PHOENIX\u00a0 \u2013 Rob Thomson has said in the past that he is a constant scoreboard watcher for out-of-town games.<\/p>\n
He probably didn\u2019t like what he saw Saturday. Not only did his Phillies drop a 4-3 decision to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, the Milwaukee Brewers won their game with the St. Louis Cardinals and pulled three games ahead of the Phillies for the top seed in the National League.<\/p>\n
The Phillies pulled out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Harrison Bader walked on four pitches to start off the game and sprinted home on a double by Kyle Schwarber off Arizona starter Zac Gallen. Schwarber moved to third on a groundout by Bryce Harper then score on J.T. Realmuto\u2019s sacrifice fly to deep center.<\/p>\n
Arizona tied the game 2-2 with solo runs in the first and third off Nola, but he was given the lead back in the fourth when Alec Bohm homered to center for a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m just getting through the ball better, not cutting my swing off and just kind of the way I feel. Just feels getting through the ball better,\u201d said Bohm. \u201cFor a little while there I was just kind of stuck. Just keep building on the consistency of it. Today when I swung I put the ball in play which is more on par for what I do. When I\u2019m good, when I decide to swing at a pitch, and make the right decision, the ball is getting put in play.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the manager said, a lot of good things despite a loss that dropped them to 92-63.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice to see Schwarber get a couple of hits, the double to left-center was a good sign,\u201d said Thomson. \u201cBohm is swinging the bat well, Stott had a couple base hits, great at-bat in the ninth. Lot of good things today.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Diamondbacks got to Nola in the sixth when, with one out, Blaze Alexander doubled off the wall in centerfield and scored a batter later when James McCann doubled to right-center. Tanner Banks relieved Nola and struck out pinch-hitter Tim Tawa, but Ildemaro Vargas blooped a single just over the head of shortstop Bryson Stott and Arizona grabbed a 4-3 lead.<\/p>\n
An error by third baseman Alexander on a ball hit by Otto Kemp and a walk to Bryson Stott by Gallen gave the Phillies two men on with two out in the seventh, but Harrison Bader grounded into a fielder\u2019s choice to end that threat.<\/p>\n
The Phillies got a pair of runners on again in the eighth when Kyle Schwarber led off with a single but was forced at second on a great play by Geraldo Perdomo who dove and snagged a Bryce Harper grounder to force Schwarber at second. Harper advanced to third on a single to right by Realmuto, but Brandon Marsh struck out looking and Bohm flew out softly to center.<\/p>\n
Should the Phillies need a fourth starter in the playoffs Nola helped himself on Saturday, if there is indeed a competition for that spot between him and Walker Buehler. Nola went 5 1\/3 innings and gave up seven hits, four earned runs, a pair of walks and struck out 4 while throwing 55 of his 84 pitches for strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could have been a little more aggressive, a lot better than last outing,\u201d said Nola. \u201cBody feels good. I\u2019m 100 percent finally. I feel great. My arm feels good, so overall I feel really good. They\u2019ve got a pretty good lineup. They\u2019re scrappy, hit the ball both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he was pretty good,\u201d said Thomson. \u201cEncouraging. I thought his fastball command was good, 93, 94. Landed his curveball early in counts and behind in counts, so that was a good sign. Yeah, 65 percent strikes, got some whiffs. It was good.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was really encouraging to me just because his fastball command, velocity was up and he held it for most of the game. I\u2019m not sure if there\u2019s not some fatigue setting in, just because he hasn\u2019t had a full season. Sometimes that\u2019s good. Really, with the amount of starts he\u2019s had he\u2019s still kind of building back. I don\u2019t know whether there\u2019s some fatigue setting in but I liked where he was at today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallen, the Bishop Eustace product, kept his hot pitching streak alive by picking up the win as he improved to 13-14 on the season. In his last 10 starts, he is 6-2 with a 2.82 ERA after giving up three earned runs in seven innings to the Phillies.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis secondary pitch was really good,\u201d said Thomson. \u201cThe changeup to lefties, the curveball to righties and lefties. Really good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u00a0 \u2013 Rob Thomson has said in the past that he is a constant scoreboard watcher for out-of-town…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":243408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,35360,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-243407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-phillies-news","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115241201848442088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}