Jeremy Hellickson Showed Off His Stuff Going 8 For a 4-1 Phillies Win Over the Marlins

Philadelphia Phillies RHP Jeremy Hellickson (6-7, 4.03 ERA) looked to continue the run of very good starters outings, facing the Miami Marlins LHP Wei-Yin Chen (5-3, 4.90 ERA). Hellickson is also on the rumor mill for being dealt at or before the trade deadline, with the Marlins possibly in the mix. Pete Mackanin in an effort to boost the offense penciled in an entirely different outfield of Peter Bourjos, Tyler Goeddel and Jimmy Paredes. Hellickson certainly showcased his talents well tonight and the OF in the field and at the plate (well except for Paredes) did their jobs as they beat the Marlins 4-1

He looked like a genius once again as Bourjos, channeling OBPMachine Odubel Herrera, led off w/ a single and Goeddell sent the 2nd pitch FB just over the wall in RF to give the Phillies an early 2 run lead. Maikel Franco singled for the 3rd hit in a row, but they would leave him stranded.

After an easy 1-2-3 SDI for Hellickson, Cesar Hernandez broke an 0-20 slump with a single on a ball hit to the deep SS hole. Running hard all the way and not taking a head first slide into first, he just beat a very good play by Miguel Rojas starting at SS tonight.  He was moved to second on the sac bunt by Hellickson, and then scored on Goeddel’s career high third RBI of the night, extra large as it came with two outs. Another SDI followed, abetted by a round-the-horn double play. Defense has been a bright spot for the Phillies the last few games, and later in this one as well.

Hellickson was sailing along until Chris Johnson took a 3-1 FB for a ride, to break up the shut out with one out in the fifth. After another hit, once again the defense came to the fore, on a sac bunt attempt by Chen, they turned your basic 1-6-4 DP to end the threat. Chen was also pitching well after giving up those three early runs, but in the bottom of the inning, the Phillies started with Galvis’ second single, followed by a 2B for Hernandez, also his second hit. After Hellickson could not knock in a run, Chen was pulled. The Marlins pen had been great – one H, 10K in nine innings coming in – but Bourjos hit a long fly to CF allowing one to score and another to move up, but could not score again. Still a much needed insurance run. Chen’s final line was 5.1In, 11H, 4R, all earned, 5K.

It turned out to be an excellent eight for Hellickson, 102P, 66 strikes 5H, 1R, earned on a HR, 8K, 0BB, and he augmented his resume’ to 7-7, 3.84 .  Jeanmar Gomez who bounced back last night, came on for a 1-2-3 save (26). Chen earned the loss early to drop to 5-4, 4.99.

End Notes:

Starters Star: Phillies starters have been outstanding the last 3 games. 21 IP, 2 ER, 10 hits, 18 Ks

Good Things Come in Twos and Threes: Five Phils had multiple hits tonight out of the 12 total – this after the whole team only having 10 hits the last three nights. Goeddel, Franco, Carlos Ruiz, Freddy Galvis each had two, Hernandez with three. Goeddel also had a career high three RBI’s. Tyler did all this after not having a plate appearance since July 10th. On the Negadelphian side of the ledger, only 0-fers by Tommy Joseph, and Paredes kept me from tweeting #EverybodyHitsWooHoo!.

Next Ups: In the finale of this set the Marlins send out RHP Tom Koehler (6-8, 4.68) , and the Phillies counter with RHP Jerad Eickhoff (6-10, 3.76).  It would be a big boost for the Phillies to split this series against a good team with the way they have started the second half.  Our own EC, will Slow Hand that one for you.