The Phillies’ offense looked great on Saturday afternoon. They jumped all over Cal Quantrill and a series of Marlins’ relievers to score 11 runs. Unfortunately, the Phillies’ relief pitching – particularly Jordan Romano – was almost as bad. The result was a much closer than it should have been 11-10 win.
It took the Phillies a couple of innings to get going, but a four-run third highlighted by Max Kepler’s two-run double started the offensive onslaught.
RBI doubles by Bryson Stott and Trea Turner upped the Phillies’ run total to seven in the fourth.
RBIs by Stott and Johan Rojas got them to nine in the fifth.
And RBIs by Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber finished off the scoring in the seventh.
The entire lineup had success. Every player besides Nick Castellanos had a hit, and he chipped in a sacrifice fly. Turner had four hits, while Stott and Rojas had three each.
That should have made this an easy victory. But the pitching didn’t cooperate with that narrative. Taijuan Walker started the game, and although he pitched effectively enough, he was removed after four innings. There was speculation that he suffered an injury, but after the game Rob Thomson said that the Phillies’ long at bats caused Walker to stiffen up and he was removed as a precaution.
Rob Thomson mentioned that Taijuan Walker’s shoulder tightened up in between innings today.
They felt with the long wait times (Due to the high scoring innings), that they would play it safe and go to the bullpen.
— Matt Watson (@MattWatsonMedia) April 19, 2025
The bullpen needed to cover five innings, and at the moment, that’s not a comfortable situation no matter how many runs the offense scores.
After a scoreless inning by Matt Strahm, Carlos Hernandez gave up three in the sixth. (To be fair, if the Phillies had a more mobile left fielder than Kyle Schwarber, the damage might have been limited to one.) Joe Ross’ two innings weren’t clean, but he kept the Marlins off the board, meaning Jordan Romano only needed three outs to protect the seven-run lead.
Unlike some of his other shaky outings, Romano’s velocity was strong. And he was pitching strikes. The problem was too many of those strikes were right over the plate, and the Marlins weren’t missing them. By the time he was pulled from the game, the Marlins had hit two home runs, and the seven-run lead was down to one. (The only mild defense I can offer is that lackadaisical defense by Alec Bohm allowed Javier Sonoja to beat out an infield single that would have otherwise ended the game.)
The Phillies were forced to put in Jose Alvarado, who quickly recorded the 27th out to end the drama.
The Phillies will go for the sweep on Easter behind Jesus Luzardo. Hopefully, Luzardo can pitch deep into the game, because the fewer innings the bullpen is asked the cover, the better their chances of victory.
