Jake Arrieta made his best start in a long time and the bottom of the Phillies’ rankings showed up again in a late game rally in Friday’s 5-3 away win over the Mets.
Arrieta allowed two runs in seven innings on Homer from Michael Conforto, but played for most of the night. For the first time in 20 starts, he completed seven innings.
He gave up a two-time lead, but became the winner thanks to the bottom of the Phillies’ order. Starting with Bryce Harper and finishing in eighth place, Phil Gosselin doubled up and scored a goal on 9-hole striker Roman Quinn at the top of seventh.
Over the past 21 days, Quinn has helped the Phillies win three different matches with his speed, defense and now excellent grip.
In lap eight, the Phillies did what good teams do, and that added insurance with two singles, two walks and hitting the pitch. It proved valuable with Hector Neris’ shaky eighth inning (two hits, step, run).
Rhys Hoskins made a defensive save in eighth place, catching a line jump from Todd Fraser that would have otherwise been a double-double.
The Phillies have won 10 of 11 games for the first time since 2011. They are 19-15 in the season. They played 10-0 against the Nationals and the Metz.
They are 2 and a half games ahead of the Marlins for second place in the NL East, which will be the playoff venue this year.
Arrieta needs the night
Arrieta has recovered well from the shortest relegation of his career in the Major Leagues.
He started the night with four scoreless innings. He stuck two runners in the fourth by knocking out Jeff McNeill. McNeill was on fire this week, but he looked uncomfortable in this bat.
The serve Arrieta paid for was a 90 mph sinker that hooked too many cymbals against Conforto, who crushed her left-center to level the score in fifth.
He bounced back from that to finish the inning and faced lows in sixth and seventh.
Arrieta made seven starts. Three were good, three were bad, one was normal. He has a 5.67 ERA.
Workman’s best work to date
Brandon Workman became the cleanest player as Philip with a 1-2-3 timeout for his fifth save. He allowed several baserunners in all seven of his previous runs with Fils, but got stuck on 14 of 18 runners.
Bohm settles in defense
After making multiple mistakes in one inning on Aug. 21 in Atlanta, rookie third baseman Alec Bohm played all 27 games of his own accord.
A rare day off for Harper
Bryce Harper, who had played 32 of the Phillies’ 33 games until Friday, received a day off from coach Joe Girardi. It was Girardi’s decision, and a few hours before the start of the game, he said that Harper “probably not very happy with me… “
Harper is 7 out of the last 45, and his two-week average is down 91 points. He has remained a valuable player for the Phillies with his defense and base running, and has a 0.365 clip base despite a 0.156 average during his decline.
Harper isn’t the only Philly to have fallen into disrepair. JT Realmuto has averaged .211 in their last 16 games.
Nearest pitching plans
Things are going strange in the Phyllis rotation. They have three doubleheads next week and need seven starters over that 10 day period. More details here how you can align the rotation.
Spencer Howard, Aaron Nola, and Zach Wheeler will feature the next three games in this Phillies-Mets series. On Sunday afternoon, Nola vs. Jacob de Grom.
