Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Phillies offense busts loose in win over Cardinals

The team with baseball's worst record has been dealt some embarrassing defeats lately, most notably losing by 16 runs Tuesday, but also by eight and nine, respectively, Friday and Saturday.

Andres Blanco celebrates his seventh-inning three-run home run with teammate Ryan Howard. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
Andres Blanco celebrates his seventh-inning three-run home run with teammate Ryan Howard. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read more

The team with baseball's worst record has been dealt some embarrassing defeats lately, most notably losing by 16 runs Tuesday, but also by eight and nine, respectively, Friday and Saturday.

For at least one afternoon, the Phillies experienced the feel of a blowout win.

"It was nice to be on the other end of it for once," Cody Asche said after Sunday's 9-2 Phillies' win against baseball's best team, the St. Louis Cardinals, at Citizens Bank Park.

"We've taken some pretty big losses here the last five or six games. To be on the other side of it, it feels good."

The nine runs were a season-high for the Phillies, who hadn't scored more than four in exactly two weeks. Five of them came against Cardinals ace Michael Wacha, who entered his 14th start of the season boasting a 2.48 ERA.

By winning for only the second time in 13 games, the Phillies avoided being swept for the fourth time in five series. For the first time since May 23, their starting pitcher won a decision. A great performance from Adam Morgan in his major-league debut snapped their franchise record-setting drought of games without a win from their starter at 25.

Morgan, a 25-year-old lefthander who missed last season because of shoulder surgery, allowed just one run - on a Jhonny Peralta home run - and six hits over 52/3 innings.

"Morgan really stepped up with the opportunity and was outstanding," manager Ryne Sandberg said. He displayed "a lot of composure out there, good stuff, good control, mixed his pitches, [and] against a very good offensive lineup."

The Phillies' offense gave Morgan room to work, scoring three runs in the second and two more in the fifth off Wacha, a hard-throwing righthander. Domonic Brown and Asche strung together back-to-back doubles and Cesar Hernandez hit a two-run single to highlight the second inning.

Andres Blanco's pinch-hit, three-run home run in the seventh gave the Phillies an eight-run lead, their largest since July 10 of last season. They hadn't mustered even a four-run lead since May 23. The five runs charged to Wacha were the most the pitcher has allowed this season. Five innings matched his shortest outing of the year.

"[We were] just trying to attack the fastball," Brown said. "The guy throws hard. Just trying to get something good over the zone to hit well. You don't want to get to that secondary stuff of his - it's electric. That's what we were doing, attacking the fastball like [hitting coach] Steve Henderson always talks about. Don't let that fastball pass."

Ben Revere's bloop single in the sixth off Seth Maness increased the Phillies' lead to five. Blanco in the seventh crushed an 0-2 change-up from Matt Belisle for a three-run, pinch-hit home run.

The Phillies, who had lost all of their last five games in which they tallied double-digit hits, mustered 13 on Sunday and seven in 12 at-bats when hitting with runners in scoring position. Ben Revere and Maikel Franco each tallied three hits and drove in a run.

"It was fun today. We had a lot of fun," catcher Cameron Rupp said. "You don't want to lose every game. It's no secret we've struggled. But you know what, we're the same every day. We come out, we work hard and then today went our way. Hopefully, we can build on it."

@jakemkaplan