Credit: The Good Phight
After a disappointing 21-29 start to a year that was begun with red october returning to the city of brotherly love, the Philadelphia Phillies relieved former world series champion manager Joe Girardi of his duties. The organization promoted Rob Thomson to the managerial position and the team hasn't lost since. Thomson is now 6-0 as the manager of the Phillies.
After sweeping the Angels this past weekend in the team's first series post Girardi, the Phillies traveled to face the Milwaukee Brewers. In game one Ranger Suarez tossed a gem, tossing 7 innings of 2 run baseball on 6 hits with 5 strikeouts. He was able to give the team a chance to win and in the 9th inning that's exactly what happened. Alec Bohm and Matt Vierling hit back to back home runs off Brewers closer Josh Hader in the top of the 9th to give the team a 3-2 lead. The score held up with a shutout inning from Phillies closer Corey Knebel and gave the club a win in the first of this three game set.
In game 2, the Phillies offense exploded. Bryson Stott started off the night with a two run home run in the top of the 3rd to open up the scoring. Rhys Hoskins followed that up with another two run home run a few batters later to push the game to 4-0. Moving to the top of the 5th, Odubel Herrera went deep as well to make the game 5-0. A couple rbi doubles from Phillies left fielder Kyle Schwarber in the top of the 7th and 9th made the score 7-0. Then Bryce Harper two batters later put the exclamation point on the ball game with a monster three run home run to push the game to 10-0. Aaron Nola turned in his best game, tossing 8 shutout innings with 6 strikeouts.
Game 3 of the series was one the Phillies knew that they would be in for a challenge. Facing defending NL Cy Young award winner Corbin Burnes. Burnes had arguably his worst performance of the year, only lasting 4.1 innings throwing 113 pitches. Walks were an issue for Burnes surrendering 4 of them with seemingly every at bat going deep into the count. The story early in this one was making Burnes work and getting to the Brewers bullpen as early as possible. Once the Phillies got to the Brewers bullpen, the ball flew out of the yard with Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, and Odubel Herrera all hitting home runs late in the game. The Phillies completed a second consecutive sweep winning this one 8-3.
After a tough 6 week stretch, the Phillies come home to face the Arizona Diamondbacks. This however is still a team you cannot afford to look past. Arizona took 6 of 7 games from Philadelphia last season and routinely is a thorn in the Phillies side. Can the Phillies ride this 7 game win streak into another series win? We'll find out after this weekend.