Somehow it worked: Phillies 6, Cardinals 5

Monday’s game against the Cardinals almost felt like a scheduled loss. With the bullpen badly overworked recently, it seemed like the plan was to have Andrew Painter and Alan Rangel cover the majority – if not all – of the game, which didn’t fill anyone with much optimism.

But as they say, you can’t predict baseball. Andrew Painter turned in an encouraging 5.1 innings, Rangel did…just enough, and Jonathan Bowlan pitched a scoreless ninth. Combined with big offensive nights from Kyle Schwarber and Edmundo Sosa, the Phillies escaped with a 6-5 win.

After Luis Arraez’s double play in the first ruined a scoring opportunity, the Phillies got some help from the Cardinals in the second. Brandon Marsh led off the inning with a single, then Derek Hill hit a ball back to pitcher Dobbins who committed a throwing error which allowed Marsh to score and Hill to reach third. He would then come home on Sosa’s single.

The offense went quiet for a couple of innings until the fifth when Schwarber and Bryson Stott started the frame with singles. The Phillies scored a run on Bryce Harper’s ground ball double play, but the promise of a bigger inning was ruined.

Painter has looked much better since returning from the minor leagues, and on Monday, he held the Cardinals without a hit for the first five innings. Unfortunately, those five innings weren’t particularly efficient, and by the time the sixth rolled around, he was clearly tiring. He recorded the first out of the inning, but a walk, single, and double cut the lead to 3-2.

That brought on Rangel who escaped the jam, and things were looking promising when Schwarber doubled home Sosa to make it 4-2 in the seventh. When the next two batters walked, it looked like a big inning might be at hand, but Arraez’s second double play of the game ended the threat.

The Phillies added some insurance in the eigth when Sosa doubled home two runs.

For a second, it looked like Schwarber was going to get them a couple more, but his fly ball died at the fence.

Side rant: At this point, Don Mattingly removed Schwarber – playing first base – from the game in favor of Alec Bohm. It’s not like Bohm is all that great defensively, and they’re counting on Rangel to cover at least another inning. It seemed entirely possible that they might need more offense, so why would you take a suddenly hot Schwarber out of the game?

Sure enough, Rangel faltered in the eighth. He was leaving pitches over the plate, and the Cardinals weren’t missing them. The Cardinals had five hits in the inning to cut the lead to 6-5 with the tying run at third. But Rangle rebounded to record the next two outs and keep the Phillies ahead.

Despite dealing with a heavy workload of his own lately, Jonathan Bowlan was asked to close it out in the ninth. Somewhat surprisingly, he did so with little difficulty, pitching a clean inning for his first career save.

After the ugliness of this past weekend, it was great to see the Phillies somehow win a game that they usually lose. And with Cristopher Sanchez scheduled for Tuesday and most of the bullpen getting a day off, the prospects for the rest of the series are looking better as well.