Angels spoil pair of memorable homers as Phillies miss sweep
The script was written too perfectly. Trea Turner, capping off the month in which he turned his season around with a three-run homer — the Phillies’ franchise-record-extending 58th long ball of the month. It gave the Phillies a one-run late-inning lead the day after a different three-run homer had done the exact same, and it seemed to highlight a comeback win for a three-game home sweep over the Angels for the second season in a row.
Too perfectly, indeed.
Turner did his part — as he has throughout a month that saw his OPS rise by 80 points. Bryce Harper did his, too, with a separate go-ahead homer, the 300th big fly of his career and his 10th in a month that saw his OPS raise by a staggering 112.
But it was the moments immediately following each of those which, to stretch the metaphor, ruined the show.
A pair of Gregory Soto walks, and a subsequent pair of Seranthony Domínguez singles, immediately erased the lead that Turner’s homer provided, giving the Phillies a one-run deficit. Still, it seemed Harper had negated it, setting the scene for a sweep reminiscent of the one the Phillies earned over the Angels last June.
Not so fast. If August has treated any Phillie poorly, it’s Craig Kimbrel. A dropped third strike and a single put runners on the corners with nobody out, and two batters after a sacrifice fly tied the game at eight, Brandon Drury delivered the blow of the day.
It was, doubtless, a gut-punch. It was the second straight series in which a memorable late Harper homer set the stage for a sweep, only to have the bullpen — Kimbrel, specifically — negate it.
It all made for a wild way to end a game that once seemed relatively unassuming. Cristopher Sánchez had a rare poor start, in which he allowed five runs over 4 2/3 innings. The last of those runs scored with Jeff Hoffman on the mound in the fifth, and Turner’s first extra-base hit of the day set Nick Castellanos up for an RBI single in the home half. Hoffman kept the Phillies within two, and Matt Strahm held the lead at one after Turner’s monstrous homer in the seventh.
Ironically, it was those two who did their part in the Phillies’ bullpen — not the back end of Soto, Domínguez (to a lesser extent) and Kimbrel, who have each had their fair share of struggles in the past couple months — a trend that would behoove the Phillies to reverse ahead of the postseason.
Of course, the Phillies still need to get there, but even with Wednesday’s loss, they’re in an enviable position. They sit with a 3 1/2 game lead over the Chicago Cubs for the first Wild Card spot, and they’re 4 1/2 games clear of a playoff spot altogether.
But a win as dramatic as Wednesday’s shaped up to be would have been a nice way to cap off the month of August. The Phillies conclude the month at 17-10. It was a resounding success littered with memorable moments — but, oddly, some of the very best came in losses. Wednesday was a prime example.
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