good job out there for you. But then the next day, Lazardo can't hold on to a 6-0 lead. And then the game after against Baltimore, where they blow up in the sixth and allow the Orioles to come back and win that game. If the Phillies hold on to that win and then win the next two, you're six and one at this point. Dating back to that Yankees finale. Then the homestand against the Nationals, if the bullpen does its job on Wednesday, you sweep 'em. I'll give the Blue Jays Friday's game. But then Saturday, you hold on to that one, you've all of a sudden now split the series than if you win yesterday, you take two of three. And think about it like this. You win all those games, you're twelve and two since that last game against the Yankees. If the bullpen does its job, they've blown so many games late for the Phillies, it's not even funny at this point. It hurts too much to find something sarcastic to say, as Merle Reese would say. This Phillies bullpen, it's ironic. Because when Dave Dombrowski first took over of President of Baseball Ops in 2021, when Hector Narris was your closer, and you needed to get, and then you traded for Ian Hamilton at the deadline. And you had Jose Alvarado in his first year, and he was all over the place. And Connor Brogdon needed to pitch Beginnings. And guys like Kinsler, if you're if you remember his name, Brandon Kinsler, old man Kent Kinsler, who was just uh felt like out there to finish his career on whatever note he needed to finish his career on. And the most confident pitcher you had out of the bullpen was Archie Bradley. I mean, look at some of these names. Sam Kuhnrod was on that team. Hell Ranger Suarez got four saves for you out of the bullpen. He finished 13 games. Bailey Falter came out of the bullpen at times. Brandon Kinsler had a 6'37 ERA. Inyel De Los Santos was asked upon for 26 games. JD Hammer came out of the. I mean, I can go on and on. This was a bad bullpen. But this bullpen feels like that bullpen. And funny enough, this could be Dombrowski's final year with the Phillies, and it's ironic. His bullpen right now is just as bad as when he started. They have to figure something out. They have to be right now, from the time period of yesterday's game ending until now, figuring out a way to change some things up with this bullpen because it just cannot continue. It cannot continue to be this bad for the Phillies. It can't. So what's coming up? Well, again, the Phillies open up the road trip tonight at Bush Stadium against the Cardinals. Game one, St. Louis will send out Hunter Dobbins, who's 2-2 this year with a 3-6-0 ERA, who's traded to the Cardinals in exchange for Wilson Contreras in a trade with the Boston Red Sox. He's been called up several times this year and sent back down in many quote-unquote spot starts. Now he's never faced the Phillies. That bodes really well for him. He's 1-1 with a 3-7-9 ERA and one start and three appearances out of the bullpen at home so far this season. And for the Phillies, they'll send Andrew Painter out there. He's 1-8 with a 6-4-8 ERA. He's never faced the Cardinals. He's 0-3 with a 6-3-5 ERA and six starts this year and one appearance on the road. Now you have to give St. Louis the ticker sways in their favor for this game tonight. Now, game two will feature, and as we actually, as we open play right now for the Phillies, they hold the final wild card spot. They are in lockstep with the Diamondbacks. They're tied, but you got the Padres behind you breathing down your neck. Now, we're not going to forget about the Cubs. We're going to forget about the Braves. The Diamondbacks, they start a series tonight with the Rockies. They should increase their lead for that fifth spot in the wild card when it's all said and done. Now, the Padres, they'll welcome in the Milwaukee Brewers. The NL Central leading Brewers. Hopefully, that bodes well for the Phillies. Now, game two tomorrow night. For the Cardinals, they'll send Andre Pallante on the mound, who's 12-6 with a 3-6-3 ERA this year. He's had a nice breakout season. He's 1-1 with a 4-3-2 ERA and two starts and five appearances for the Phillies since 22. He's 5-6 with a 4-3-4 ERA at home this year. And for the Phillies, they'll send out Christopher Sanchez. And obviously the hopes are that Christopher Sanchez can be just as good as he has been all year long. He's 15-4th, a 2-6-5 ERA. He's pitched 12-3rd innings, giving up three runs on 12 hits with 11 strikeouts and six walks this year. Or six walks, I should say, all time, versus the St. Louis Cardinals. And for Sanchez on the road this year, we know his home splits versus road splits, he's been much better at home. But since the start of the second half, Sanchez just hasn't been the same pitcher, it's felt like. He hasn't been as dominant. He pitched really well a couple weeks ago against the O's, but his last start against the Nats left a little bit to be desired. Hopefully against the Cardinals, he can put it together. But he's 5-3 at a 4-4-8 ERA and ten starts on the road this year. We want to see, of course, him have a Patton Sanchez start. Then in Game 3, which is what hopefully will be a rubber match game, Kyle Leahy will take them out. He's 8-4 at the 3-4-4 ERA this year. He's pitched in four innings versus the Phillies, all out of the bullpen since 2024, given up a run-on four hits with two strikeouts. He's 4-3 at the 3-0 ERA and 12 starts at home this season. Now Leahy, he's had, just like Plante, he's had kind of a breakout season for the Cardinals, making his debut back in 2023. He's kind of come into his own. Zach Wheeler will take the mound for the Philosophes. He's 10-3 with the 2-6-9 ERA. Last year he gave up four runs on seven hits and six innings with three strikeouts and a walk against the Cardinals earlier in that season was back in April. He's 6-1 with the 2-3-1 ERA and 11 starts on the road. Now, Wheeler has not been well, he hasn't been as good in his last couple starts. Hopefully he can give you him and Sanchez can give you a patent Wheeler-Sanche 1-2 punch on the road. But the biggest thing is it's not going to matter if they go out and do that if the bullpen can't finish the job. But at the same time, the Phillies' offense needs to get going. They got to figure out a way. They have to be mentally tough right now, the Phillies do. To lock it in gear and say, you know what? We're going to click on all cylinders right now. We're going to come together as a team right now. We're going to lock it in. We are going to go out there. We're going to play our best baseball on the road because you know what? It's time to bear down here. It's time to get serious. It's time to rely on the experiences that we have over the last four years of making the postseason. We know what it takes to get there. We know the type of baseball we need to play. There's no time like the present to turn it around. Yeah, I'll tell you right now, the Phillies are not a postseason team right now. And anyone that tells you otherwise that have watched this team, they're crazy. They're not playing like it. They're giving games away. They're playing bad fundamental baseball on every single facet of the game. Whether it's pitching, at time starting pitching, whether it's out of the bullpen, whether it's defense, whether it's hitting, situational hitting, you name it. But the only way you can change it around at this point, because yeah, you're not just falling in rhythm. You haven't just kind of since the end of the all-star break and since the beginning of the all-star break, so since the end of the first half and the start of the all-star break, you haven't been playing your best baseball, which does not bode well for a team that really wants to go far in the postseason. Usually those teams that go far in the postseason, they've locked it in at this point. They've pushed themselves forward in the division race. They've started to play good baseball at a certain point to lock in a top wild card spot. Look at the Cubs right now. But you know what? If you want to be that team, you're gonna have to lock it in at some point. I would not bank on the Phillies doing that, but I'm gonna sit here and tell you if they want to do it, they're gonna have to turn it around right now. Thanks everyone for tuning into this episode. We'll be back on throughout the series. I know what everyone's wondering. We're gonna have some Eagles training camp stuff coming up soon. Some Penn State football, end of summer stuff coming up, or rather, fall camp stuff, not end of summer stuff. Fall camp stuff's coming up as well. We'll get into some Flyers talk and Sixers talk as well this week. It's coming, I promise. We'll talk to you then.