© Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Phillies Earn Huge Series Victory Over Cardinals
Typically, the Philadelphia Phillies and Sunday Night Baseball do not mix well, but that wasn't the case on July 3.
The Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals each sent their ace to the mound in hopes to secure a series win. Ultimately, Zack Wheeler out-dueled the 40-year-old Adam Wainwright, tossing seven scoreless innings.
Wainwright was sharp through 5.2 innings, allowing just one run in the fourth inning—a solo shot off the bat of Rhys Hoskins. It was his fourth home run in five games.
The veteran ran into trouble in the sixth, though, allowing Hoskins to reach on a double, a Nick Castellanos RBI single, and a J.T. Realmuto two-run blast. Realmuto's sixth homer of the year gave Philadelphia a 4-0 lead, one they would not relinquish.
When Wheeler exited after 108 pitches thrown, Nick Nelson pitched a clean eighth inning. Corey Knebel came in to face the heart of the St. Louis lineup in the ninth, but he looked stellar.
He got NL MVP frontrunner Paul Goldschmidt to ground out, and followed that up with back-to-back strikeouts of Nolan Arenado and Nolan Gorman to close out the game for the Fightins.
It was a solid team win, and a huge series victory for the Phillies. Wheeler looked superb, the bullpen delivered, Realmuto came up big, and Philadelphia is now 1.5 games back of the third NL Wild Card spot.
Unfortunately, they have off on Fourth of July (what's more American than baseball?), but begin a three-game set with the Washington Nationals on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m.
Cristopher Sánchez will start the game for the Phillies, as the club just lost Ranger Suarez to the 15-day injured list after placing Zach Eflin on there just last week. Still, Philadelphia took four of five games against Washington in June, so the series is in the Phillies' favor, despite being down two of their starters.
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