Fillet o’ Fish: Phillies 2, Marlins 1

Boring, but effective!

Remember at the beginning of this season when national people were talking about potential breakouts for the MLB season? There were several people that named Cristopher Sanchez as one of those possible breakouts thanks to his pitching so well last year, making the All-Star team and such.

Almost as if he had already broken out…

In a rotation where it seems that each pitcher is trying to one up each other with their performances, Sanchez was the latest to twirl a gem for the Phillies, this time going eight strong innings in which he generated 16 ground ball outs and keeping the Marlins offense in check. The only problem was that Edward Cabrera was doing the same to the Phillies, only without the ground ball outs. He still was great for Miami, only ceding ground to the offense once.

It was a good pitcher’s duel to watch. The Marlins struck first in the fifth when a leadoff double by Dane Myers was driven home by a ball hit by Nick Fortes that probably couldn’t have dented the piece of aluminum foil, but goes down as a line drive in the book.

The Phillies answered in the seventh when, with bases loaded, Bryson Stott hit a ball to Connor Norby that was juggled and could only be turned into a force out at third.

It stayed that way until the ninth, thanks to some baserunning fun by Otto Kemp, when Kyle Schwarber decided that that was enough, that Sanchez deserved a win and crushed a ball that would meet them in Philadelphia before they get there.

That lead, now in the hands of apparently new closer Orion Kerkering, looked like it was teetering for a bit thanks to some shoddy defense by Alec Bohm and a single to put men on the corners with two outs, but Kerkering induced a pop up to end the game and give the series to the Phillies.

It’s great that the team has some momentum heading home for a big series with the Mets, apparently one that will decide who is in first place after the weekend. Don’t forget – Apple TV tomorrow!