Phillies 1 Blue Jays 2
After yesterday, a pitcher’s duel was a welcome change.
It’s too bad it had to be off Jordan Romano, but walk-off wins are great. Romano got Bo Bichette to pop out, but during his at-bat, Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto took a pitch off a part of the body that you aren’t allowed to touch on national TV. My wife said, “Why wasn’t he wearing a cap?”. Oh, he was, but when the can is hit dead on by a baseball that goes 95 mph, it tends to, how to put this, crush what is behind it. The can likely saved J.T. from having a career-ending injury, but he still had to come out of the game. He was on the ground for a long time before being helped off the field.
After all that, Vlad singled and stole second. That steal turned out to be important. An out later, Alejandro Kirk worked a seven-pitch at bat. He hit the seventh pitch to the wall in center (I thought it was a home run at first), scoring Vlad to walk off the Phillies.
José Berríos gave up a Nick Castellanos home run in the second inning, but that was all they would get off him. He loaded the bases with one out in the fifth inning but got a popout and a flyout to get out of it. I thought he was done then, but he came out for the sixth and had a quick inning.
All in, Berríos went six innings, with four hits, one earned, two walks and five strikeouts. An excellent night.
Chad Green had a quick seventh. Brendon Little pitched the eighth and the first two outs of the ninth. Jeff Hoffman got the last out of the ninth.
Mick Abel, making his second career start, made it to the sixth inning before giving up his first earned run in the majors. Andrés Giménez had a one-out, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a Bo Bichette triple just beyond Brandon Marsh’s glove in center. It would have been nice to score Bo, but Vlad’s fly ball wasn’t deep enough, and Addison Barger struck out.
We had just five hits on the day and no walks. Giménez had two hits and two excellent plays at second base.
Jays of the Day: Kirk (.318 WPA), Little (.204), Berríos (.181), and Bo (.133).
Other Award: Barger (-.181, for a 0 for 4, 3 k) and Clase (-.092, 0 for 3, k).
Tomorrow is a day game. 3:00 Easter. Chris Bassitt (5-3, 3.80) vs. another lefty, Jesús Luzardo (5-1, 3.58).