GDT 4/6/24 Philadelphia Phillies (Suárez, R) @ Washington Nationals (Irvin, J)

[LoneStarPhan]

Another strike three called ball four. Great pitch and clearly a strike.

[zambonir]

Doesn't look like a position that needs to be upgraded currently! Nor has the committee thing been an issue (in fact the only issue was last year, when they had a guy who wanted to be one and didn't like not being one).

And while Soto has been better this year and could still end up being a great contributor any time you can use him as a LOOGY at the end of an inning that's great utilization if rest of the pen isn't overused.

[kikutaro]

Ildemaro Vargas

Called strike (92.9 mph cutter)
Ball in dirt (92.7 mph cutter)
Called strike (98. mph sinker)
Ball (91.5 mph cutter)
Foul (98.1 mph sinker)
Foul (98.5 mph sinker)
Ball (91.2 mph cutter)
Foul (99. mph sinker)
Foul (96.3 mph sinker)
Batter Timeout.
In play, out(s) (98.6 mph sinker)

Ildemaro Vargas grounds into a force out, third baseman Alec Bohm to second baseman Bryson Stott. Jesse Winker out at 2nd. Ildemaro Vargas to 1st.

[LoneStarPhan]

Bohm bobble cost them the double play.

[kikutaro]

Trey Lipscomb

Mound Visit.
Ball (98.7 mph sinker)
Ball (98.7 mph sinker)
Ildemaro Vargas advances to 2nd on defensive indifference.
Called strike (98.5 mph sinker)
Foul (98.6 mph sinker)
Called strike (98.3 mph sinker)

Trey Lipscomb called out on strikes.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Philadelphia Phillies	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	9	1
Washington Nationals	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	0

Final

---

Philadelphia Phillies

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	HR	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Kyle Schwarber DH	5	0	0	0	0	3	0	.242	.306	.424	.730
Trea Turner SS	4	1	2	0	0	1	0	.250	.314	.313	.627
Bryce Harper 1B	3	1	1	0	1	1	0	.296	.367	.704	1.071
J.T. Realmuto C	4	2	2	3	0	1	1	.333	.379	.556	.935
Alec Bohm 3B	3	0	1	1	1	1	0	.259	.355	.370	.725
Bryson Stott 2B	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	.240	.387	.280	.667
Nick Castellanos RF	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	.148	.303	.148	.451
Brandon Marsh LF	4	0	1	1	0	0	0	.292	.308	.542	.850
Johan Rojas CF	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	.045	.160	.045	.205
Ranger Suárez P								.000	.000	.000	.000
Jeff Hoffman P								.000	.000	.000	.000
Gregory Soto P								.000	.000	.000	.000
José Alvarado P								.000	.000	.000	.000

Washington Nationals

Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	HR	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Lane Thomas RF	3	1	2	0	1	0	0	.129	.222	.129	.351
Joey Meneses DH	4	0	0	0	0	2	0	.194	.257	.226	.483
Joey Gallo 1B	4	1	1	2	0	1	1	.200	.333	.520	.853
Keibert Ruiz C	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	.214	.241	.321	.562
Jesse Winker LF	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	.333	.538	.389	.927
Ildemaro Vargas SS	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	.286	.375	.357	.732
Trey Lipscomb 3B	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	.240	.269	.360	.629
Jacob Young CF	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Eddie Rosario CF	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.136	.130	.318	.448
Nasim Nuñez SS	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Luis García Jr. 2B	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.350	.381	.600	.981
Jake Irvin P								.000	.000	.000	.000
Derek Law P								.000	.000	.000	.000
Robert Garcia P								.000	.000	.000	.000
Dylan Floro P								.000	.000	.000	.000

Philadelphia Phillies

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	P-K	ERA
Ranger Suárez (W, 1-0)	6.0	4	2	2	0	4	1	82-55	4.09
Jeff Hoffman (H, 1)	1.2	0	0	0	1	1	0	22-13	0.00
Gregory Soto (H, 2)	0.1	0	0	0	0	0	0	4-2	0.00
José Alvarado (S, 2)	1.0	0	0	0	1	1	0	28-19	9.64

Washington Nationals

Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR	P-K	ERA
Jake Irvin (L, 0-1)	6.0	5	4	4	1	5	1	93-58	5.73
Derek Law	1.0	2	0	0	0	0	0	13-10	1.59
Robert Garcia	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	18-14	4.50
Dylan Floro	1.0	1	1	1	2	1	0	26-15	2.25

[LoneStarPhan]

Another solid win. Good pitching and 9 hits from the offense. JT carries the offense to the win with the big 3 run home run. Bullpen turns in 3 scoreless, hitless innings to save the win for Suarez.

Go for a sweep tomorrow.

[bkeich]

Alvarado brings his ERA into single digits after that disaster of a first game.

I always thought that percentage of good appearances would be a better stat for relievers. Alvarado’s stats are never going to look good this season because of 5 ER in game 1 (unless he has a crazy good rest of the season). When you only pitch 60 innings 5 ER will result in adding 0.75 to his ERA at the end of the season. It will almost certainly make a good season look just ok, etc. (along with any other bad outings like that)

[bkeich]

Phillies at .500. Let’s see if we can get a little run here and establish that we will not have to comeback from a terrible April.

[zambonir]

that pretty much describes Kimbrel and Soto last year too. Unfortunately then they had a couple of bad games at the time of year when you can't (and Alvarado has had those too).

I don't think anybody really looks at reliever ERA. You can go with FIP a little bit. WHIP a lot. Blown saves (or losses in tie games) still matter. Saves probably matter less (because any blown save is bad whether it was a one-run lead or a three-run lead, an in any inning too, but a three-run save, or a one-run save after you load the bases, has a few more dimensions to them).

Hoffman really is something.

And it's good to play the Nats

[VoteForKalas]

Exactly, playing the Nats helps a lot.

[phillychuck]

Exactly, playing the Nats helps a lot.

Maybe they will let us play the Marlins, too...

[zambonir]

Let's hope the team's history (some perceived, some real) of struggling with the Marlins doesn't come back around as they return to haplessness. The 2022 team doesn't make a run at the playoffs if not for the way they showed up against the Nats and Marlins (28-10 record, vs. 13-25 against the Mets and Braves).

Last year was more balanced, and schedule less weighted. 7-6 against Nats, 6-7 against Marlins (a playoff team), 7-6 against Mets, 5-8 against Braves. 25-27 in division vs. Atlanta's 35-17 (so, that's 10 of Atlanta's 14-game lead).

In 2021 they were 9-10 against the Marlins; in 2020, 3-7 (and Marlins made the playoffs). They were 7-3 against the Nats, then the reigning World Series champs, in 2020.