Phillies Top Athletics 9-5 on Gorgeous Opening Day
The vibes at Citizens Bank Park were through the roof, as the Phillies opened up the 2022 MLB Season against the Oakland Athletics with a 9-5 victory.
Kyle Schwarber wasted no time making himself at home in South Philly and got things rolling with a leadoff home run to give the Phillies an early 1-0 lead.
The home run was Schwarber’s 14th career leadoff home run, and the first Phillies player to hit a leadoff dinger since Andrew McCutchen did so in his first at-bat with the Phillies back in 2019.
In the bottom of the third inning, Schwarber walked, Realmuto got a base knock to advance Shwarbs to third, which brought Bryce Harper to the plate with runners on the corners. Harper poked one into left field to score Schwarber.
Harper, always aggressive on the base paths, was initially called out at second base. After a replay review, we got to hear an umpire announce to the crowd for the first time at Citizens Bank Park this year that the call was overturned. Castellanos struck out, bringing up Rhys Hoskins with two outs.
Rhys Hoskins 2-out, 2-RBI double
Hoskins hit a ball to right-center to score Realmuto and Harper and just like that the Phillies were up 4-0. Worth noting, that was Hoskins’ second hit to right field on the day. To be clear, if Hoskins is hitting the ball to right field we might as well get ready for the parade down Broad Street.
Didi Gregorius kept the hit parade rolling with an RBI single to put the Phillies up 5-0.
Nola allowed a solo home run to Chad Pinder in the top of the fourth inning, which was the only hit he allowed through six innings.
In the bottom of the sixth, Rhys Hoskins and Jean Segura both walked to put two men on for Bryson Stott. The Phillies’ rookie roped one to right field to load the bases and starting centerfielder hit a sac fly to add another run to the box score putting the Phillies up 6-1 heading into the seventh inning.
Bryson Stott with his first major league hit.
Following Stott’s hit, Matt Vierling scored Rhys Hoskins on a long sac-fly to the right field fence to put the Phillies up comfortably 6-1.
In Aaron Nola’s last start of Spring Training we went into great detail describing his propensity for allowing home runs.
In 2021, Nola was tied for 10th in the league after allowing 28 long balls. The troubling trend began during the 2019 season when he gave up 27. During his best two campaigns in 2017 and 2018 he gave up 35 combined.
Thats a HR% increase from 2.1% to 3.5%.
It may not seem like a big difference, but it certainly hurt Nolas its on Opening Day when he was otherwise cruising.
Seth Brown took this Nola knuckle-curve out of the park (the 8th pitch of the at bat) to shorten the Phillies lead to 6-4.
I’m not sure if you have heard, but the Phillies were projected to be awful on defense. Bryon Stott, who is playing out of position, booted a ground ball, and in the next at bat, threw this ball out of Rhys Hoskins reach allowing one run to score, cutting the lead to 6-5.
If you are keep score at home thats one infield single and 2 errors in one inning. Bad!
Aaron Nola: W (1-0), 6 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 7 SO, 0 BB
Nola threw 57 of his 76 pitches for strikes in what was could have been a dominating performance.
The Phillies didn’t wait long to strike back. Nick Castellanos smoked this ball down the right field line scoring Bryce Harper (who reached on base on a four pitch walk) all the way from first extending the lead to 7-5.
Is there anything sweeter than watching Harper rip around the bases in his green shoes ?
Following a one out double by Jean Segura in the 8th inning, professional hitter Bryson Stott notched his second hit of the day lacing a double to left and extending the lead to 8-5.
Kyle Schwarber capped off his impressive Phillies debut with this base hit to right center field, scoring Stott and adding another insurance to make it 9-5 Phillies.
Schwarber finished the day 2-4, 2 R, 2 RBI
Corey Knebel entered the 9th inning in a non-save situation and cruised allowing no hits and striking out two including this high fastball to Stephen Vogt.
Up Next for the Phillies
Saturday: Kyle Gibson (10-9, 3.71 ERA) vs Cole Irvin (10-15, 4.24 ERA)
Sunday: Zach Eflin (4-7, 4.17 ERA) vs Daulton Jefferies (1-0, 3.60 ERA)
Phillies Futures, Odds, Bonus Codes
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MLB Opening Weekend Bonus Codes
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