Captain Jack's Phillies Postgame

Philadelphia Phillies 5, Detroit Tigers 0 at Comerica Park, a two-hit shutout and a series win going into the All-Star break. Zack Wheeler out-duels Tarik Skubal head to head, six innings, two hits, no runs, ten strikeouts, and improves to ten and one with a two thirteen E.R.A. José Alvarado, Orion Kerkering, and Jonathan Bowlan finish it without allowing a hit, fourteen strikeouts as a staff. J.T. Realmuto, hitting two-oh-six on the season, gets plunked in the third and scores, then clears the bases with a three-run double in the sixth after Detroit intentionally walks Brandon Marsh to face Derek Hill, who strikes out looking. Hill, last night's hero, goes oh for four with four strikeouts. Bryce Harper's error comes on a ball that goes through a hole in his glove. Cristopher Sánchez is announced as the National League's All-Star Game starter for Tuesday. The Phillies go into the break fifty-four and forty-three, a game and a half back of Atlanta, holding a wild card. The show announces it's being upgraded over the break.

Philadelphia Phillies 4, Detroit Tigers 2 at Comerica Park, a bounce-back win over a Detroit club that had won eight of its last ten. Derek Hill reaches on a third-inning throwing error and then steals second, steals third, and scores on a Trea Turner sacrifice fly, then singles in a run in the fourth and steals second again, three stolen bases in one night and his first three as a Phillie. J.T. Realmuto's two-run double off Casey Mize breaks it open. Cristopher Sánchez gives up ten hits and somehow allows only two runs across seven innings with seven strikeouts, picking off Matt Vierling in the first and getting two double plays behind him. Jhoan Duran closes it on eight pitches, three fastballs at a hundred miles an hour. Spencer Torkelson takes four pitches without swinging, gets rung up, challenges it, and the computer backs the umpire. The Phillies improve to fifty-three and forty-three, two back of Atlanta, holding a wild card, with the rubber game tomorrow before the All-Star break.

Philadelphia Phillies 2, Detroit Tigers 10 at Comerica Park, the third blowout loss of a nine-game road trip. Aaron Nola turns in his best start in a while, five innings, two runs, eight strikeouts on eighty-four pitches, and gets pulled in a two-two tie he never gets to defend. Derek Hill is the whole offense, three for four with a solo homer and an RBI single, three of the team's four hits. Then the bullpen comes apart, Tim Mayza gives up five runs in the sixth with a balk and a throwing error, Max Lazar surrenders two homers in the seventh to Colt Keith and Spencer Torkelson, and backup catcher Garrett Stubbs throws a perfect eighth on four pitches. Kevin McGonigle, a Pennsylvania kid, takes Nola deep for a two-run shot, and the Tigers win their sixth straight. The Phillies fall to fifty-two and forty-three, three and a half back of Atlanta, tied with Miami, still holding a wild card.

Philadelphia Phillies 1, Cincinnati Reds 0 at Great American Ball Park, a rubber-game shutout built on one run and three pitchers. Jesús Luzardo goes seven innings, allows two hits, walks two, and strikes out eleven on ninety-six pitches. Brady Singer matches him for seven and a third before the Phillies finally break through in the eighth: Gabriel Rincones Jr. is hit by a pitch, Derek Hill pinch-runs, J.T. Realmuto moves him to second on a groundout, and Justin Crawford drives a hundred-and-five mile an hour ground ball into right field to score him. Jonathan Bowlan handles the eighth and Jhoan Duran survives a single, a stolen base, and a hit batsman in the ninth to close it out, touching a hundred point six. Bryson Stott doubles for the sixteenth time and turns a spinning play in the fifth. The Phillies win the series two games to one and climb to fifty-two and forty-two, three back of Atlanta, tied with a red-hot Miami club that has won six in a row.

Cincinnati Reds 11, Philadelphia Phillies 5 at Great American Ball Park, a bullpen game that came apart in a single inning. Alan Rangel opens and takes the loss, going three and a third with five strikeouts but surrendering a Noelvi Marte solo homer to start a fourth inning that turned into a demolition. Tanner Banks relieves him and gives up four hits and three home runs on seventeen pitches, back-to-back-to-back shots by Elly De La Cruz, Sal Stewart, and JJ Bleday. Four Reds homers in the frame. José Alvarado walks three and gives up four runs in the sixth, the last three on a bases-clearing Noelvi Marte double. Sal Stewart homers twice. Chase Burns wins it despite six walks and a hundred and six pitches in five innings. Philadelphia's bright spots are Justin Crawford, who legs out a hundred and five mile an hour ground ball into an RBI triple and steals a base, Kyle Schwarber's thirty-second home run, and J.T. Realmuto's seventh. Realmuto also takes a backwards Volpe against Burns in the second. The Phillies fall to fifty-one and forty-two, three games back of Atlanta and now tied with Miami, with the rubber game of the series tomorrow in Cincinnati.

Philadelphia Phillies 4, Cincinnati Reds 1 at Great American Ball Park, a Zack Wheeler masterpiece that pulls the Phillies within two games of the division. Wheeler goes seven innings, allows four hits and one run, walks nobody, and strikes out fourteen to tie his career high. Kyle Schwarber crushes his thirty-first home run, a two-run shot to right-center off Andrew Abbott in the third, after Trea Turner had plated the first run on a groundout; Edmundo Sosa adds a sacrifice fly in the eighth for the fourth run. Jhoan Duran closes it out touching a hundred and one on the gun. Orion Kerkering nearly gives it back with a bases-loaded eighth that gets both infield coach Bobby Dickerson and pitching coach Caleb Cotham ejected before Jonathan Bowlan escapes. The umpiring crew is overturned on eight of eleven challenges, home plate ump Malachi Moore losing six of seven at the automated zone. Sal Stewart takes a backwards Volpe against Wheeler in the first. Philadelphia climbs to fifty-one and forty-one, two back of Atlanta and a game up in the wild card, with a hot Miami club three back and breathing.

Kansas City Royals 15, Philadelphia Phillies 1 at Kauffman Stadium, a getaway-day beating that got out of hand before the top of the order came up twice. Cristopher Sánchez is rocked for nine runs on twelve hits in three and a third, the Royals bat around in a six-run first, and Kansas City scores in every single inning. Luke Maile, Salvador Perez, Lane Thomas, and Tyler Tolbert all homer, Tolbert adds his first career five-hit game, and by the eighth Garrett Stubbs is lobbing forty-mile-an-hour eephus pitches in mop-up. The Phillies pile up seventeen baserunners on ten hits and seven walks and cash exactly one, an Alec Bohm double in the first. Kyle Schwarber gets ejected in the sixth arguing a check swing. Philadelphia slips to fifty and forty-one, the wild-card lead trimmed to a single game, and the run differential flips from plus seven to minus seven in one afternoon.

Kansas City Royals 5, Philadelphia Phillies 2 at Kauffman Stadium, a game the Phillies lost in spite of Aaron Nola, not because of him. Nola throws seven innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts, no walks, and strikes out the side in the seventh, but the offense manages just two runs against Luinder Avila and the Royals bullpen. Philadelphia claws within one at 3-2 in the seventh on a Garrett Stubbs forceout, then Seth Johnson walks two in the eighth and Salvador Perez rips a two-run double off Kyle Backhus to salt it away. Bryson Stott triples and scores both Phillies runs, Bobby Witt Jr. swipes his thirtieth bag, and the home-plate crew has a rough night at the office. Philadelphia slips to fifty and forty, still three back of Atlanta and a game and a half up in the wild card.

Philadelphia Phillies 6, Kansas City Royals 1 at Kauffman Stadium on the Fourth of July, a wire-to-wire win the Phillies never trailed in. Jesús Luzardo throws six innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts and no walks, and the bullpen of Jonathan Bowlan, Orion Kerkering, and Tim Mayza closes it out with three scoreless. The offense does its damage on the long ball off Michael Wacha: J.T. Realmuto and Gabriel Rincones Jr. go back-to-back in the fourth, and Alec Bohm crushes a 444-foot solo shot to center in the sixth. Rincones adds an RBI double, Trea Turner scores on an Erceg wild pitch, and the Phillies improve to fifty and thirty-nine, three back of Atlanta but a game and a half up in the wild card.

Pittsburgh Pirates 6, Philadelphia Phillies 1 at Citizens Bank Park, a noon start in triple-digit heat, and the Phillies split the four-game series with a flat afternoon. Alan Rangel gives four scoreless innings on three hits and four walks, escaping bases-loaded trouble in the third, but the offense manages just four hits against Jared Jones and the Pirates bullpen game, scoring only on a Bryce Harper double in the first. The Phillies bullpen coughs up six unanswered — Esmerlyn Valdez drives in three, Endy Rodríguez and Nick Gonzales homer late, and José Alvarado takes the loss. Philadelphia falls to forty-nine and thirty-nine, back three games behind Atlanta but still two and a half up in the wild card.