Continuing Rivalry Weekend, which until earlier this week was a weekend that I'd assumed was only going to contain one baseball game, myself and the family made it to a game that was thankfully much closer than the previous one. Being so close to the sports complex in Philly is a very good thing, and it's not a bad drive at all, which is why we go to the occasional game. Phils-Pirates felt like a safe bet, as it was our guys against a much worse competitor. Sometimes you have to take the gimmes when you can.
What was interesting about a Phils-Pirates game is that, because it was inter-state, there were a lot of Pirates fans in the building. Which I'm fine with. They're a nice fanbase, they can be passionate. It's nice seeing some 30s in the crowd, I hope they can rep Skenes for as long as possible. There were some rowdy Pirates fans by where we were sitting. One in particular was over served and seemed to be shouting for the duration of the entire game. It was...not fun.
But the game itself was at least something to behold. First of all, these were our seats, right down the 3rd base line and much closer than I'd anticipated. We were very close to the action, and had a very nice vantage point of the mound-to-plate line. We were also not far from the Pirates dugout, and at one point I saw Mitch Keller come over and talk to some fans.
As it is Armed Forces weekend, the pregame ceremony saluted a long line of army vets in the audience, and the teams wore those white, faded-camo caps. Even after knowing the significance of them, I still don't love them.
The matchup seemed to be pretty straightforward. The Pirates were starting Carmen Mlodzinski, meaning we were like a day off from seeing Skenes. While the Phillies brought in their ace Zack Wheeler to start. I'd seen him start before, and he's always a thrill but I believe the last time he gave up some homers. Still, he's been fantastic this year, so I was prepared for anything.
Zack Wheeler and this Pirates lineup was a match made in heaven. Over six innings he allowed only 3 hits, 1 walk and no runs, in addition to striking out 6. The man was DEALING. There was an occasional base occupation by a Pirates hitter, but it never amounted to anything. He lowered his ERA to 2.57 and got his 6th win. With everything that's gone on with Aaron Nola this season, continuing to see Wheeler's peak years with this team has been very relieving. He really is that dominant, big game pitcher that every great team needs. It's upsetting he never got all the way there with the Mets, but he's been great here.
The Pirates lineup in general did exactly what you'd expect, which is...not much. I don't know if it was Wheeler being on or the Pirates not having much, or both. Hayes, Reynolds and IKF had little hits at some point. Oneil Cruz, the one guy I was worried about, went 0 for 4 with 3 Ks. Cutch also struck out 3 times.
And Carmen Mlodzinski, uh...well he was doing well enough, and then the 4th inning came around and like 20 line drives happened. There were already runs on the board to this point, Schwarber had an RBI double in the first, Bryson Stott had a solo homer. But the fourth was just the contact olympics. Bohm got on, Marsh doubled, then Stott hit a deep single that got them both home, then Harper doubled Stott home once Joey Wentz took over. Like yesterday's, there wasn't much need for home runs, it all came down to hammering the gap. The heroes, people like Stott and Harper and Schwarber, were exactly who you'd expect, and I'm glad they can get the job done.
After that the game coasted by. It was a packed house, but a very happy crowd. Right when Matt Strahm went in during the 7th, they had a 'lookalike cam', and as it turned out me having shoulder-length hair made me look an awful lot like Strahm, so I got on there. That's a compliment. There were people that got up there for looking like Santa Claus or Walter White, but I got on there for looking like the reliever that collects cards. Gotta love that.
As we were heading to the car, the Phils' bullpen let a 2-run Bryan Reynolds homer go by, but thankfully that was the full extent of the damage, and they got out of there with a 5-2 victory. This was the Phils' second game in a row where they let runs go in the ninth, so thankfully they padded the lead enough that it didn't kill them.
Despite the efforts of some local drunks, I enjoyed the game, and glad my weekend of in-person baseball experiences went 2-0. Next I'll be going a little further south in a few weeks for a very cool MLB experience.
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