PITTSBURGH \u2014 Whatever you want to call it \u2014 the \u201cBattle of Pennsylvania,\u201d the \u201cTurnpike Series\u201d or the series once defined by the Phillies\u2019 now-extinct television score bug \u2014 Friday evening at PNC Park was wild.<\/p>\n
For most of the night, Pittsburgh had looked to put its foot down in MLB’s Rivalry Weekend opener.<\/p>\n
The Pirates ambushed Aaron Nola in a six-run third inning, but the Phillies did not let the night stay there. Kyle Schwarber homered twice, Bryce Harper, who collected four hits, tied it in the ninth and Philadelphia completed an 11-9 extra-inning win over the Pirates.<\/p>\n
It was the second time in a week the Phillies erased a six-run deficit. Last Friday against the Rockies, they tied the game in the eighth before falling in extras.<\/p>\n
This time, they finished it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just never feel like we\u2019re out of it or down,\u201d Harper said. \u201cDonnie came out to make a pitching change… he said, \u2018We\u2019re going to come back.\u2019 And I believed him. I had that notion too. I feel like, as a team, that\u2019s who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillies have played like it lately, too.<\/p>\n
Schwarber\u2019s first two-run homer came in the fifth, cutting the deficit to 6-2. His second came in the seventh, making it 8-5.<\/p>\n
The second blast kept the Phillies close enough for the ninth to matter.<\/p>\n
Pirates closer Gregory Soto loaded the bases and faced Schwarber with the Phillies still down three. He never gave him a pitch to hit.<\/p>\n
Four pitches. Four balls. 8-6.<\/p>\n
Schwarber did not chase the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I got 2-0 there, it\u2019s really shrinking the zone,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cOnce I get 3-0 there, I was happy with the take. I\u2019m not going to swing 3-0 in that situation, just with keeping constant pressure on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper stepped in next with the bases still loaded and lined a two-run single to tie the game. A six-run deficit had become an 8-8 game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a grand slam,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cBut I\u2019m happy we tied that game up.\u201d<\/p>\n
In extras, Brandon Marsh uncorked a run-scoring double, Bryson Stott followed with a single and Rafael March\u00e1n, who entered the night hitting .074, delivered a two-run hit to make it 11-8. Philadelphia tallied four consecutive hits to begin the top of the 10th.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt really good for him to get that hit,\u201d Mattingly said of March\u00e1n. \u201cHe\u2019s in a tough spot. J.T. catches a lot. We\u2019ve caught Stubby with Nola twice now. It\u2019s tough when you\u2019ve got three catchers. He\u2019s such a worker, and you don\u2019t want him to lose confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comeback saved the Phillies from a night that was trending toward another hard look at the back half of their rotation.<\/p>\n
Nola entered with a 5.14 ERA and did not help himself in his ninth start of the season. The right-hander has never been built on top-end velocity, but now, the issue is command and sequencing \u2014 especially to left-handed hitters \u2014 and the damage with runners on base.<\/p>\n
The six-run third captured all of it.<\/p>\n
After two scoreless innings, Nola ran into trouble. It started with a leadoff single from Konnor Griffin, one of baseball\u2019s top rookies. Griffin took a tough 2-2 knuckle curve past Alec Bohm at third. It was not a bad pitch.<\/p>\n
Then came a six-pitch walk, with Nola showing little feel for his offspeed stuff. The Pirates moved both runners over with a sacrifice bunt, bringing Oneil Cruz to the plate.<\/p>\n
Nola entered the start with left-handed hitters slashing .322\/.404\/.511 against him, and opponents have continued stacking their lineups with lefties and switch-hitters. Pittsburgh had six in the order Friday.<\/p>\n
Nola fell behind Cruz, 2-1, then landed a low-and-away changeup for a strike. He followed with a sinker that missed up and in. The Pirates\u2019 center fielder drove it up the middle for a two-run single. 2-0, Pirates.<\/p>\n
After a mound visit, Nola faced lefty Brandon Lowe. He fell behind 2-0, hung a knuckle curve for a foul ball, then left a 92.4 mph four-seamer middle-up. Lowe drove it into the tall right-field seats. 4-0, Pirates.<\/p>\n
Nola got ahead of Bryan Reynolds, 0-2, but left a cutter up in the zone for a single. Then Marcell Ozuna, a former Brave with plenty of experience against Nola, worked the count full after falling behind 1-2.<\/p>\n
Nola went back to his four-seamer, this one at 93.3 mph but up in the zone. Ozuna unloaded on it into the left-center field bullpen, where it landed in a traffic cone. 6-0, Pirates.<\/p>\n
By the time Nola walked off the mound an inning later, his ERA had climbed to 5.91. The fastball location bothered him most.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose two were right down the [middle],\u201d Nola said. \u201cJust location with it and some bad counts. Obviously, when I\u2019m behind in a count, I was right over the plate. They did what they were supposed to do with those pitches right down the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nola has a runners-on-base problem. Going back to the start of last season, he has made 26 starts. With runners on, he has allowed 69 hits and posted a 12.22 ERA, the fourth-highest mark in the Majors in that span among pitchers with at least 25 starts.<\/p>\n
He knows the early traffic has made the climb harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially when you have three walks today and two to start off the inning,\u201d Nola said. \u201cIt definitely makes it the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he was the first one in the clubhouse to greet teammates after the final out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a great win,\u201d Nola said. \u201cThe guys battled the whole game. Obviously, again, something else by the bullpen. Big plays by the defense and big hits, timely hitting, too. I didn\u2019t give them too much of a cushion early on, obviously, but they never quit.\u201d<\/p>\n
On this night, the lineup made sure Nola\u2019s inning did not define the game. The heart of the order carried them there.<\/p>\n
Schwarber has now homered nine times in his last eight games. He is at 20 homers for the season and became just the eighth player ever to do so in the first 45 games. And he’s the first Phillie to do so since Cy Williams in 1923.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a different cat,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cHe\u2019s dangerous all the time. It doesn\u2019t matter, really, lefties or righties. If they make mistakes, what he\u2019s looking for, he makes you pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schwarber did not make much of the individual run. His focus went back to the way it has connected to wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just happy that we\u2019re finding a way to win games,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cSure, do you want to have success at the plate and do a lot of positive things? Yes. But it means way more when it correlates with wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Led by their two sluggers, the Phillies continue to show an innate ability to fight under Don Mattingly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Whatever you want to call it \u2014 the \u201cBattle of Pennsylvania,\u201d the \u201cTurnpike Series\u201d or the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":801397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,64094,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-801396","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-analysis","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\/116586303171869501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801396","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=801396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}