Saturday’s Game Report: Phillies 12, Cardinals 3
By Rob Rains
The good news for Quinn Mathews was that he struck out Bryce Harper three times on Saturday night. The bad news is that he did not have that kind of success against the rest of the Phillies’ lineup.
Mathews gave up 10 hits and seven runs in the first three innings and the Phillies coasted to the win over the Cardinals on Saturday night in Philadelphia.
As soon as Mathews left the game after five innings, Harper hit a three-run homer off Ryan Fernandez.
With the lopsided score and the Cardinals’ bullpen having been overworked in recent games, they turned to catcher Pedro Pages to pitch the eighth inning and he gave up a home run to Kyle Schwarber.
Mathews was making his third start for the Cardinals after being recalled from Memphis to replace the injured Andre Pallante in the starting rotation. The Cardinals also placed starter Hunter Dobbins on the IL before Saturday night’s game, opening a roster spot for Mathews. He is expected to stay in the rotation for at least two more starts.
Here is how Saturday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: The Cardinals were shut out by Andrew Painter until the sixth. Blaze Jordan doubled, advanced to third on a flyout and scored on a single by Alec Burleson, his 94th RBI of the year … JJ Wetherholt hit his 17th homer of the year, his first since July 30, leading off the eighth inning … A triple by Nathan Church and a groundout by Jose Fermin produced the final Cardinals’ run in the ninth.
On the mound: Mathews allowed four hits and three runs in the first inning, then saw the Phillies string together four singles, a sacrifice fly and a double for four more runs in the third. Mathews did retire the final seven hitters he faced in order to get through five innings … Fernandez, recalled from Memphis on Friday, gave up four hits and a sacrifice fly in the Phillies’ four-run sixth, including the home run from Harper … Pages made his first career appearance on the mound in the eighth. He got a groundout and two fly outs surrounded the Schwarber home run.
Key stat: The homers by Harper and Schwarber were the first for the Phillies against the Cardinals this season. In their first four games, the Cardinals had faced 150 Philadelphia batters without allowing a homer, and they ran that streak to 179 batters before Harper’s sixth-inning homer.
Worth noting: Dobbins went on the 15-day injured list after having to come out of Friday night’s start after throwing one pitch in the fifth inning. Pallante was placed on the IL on Friday. The initial diagnosis on Dobbins was tightness in his right forearm but he is scheduled for more tests … X-rays showed that outfielder Everson Periera did not break his hand when he was hit by a pitch on Friday night as the Cardinals had feared but his hand was still swollen on Saturday. With Masyn Winn sitting again because of a sore thumb, the only available players on the Cardinals’ bench were Pages and Bryan Torres.
Up next: The Cardinals will conclude their 11-game road trip with the series finale on Sunday. Kyle Leahy will get the start.
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