RING IT: Battle tested Phillies dominate in Wild Card opener, beat the Marlins 4-1

Drew Smith
October 4, 2023
Phillies
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Zack Wheeler dominated and every single player in the Phillies’ starting lineup notched a hit in last night’s 4-1 win over the Miami Marlins to take a 1-0 lead in the NL Wild Card Series.

Zack Wheeler: Battle Tested

Wheeler dominated the Marlins lineup last night. He allowed just one run in 6.2 innings of work. He struck out eight batters and walked zero while allowing five hits, two of them being infield hits and two more that deflected off infielders gloves.

Wheeler’s start last night simply added to an already impressive postseason resume. He now has a 2.55 ERA in seven playoff starts. He was throwing absolute GAS to start the game with his four-seam fastball hitting 98.0 mph, nearly 2.5 mph faster than what he was throwing in the regular season. He made the Marlins lineup look foolish, wasting eight of them with a nasty and dare I say almost un-hittable sweeper.

Wheeler: 6.2 IP | 5 H | 1 R | 0 BB | 8 K

Zack Wheeler tied Cliff Lee for most starts of 6+ innings pitched while allowing 1 run or fewer in Phillies’ postseason history.

Steve Carlton: 4
Cole Hamels: 4
Zack Wheeler: 3
Cliff Lee: 3

Right Side, Strong Side

Over the last 48 hours leading up to last night’s Game 1, there was a large contingent online that was worried about the left-handed pitchers for the Fish and how the Phillies’ lineup would perform against Marlins’ starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo.

I think we can confidently say that Miami going “left-hand heavy” was a failed strategy.

Trea Turner, Alec Bohm, Nick Castellanos, and Johan Rojas were a combined 6-for-15 from the plate last night with 4 doubles. Bohmer got the Phillies on the board in the bottom of the third inning on a line drive to left field that scored Rojas.

Alec Bohm: RISP God

ALEC BOHM. RISP GOD.#RedOctober | #RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/QA9S20e8yT
— The Liberty Line (@LibertyLinePHL) October 4, 2023

In the following inning, Bryson Stott put the Phillies up 2-0 on a line drive single to center field that scored JT Realmuto. Nick Castellanos attempted to score but was thrown out at home.

Bryson Stott: Professional Hitter

Pache Party Time

Cristian Pache, who got the start for the Phillies in left field over Brandon Marsh, notched an RBI in the bottom of the third inning, scoring Bryson Stott to extend the Phillies’ lead to 3-0.

Nick Castellanos: 2-4, RBI, 2 2B

The Marlins’ lone run came on a single from Bryan De La Cruz in the top of the seventh inning to temporarily make last night a 3-1 ball game, but the Phillies just kept on hitting.

Nick Castellanos roped a double on a sharp line drive to left field that scored Bryce Harper, who (obviously) completely blew through a stop sign from third base coach Dusty Wathan.

There was no way that Bryce Harper wasn’t going to attempt to score on that hit. Put this screenshot in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

ONE DOWN, 12 TO GO…

Listen, I can’t stress this enough. The Miami Marlins are who we thought they were.

The Phillies handled business in Game 1 and tonight, Aaron Nola will take the mound tonight looking to clinch the Wild Card Series against the Fish and send the Phillies on a collision course with the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS.

Opposing Nola, will be left-handed pitcher Braxton Garrett, who posted a 2-0 record but holds a 5.40 ERA with 8 strikeouts in just 10 innings of work against the Phillies this season.