Facing a bullpen game against the Washington Nationals should have resulted in a lot of offense for the Phillies. But despite drawing 13 walks, the Phillies’ offense couldn’t seem to get going, and could only manage to score three runs. Fortunately, those three runs were plenty because Zack Wheeler was dominating, and led the Phillies to a 3-0 win.
The Phillies had a chance to establish a sizeable lead in the first. Facing reliever Jared Simpson, with one out, three straight batters walked, and Alec
Bohm brought one of them home with an RBI single. Luis Arraez walked to force another run home, which prompted the exit of Simpson. Riley “The Great” Cornelio entered and retired J.T. Realmuto and Brandon Marsh to end the threat.
I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but the Nationals’ pitchers spent the majority of the game not throwing strikes, and the Phillies not making them pay for it. Yes, they walked 13 times overall, but it probably could have been even more than that as the Phillies’ batters bailed them out by repeatedly swinging at balls out of the zone.
The offense might have been frustrating, but Zack Wheeler was not. Whatever issues he was dealing with a few weeks ago seem to be behind him as he was in complete control on Wednesday. In his seven innings, he gave up just four hits, and two of those were infield singles.
The Phillies gave him a little more breathing room in the seventh when Bryce Harper singled and Arraez hit a double to make it 3-0.
Unfortunately, a double play kept them from scoring any more in that inning, and another double play in the ninth, killed a bases loaded, one out threat.
It ended up not mattering. Jose Alvarado came in after Wheeler, and while it’s too much to hope that he’d pitch a clean inning, he was able to work around the one walk he issued to deliver a scoreless frame.
Jhoan Duran was asked to preserve the shutout, and he did so with little difficulty, striking out two of the three batters he faced.
At this point in the season, every win is important, and this win allowed the Phillies to creep closer to securing a playoff spot. They’ll attempt to creep a little closer on Thursday when they travel to New York to begin a four-game series against the Mets.
