As is tradition, Taijuan Walker struggled through a first inning featuring the expected Home Run, this one a no doubter to Ketel Marte, and a sinking feeling that perhaps this game would get out of hand quickly. Corbin Carroll scored with 2 outs in the First to stake Arizona to the early lead.
After that Tai settled in. He wasn’t exactly dominant, but he was effective. Scattering a couple of hits the rest of the way through 4 innings and somehow finishing with less than 60 pitches. Other than the Home
Run he mostly kept the contact of the ground ball variety and allowed the Offense to find its own rhythm and get back in the game. It took a while, but boy did the offense get there eventually.
Alec Bohm hit pretty well on his return from the DL. Starting this offense off with a sharp Double to Right Center with Marsh on First and running, he easily came around to score to cut the lead in half. The Phillies tied things up in the 5th with a solo Bader tater that landed about 5 rows back in Left. Bader is not a guy known for his Power and has been mostly a glove first backup throughout his career. He’s suddenly 1993 Lenny Dykstra at the plate and it’s probably not sustainable, but damn it’s fun.
The Phillies grabbed the lead for keeps in the 6th with a seeing eye single on the left side and Marsh (he scored a lot tonight) came round and scored without a slide. The Phillies added 2 runs in the 8th when Casty homered into the D-backs bullpen with Bohm on base. They then piled it on in the 9th after a Walk to Harper and a JT Double, Marsh got an IBB. That brought up Bohm blooped a ball just about off his hands into shallow Center scoring JT and Bryce. Casty then came up and dropped a slightly better hit ball also just about off his hands into shallow Center, scoring Marsh easily. Max Lazar then came in and made it look easy with a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th.
Before wrapping, I should also give the other Walker his flowers. He came out of the pen and gave 3 innings of 1 hit ball before struggling a bit in the 8th with a a few well his out, a well hit Single and 2 Walks. The Phillies took him out with 2 outs in the 8th in favor of well known lock down reliever Tanner Banks who ended the rally with a whimpering pop out to Stott.
A game where the non-stars of the team mostly were the ones who got the job done.
