Rookie Zac Gallen and Dbacks shut down Phillies in Arizona

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South Jersey's Zac Gallen shut down the Phillies offense

The Arizona Diamondbacks (58-57) defeated the Philadelphia Phillies (59-55) by a score of 6-1 on Wednesday night at Chase Field in Phoenix. The victory was a second straight for the hosts after the Phillies had taken the opener, giving the series to the Dbacks, who took four of the six match-ups between the two teams this year.

With the victory, Arizona moves back above the .500 mark on the season and pulls to within 1.5 games of the final National League Wildcard playoff spot. The Phillies are now tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for that second NL Wildcard berth, though Milwaukee has one more loss.

This was a game in which the visiting Phillies simply failed to show up to play in any way. The offense generated just five hits on the night, going 0-3 with runners in scoring position.

The Dbacks scored twice each in the 3rd, 4th and 8th innings to secure the victory. In the 3rd, a hit batsman, a walk, a single, and a sacrifice fly put the home team in front. In the 4th it was three singles and then the first RBI in the career of Arizona starter Zac Gallen that got the runs home.

Gallen’s RBI came on a poor play by Scott Kingery, who continues to be played out of position by the Phillies, this time at third base.

With runners at first and third and one out, Gallen laid down a bunt that was fielded by Kingery, who opted to throw to first base to get Gallen while the runner at third, Nick Ahmed, was right behind him. Kingery could have been more situationally aware were he a natural or more experienced third baseman, pump-faking to first and turning to get Ahmed in an easy rundown.

Phillies visit the Arizona desert for key series with host Diamondbacks

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Chase Field will be hot, inside and out, for Phils and Dbacks

The Philadelphia Phillies (58-53) are tied for the second of two National League Wildcard playoff positions as they take on the Arizona Diamondbacks (56-56) in a three-game series starting on Monday night at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

The Dbacks 2019 regular season has gone much as the Phillies own season, see-sawing back and forth between control of one of those NL Wildcard spots and then sitting just on the outside looking in at a possible postseason berth.

Victories in 10 of 14 games at the start of June lifted the Dbacks from fourth place to second place in the National League West Division. But then Arizona dropped six straight, and the club has pretty much tread water ever since.

At the MLB trade deadline, general manager Mike Hazen was a busy man. He made four trades on July 31, highlighted by a deal in which he dealt away the club’s pitching ace, Zack Greinke, to the Houston Astros for a four-prospect package.

Hazen also brought in two new arms for the rotation in veteran Mike Leake from Seattle and young Zac Gallen from Miam. Both of those pitchers will make their debut with the Dbacks in this series.

The Arizona offensive attack has been fairly solid this year, currently ranking ninth in all of Major League Baseball by scoring 5.21 runs per game. That is almost a half-run per game better than the 16th ranked Phillies. The Dbacks hitters rank 5th in the National League in both batting average and OPS, and have the fourth-fewest strikeouts in the league.

On the mound, Arizona pitching ranks 5th in the National League in batting average against and sixth in strikeouts. An area where the club truly excels is on defense, where they are by far the top-ranked defensive unit in baseball according to Fangraphs. That helped the Dbacks finish 7th in the August 1 MLB Power Rankings here at Phillies Nation.

These two teams met once earlier this season, with Arizona taking two of three games at Citizens Bank Park in the second week of June by two very different methods. They crushed the ball in a 13-8 victory in the opener, then received a gem from Merrill Kelly, who pitches the opener this time around, in a 2-0 victory in that June series finale. The Phillies won the middle contest by a 7-4 score.

Dbacks and Phillies combine for MLB record 13 home runs in 13-8 win for Arizona

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Eduardo Escobar's big night helped power Dbacks past Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies (37-29) are no longer all alone in first place in the National League East Division standings. After being crushed by a 13-8 score on Monday night by the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks (35-32) at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies now find themselves tied at the top with the Atlanta Braves.

This marks the first time since April 25 that the Phillies were not at the top of the division by themselves. The Braves crushed the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight in Atlanta by 13-7 to earn the tie. It was a fourth consecutive win for the Braves, the fifth win in a row for the Dbacks, and the Phillies second straight loss.

The Phillies and Braves are set to meet this coming weekend down in Atlanta in a key mid-season series, the first meeting between the clubs since the Phillies swept the Braves in the first series of the season back in late March.

The vast majority of the 21 runs scored by the two teams came via the long ball. The two clubs combined for a Major League Baseball record 13 home runs in this contest. Unfortunately for the home side and their fans, most of those were slugged by the visitors.

Arizona jumped all over Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff (3-4) about as hard as you can jump on a pitcher. The Dbacks first three batters – Jarrod Dyson, Ketel Marte and David Peralta – all homered.

Credit Eickhoff in the immediate aftermath of that potentially demoralizing opening. He settled down to retire the next nine straight Arizona batters as the Phillies slowly fought back with solo runs in each of their first three at-bats to get back to even.

Jean Segura‘s sixth home run of the season got the Phillies on the board in the home 1st inning. In the 2nd, Scott Kingery ripped a one-out triple and scored on a ground out by Maikel Franco to make it 3-2. They tied it up in the 3rd when Rhys Hoskins singled home Segura, who had reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second base.

Arizona Diamondbacks bring desert heat to South Philly

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Dbacks tickets could still be hot sellers in Phoenix this summer

The Philadelphia Phillies (37-28) are 5-1-1 over their last seven series, with only a sweep at the hands of the host Los Angeles Dodgers showing as a black mark over their last month of play. They lead the NL East Division standings by one game over the Atlanta Braves.

To close out a short home stand, the Phillies welcome in the Arizona Diamondbacks (34-32) of the NL West Division to Citizens Bank Park for three games to open this week. The Dbacks are winners of four straight games, and now sit 2.5 games behind Atlanta for the final NL Wildcard playoff berth.

Over the first month or so of the season, the Diamondbacks were as hot as the Arizona desert in mid-summer. They bolted out to a 20-13 start and were within a game of the division lead.

But the club won just eight of their next 25 games to fall below the .500 mark, consistently dropping further and further behind the Dodgers in the standings. Even with that four-game current win streak, the Dbacks still trail the Dodgers by 11 games.

While their rivals in Los Angeles appear to be well on their way to a seventh consecutive division crown, Arizona remains squarely in the National League Wildcard race as they fight to reach the playoffs for just the third time in this decade. So, they will certainly pose a challenge to the Phillies, who are looking to return to those playoffs for the first time in eight years.

Arizona comes in with a potent offensive attack which ranks third in the National League in runs-per-game. They are also second in the league in doubles, third  in batting average and stolen bases, fourth in OPS, and fifth in home runs. So this is a well-rounded and balanced attack.

The Dbacks pitching staff is no slouch either, ranking fourth in the NL in ERA, and 5th in OPS-against and strikeouts. No team in all of Major League Baseball has a better fielding percentage than the Arizona defenders, who have committed the fewest errors in the entire National League.

Bottom line, this is a sound ball club that is coming in to South Philly this week. Though they were struggling badly for more than a month, the Dbacks have recently gotten hot again. It will be up to the Phillies to cool them off, finding a way to win yet another series.