After electric starts by two of his teammates, Philadelfia’s Taijuan Walker hopes to continue the momentum Saturday when Phillies hosted Miami Marlins.
Philadelphia has won two games in a row, largely thanks to its dynamic starting plate. Cristopher Sanchez knocked out a career high 12 in seven rounds during a 6-4 victory over San Francisco Giants on Thursday, and Zack Wheeler followed up with 13 strikes on seven rounds Friday in a 7-2 win over Marlins.
The Phillies had not started the pitchers who knocked out 12 or more battles in consecutive games since Roy Halladay (14) and Cliff Lee (12) did it in April 2011.
“The competition is a good thing sometimes,” said Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson and smiles. “We have a full bullpen (Saturday), and it’s always good to have some day.”
Another reason for Thomson that Le is the emergence of Bryce Harper’s power law. Harper, a twice National League MVP, has Hemt in three of the last four matches after going deep into just one of its previous 15 races.
“I thought the last week has been good,” Harper said. “I met a couple of balls really hard in Atlanta. I also beat a couple of balls (hard) this series. I think I’m on time.”
Harper’s home run on Friday -and six of the Phillies runs in total -came against Marlin’s starter Sandy Alcantara, who continues to try to find his form after missing last season when he recovered from Tommy John operation.
“Maybe just a little bit of not getting those heights down to an area you want too little hunting, and just leave them enough on the plate or in a place where they could at least ruin it enough to do it,” said Miami manager Clayton McCullough. “We will go back and look at it and how we can perform at a better pace next time.”
Cal Quantrill (1-1, 5.79) will try to perform at a higher level when he takes the ball on Saturday for Miami. The right -hander has not yet worked more than five rounds through three starts this season, and he was unpredictable on Sunday against Washington Nationals, which allowed three runs, seven hits and five walks in five rounds.
“Of course, it wasn’t my best things,” Quantrill said. “I had a hard time controlling all the hard pitch. I think we did a really good job of doing the pitch we had to do. Unfortunately, I sat down in many situations that may not be beneficial.”
Quantrill has made three lifetime starts against Philadelphia and goes 1-0 with a 2.65 era.
His equivalent Saturday will be Walker (1-1, 2.30 era), who has met Marlin’s 15 times in his career, including 13 starts. He is 6-3 with a 3.56 era against Miami.
In his recent outing, Walker gave up six runs (four earned) in five rounds of a 10-4 loss to San Francisco Giants on Monday. It was the first runs that Righty has allowed this season, as he threw 10 2/3 speechless innings during his first two starts.
“Just an inning that came away from me, and the six runs hurt us,” said Walker, who made a key throwing error during San Francisco’s second inning offensive blast. “I could settle down the next three rounds, but that inning just rushed on me.”
-Field level media
