The Phillies returned home last night from their 2nd road trip since the start of the season in 2023. Their opponent was the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies starting pitcher, Ryan Feltner, came into last night’s opening night game of the series with the Phillies with an 8.78 ERA and 0-2 on the year. On paper, it looked as if the Phillies would make quick work of him and score a bunch of runs, as we’ve seen this Phillies offense do a few times this season. To add to this premise, the Rockies brought an 8-game skid into the game against the Phillies, and we had Matt Strahm on the mound, who has been a surprisingly good spot starter for the Phillies with the injuries to both Ranger Suarez and Andrew Painter.
J.T. Realmuto shows frustration on the night with a strikeout and Phillies loss:
Embed from Getty ImagesThat was how it looked on paper anyway, as the Phillies offense couldn’t get too much going in the line of scoring runs against this Rockies team in Game 1 of the series. The Phillies got 11-strikeouts out of Matt Strahm vs the Rockies, but the bats were 1-7 with RISP last night, as the team ended up getting shutout 5-0 last night.
The Phillies just couldn’t find a groove all night, and there were several pitch clock violations during the game against both teams, which is something we haven’t seen too much lately in this early season. Rules are rules though, and the split-second timing now required as part of the rule changes in baseball for 2023 really showed itself last night on the diamond. Baseball used to be a sport of minor tactics between batter and pitcher, but now, with the advent of a 15 and 20-second pitch clock in baseball, that allure of the game has been replaced by a somewhat rushed encounter between batter and pitcher all in the name of perhaps shaving 20-minutes or so off of a baseball game’s normal game time that we’ve always known pre-pitch clock days. Kyle Schwarber led off the pitch clock violation calls by not being ready in the batters box on time to receive the pitch.
Phillies player Nick Castellanos got a hit last night, but it was not a double. Castellanos still leads the MLB in doubles as of the end of April 20th with 9 2-base hits, here is a graphic that shows where Castellanos has been most effective hitting the baseball so far.
After the win last night by the Colorado Rockies, they rose to a record of 6-14 with only the 29th-best ERA out of 30 MLB baseball teams, hopefully, the Phillies can do better in the remaining 3-games of this series:
Strikingly, the Phillies are now 2-7 vs. sub-.500 baseball teams with the loss last night. On a night that saw the Phillies celebrate Jackie Robinson Day as the team was on the road for the day that is celebrated across baseball on April 15th, so if you’re on the road on that day, your team actually celebrates the holiday twice. The Phils wore their old-school baby blue road jerseys last night on the field.
The Phillies offense managed to get 6 hits last night, but couldn’t score any runners and anytime that happens, it makes it extremely difficult to win baseball games. Phillies manager, Rob Thomson explained after the game that Rockies pitcher, “threw the ball well.”
There was a big crowd on hand last night at Citizens Bank Park, 35,062 were taking in a Thursday night baseball game in South Philadelphia. The game time temperature was a perfect 75 degrees for this game. Pregame, Bryce Harper took some field work at first base again yesterday. Harper has an appointment in early May to see the surgeon in LA that performed his surgery to access his availability to return to the game.
C.J. Cron had a great game for the Rockies last night, going 2-4 with 2 RBI, on the TV broadcast, Phillies color announcer and former GM, Ruben Amaro was just saying how Cron has some pop in his bat, and shortly after, Cron deposited a home run over the left field wall to give the Rockies a 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning. Here’s a graphic from Twitter on the HR:
#Rockies 2 @ #Phillies 0 [T1-2o]:
— Home Run Tracker (@DingerTracker) April 20, 2023
C.J. Cron homers (5): fly ball to LF (2-run)
Hit: 398ft, 101.1mph, 27°?
Pitch: 87.5mph Slider (LHP Matt Strahm, 2)
Didn’t get a chance to watch the game last night? Check out the condensed game here:
