At the start of the 2021 season, the Philadelphia Phillies hoped that Matt Moore would be able to continue the success he had in 2020 while pitching in Japan and become an important part of the Phillies rotation in the number four spot. Moore was anything but that and started the season with an ERA north of nine before landing on the COVID-19 Protocol List.

Moore, isolated from the team over the past few weeks, threw baseballs against a cinderblock wall at his barn in South Jersey to keep his arm in shape while being held from team activities. In his absense, Vincent Velasquez slid back into the rotation and pitched well for the Phillies. Joe Girardi announced yesterday that Velasquez would get the start on Saturday in place of Moore, who would be heading to the bullpen.

Moore pitched for the first time in 18 days last night in a crucial inning of work to hold a 5-4 win, the Phillies third straight, over the Milwaukee Brewers. He recorded three big outs in the seventh and the Phillies moved to 16-15 on the season and over .500 for the first time since April 18th.

The Phillies stormed out of the gate against the Brewers last night. Rhys Hoskins had an RBI and Didi Gregorius hit a first-inning grand slam to give the Phillies a 5-0 lead. Chase Anderson and JoJo Romero allowed three runs in the fifth inning to allow the Brewers to make it a 5-4 game. The game would have been tied if it wasn’t for Odubel Herrera who gunned down Daniel Vogelbach at the plate in the third. The throw itself wasn’t that great, but JT Relamuto made a tremendous tag and Vogelbach’s foot never touched home plate, leading to a replay reversal.

With Hector Neris and Sam Coonrod unavailable after pitching back-to-back five-out saves over the last two days, Brandon Kintzler earned four outs on 12 pitches in the fifth and sixth inning and Matt Moore pitched a beautiful seventh inning to hold the lead for the Phillies heading into the eighth inning.

Enyel De Los Santos, who was actually on the umpire’s card tonight, pitched a very impressive eighth inning and worked himself out of the jam to maintain the Phillies’ 5-4 lead. Jose Alvarado came back after his two-game suspension and the Phillies won the game 5-4. It was their seventh consecutive one-run game.

Up Next: The Phillies will send Zack Wheeler (2-2, 3.49 ERA) to the mound against Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff (2-0, 1.80 ERA) today at 1:05pm looking to sweep the Brewers. Woodruff has allowed only one earned run in 18 career innings against the Phillies.

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Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY