Philadelphia Phillies Regain Confidence With Massive Victory in Arizona

After two dreadful losses at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Philadelphia Phillies recovered some momentum with an 18-2 victory on Wednesday night.

Author:
Leo Morgenstern
Sep 1, 2022 11:03 AM EDT

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Philadelphia Phillies

"Good teams beat bad teams."

That particular refrain has followed the Philadelphia Phillies around for several years now. In order to be a truly great baseball team, one must be able to beat up on worse competition.

Aside from one embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Chicago Cubs, the Phillies have been pretty good at beating the teams they're supposed to over the past few months. It's why they're playing their best baseball since 2011 and why they're holding a Wild Card spot heading into the final month of the season.

But on Monday and Tuesday night in Phoenix, Philadelphia crumbled. They were thoroughly pounded by the Diamondbacks on back-to-back nights, and in those two games they hardly looked like a team that could hold onto a postseason berth.

On Wednesday night, however, the Phillies turned things around. After two straight games in which they allowed Arizona to score in the double digits, it was Philadelphia's turn for a run-scoring outburst.

The Phillies clobbered the Diamondbacks 18-2, avoiding a sweep and actually managing to outscore Arizona in the series 28-27. They will now head into September with some momentum, which hardly looked possible just 24 hours ago.

It was a true team effort on Wednesday night, as absolutely everyone contributed to the victory. Each player in the starting lineup recorded at least two hits, scored a run, and drove in a run. Plus, everyone who stepped to the plate reached base, including late-inning pinch hitters Garrett Stubbs and Nick Maton.

The offensive standouts of the game were Bryce Harper (3-for-4, 2 BB), Rhys Hoskins (3-for-6, BB, 2 2B), and Brandon Marsh (3-for-6, 3B, 3 RBI), but it really was a family affair. After all, the Phillies managed to score all 18 runs without a single long ball.

On the pitching side of things, Bailey Falter was terrific until he left the game with mild injury concerns. (It's not serious, and he'll be ready for his next start.) He went 6.1 innings and allowed only one run on five hits. It was a welcome surprise after watching the Diamondbacks crush the ball off of Ranger Suárez and Aaron Nola.

Nick Nelson came in to finish the game off, and he too did excellent work, going 2.2 innings and giving up just one run. Falter and Nelson combined to preserve the bullpen after a couple relief-heavy games in a row.

The Phillies will take a much-needed day to regroup on Thursday, prior to heading to the second stop on their West Coast road trip: San Francisco. There, they'll face Gabe Kapler's Giants for the second time this season.