At the precise moment Kyle Schwarber grounded out to first, ending Thursday afternoon’s disheartening loss to the first-place Braves, the focus of the Phillies season shifted.
Not in a way that was visible to the fans heading unhappily to the parking lots. Not in a way that the Phillies would talk about or maybe even admit to themselves. But the truth is that they were 10 full games behind the division leaders and it was time to re-calibrate expectations.
The new reality began on a damp Friday night against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park. The new reality is that scoreboard watching now means tracking the Marlins and Giants and Dodgers, the teams who currently occupy the postseason openings set aside for NL wild cards. It means keeping an eagle eye on the Brewers, Cubs and Padres who are also part of the scrum hoping to grab one of the three consolation opportunities.
Let the record reflect that the Phillies got off to a great start on the unofficial Opening Night for the beginning of their even more unofficial midseason reboot by beating the Mets, 5-1.
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The stars of the game, from the perspective of the announced crowd of 35,093 which missed no opportunity to boo the visitors, were righthander Taijuan Walker, who was really good, and the Mets defense, which wasn’t.
Walker gave up three hits and one run in his six innings, walking one and striking out five. Shoddy Mets shoddy fielding gave up all the Phillies runs.
In his last 10 starts, since being charged with eight earned runs in 3 1/3 innings at Dodger Stadium on May 1, Walker is 6-1 with a 2.63 earned run average. In his last four starts he’s 4-0. 0.69.
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“He was great again,” said manager Rob Thomson. “Got ahead, threw strikes. Got some soft contact. He’s been a horse for us, he really has. He’s been great. The velocity is up. It’s 94 and there’s life on the fastball. Sinker and cutter are really good. And the velocity makes the split that much better.”
Said Walker: “Pretty much everything was working. (The biggest difference the last four games has been) the velocity. My body is feeling good. When my velocity is up, everything just plays a little bit better. That and mixing my pitches, throwing strikes and getting ahead.”
Three weeks ago, the Phillies were swept by the Mets at Citi Field. Since then, they’ve gone 14-4. New York, on the other hand, has lost 14 of their last 18.
Mets rookie righthander Kodai Senga returned to the scene of one of his best starts where, on May 30, he used his “ghost fork” to hold the Phillies to one hit in seven shutout innings, striking out nine without walking a batter.
Two walks, a single, an error and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first Friday night, however, allowed the Phillies to jump out to an early lead with two unearned runs.
They put the game away with three runs in the sixth that were also gift-wrapped.
With one out, Bryson Stott on third and Alec Bohm on first, Mets manager Buck Showalter brought Josh Walker out of the bullpen to relieve Senga. Brandon Marsh hit up a high pop-up behind the infield that shortstop Francisco Lindor had in his sights. . .before he pulled up and let the ball fall, apparently thinking leftfielder Tommy Pham was going to make the catch. Stott scored. After Edmundo Sosa popped out for what should have been the final out of the inning, Schwarber walked and Trea Turner delivered a two-run single against Jeff Brigham, the third New York pitcher of the inning.
“We got fortunate with the pop-up, but then Trea comes through with the big hit,” Thomson said.
In the meantime, the Braves lost to the Reds so ...
Stop. Don’t go there. Sure, something unexpected could happen. The Braves have clinched nothing yet. Baseball history is full of improbable comebacks. But that shouldn’t be what the Phillies are thinking about right now.
After all, just last year they were the last NL team to qualify for the playoffs and still made it all the way to Game 6 of the World Series.
Harper tossed
Both teams were openly unhappy with home plate umpire Mike Estabrook’s strike zone Friday night, but Phillies designated hitter Bryce Harper was the only players who got ejected.
Harper briefly argued with Estabrook after being called out on strikes in the fifth. As he headed back to the dugout after swinging at strike three in the seventh he said something over his shoulder and was immediately thrown out. He could also have been reacting, in part, to having now gone 22 games since hitting his last home run.
“In general, over the course of the game, I think there were some questionable calls,” Rob Thomson said. “But you’ve got to just absorb them. I understand (Bryce’s frustration). He wants to perform and he wants to win. So I get it.”
Accounting department
Rob Thomson said 20-year-old righthander Andrew Painter, the team’s No. 1 prospect who has been sidelined since spring training with a sprained elbow ligament, threw 30 pitches in the bullpen Friday, is expected to go back-to-back Saturday and could begin a rehab assignment as early as next week.
The hit mistakenly awarded to Atlanta’s Austin Riley on the line drive dropped by Kyle Schwarber in the 10th inning Thursday has been changed to an error. The most obvious impact is that four earned runs that were charged to Phillies reliever Yunior Marte are now unearned, dropping his ERA more than two runs from 8.64 to 6.48.
Up next
RHP Max Scherzer (6-2, 4.04) will face LHP Cristopher Sanchez (0-0, 3.24) Saturday at 4:05 and RHP Carlos Carrasco (2-3, 6.34) will be opposed by RHP Zack Wheeler (6-4, 3.48) in the series finale Sunday at 1:35.
