Entering the finale of a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, the Phillies were down bad.
They had lost six games in a row and 13 of 17. Superstar Bryce Harper was mired in a brutal slump, with just two hits and three walks in his last 41 plate appearances. Their pitching, the backbone of the team’s hot start, had allowed almost nine runs per game over their last five match-ups. On Saturday, the bullpen blew a 5-0 lead.
The team needed its ace to stop the bleeding. And that’s exactly what Zack Wheeler did, allowing just two hits and one walk over eight shutout innings. He struck out nine as the Phillies won, 6-0.
“That’s why he’s the ace, you know?” said manager Rob Thomson about Wheeler. “I always feel good when he’s going out there.”
Wheeler didn’t win the game alone, of course. Kyle Schwarber gave the Phillies a quick lead with his tenth leadoff home run of the season. And the Phils busted things open in the eighth, scoring five runs on homers from Harper, Alec Bohm, and Bryson Stott. Harper had three hits on the day after collecting three hits in his previous ten games.
“I know when I play better, our team is better,” said Harper afterwards. “Obviously, it’s not going well for a lot of us right now, but the quicker we can turn that page, the quicker we can keep going knowing we’re still the best team in baseball, knowing we’ve got a great record, knowing that we’ve got all the guys in here that we need.”
Despite the stellar performances from Wheeler and Harper, Sunday’s game may be remembered most for an incredible lucky catch by Brandon Marsh. With the Phillies still clinging to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh, Mariners infielder Jorge Polanco launched a fly ball to the warning track in right-center field. Marsh raced towards the ball but completely lost it in the sun.
By the time he found it, it was already in his glove.
