CINCINNATI — For 44 minutes Sunday, before the finale of another series that didn’t go as planned, the Phillies idled in a rain delay. How fitting. Because extra time to stew over the previous day’s 13-run humiliation never hurt anyone.
Then, they demonstrated what catharsis looks like.
Once the rain stopped and the tarp came off the field, it took the Phillies all of 12 minutes to bat around. In all, they sent 13 batters to the plate in the first inning, ambushed Reds starter Luis Cessa for nine runs — on a total of only 37 pitches— and won a 14-3 knee-slapper on their way out of Cincinnati.
”Definitely needed it,” said Aaron Nola, the biggest beneficiary of the offensive outburst. “It’s a long season. We obviously haven’t started off the way we wanted to, but it’s a talented group in here. We know that. We just keep playing our ball, things are going to start going our way.”
The Phillies notched their biggest inning in four years — to the day, in fact — since a 10-run first inning on April 16, 2019 against the Mets. It began with Bryson Stott’s leadoff homer, continued through a three-run double by Jake Cave that opened a 5-0 lead, and didn’t stop until Kyle Schwarber doubled home Trea Turner, who reached on a pair of singles and scored twice in the inning.
By the third inning, every Phillies starter had at least one hit; by the seventh, they all had at least one RBI. They finished with a season-high 23 hits, four less than their combined total from the first three games of the series.
Marsh had with four hits. Stott, Turner, J.T. Realmuto, and Alec Bohm had three hits apiece. Turner reached base five times. The Phillies were 11-for-27 with runners in scoring position — and somehow, they still left 15 men on base.
”Like we’ve been saying, the lineup that we have, it was only a matter of time before one of these games happen,” said Stott, who extended his hitting streak to 16 games, tying Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones in 1950 for the longest run to open a season. “It was really fun.“
Stott has been the best player in the Phillies’ disappointing 6-10 start. By far. He’s 27-for-71 (.380) with a .389 on-base percentage. Leave it to the second-year second baseman, then, to jump on Cessa’s second pitch of the game and send it into the front row in right field.
”He keeps getting on base, you know?” manager Rob Thomson said. “That’s the key. Trea got on base five times today. Those two guys get on base, you’ve got [Kyle] Schwarber, [Nick] Castellanos, Marsh, J.T. hitting behind them, you’ve got a good chance of creating a lot of runs.”
Just don’t mention Stott’s hitting streak — or ask the superstitious leadoff man what he knows about Puddin’ Head Jones.
”Nothing,” he said, laughing.
Not even that the Whiz Kids’ third baseman hit in 16 straight games to start 1950?
”We’ll just keep that to the side,” Stott said, laughing again.
Fair enough. But after Stott’s homer, the next four batters reached base, with Marsh dunking a broken-bat single into right field to open a 2-0 lead. Two batters later, Bohm scorched a line drive to third base that drove in another run.
Once Cave lined a double the other way to the base of the wall in left field, the rout was on.
“It was contagious,” Marsh said. “Just passing the baton. Not trying to do too much. Just single ‘em to death, draw your walks, and if you get something at the plate, do some damage with it. That was a lot of fun today.”
Nola settles in
If the rain delay wasn’t enough, Nola had to sit through the long top of the first inning. Not that he would ever complain about being gifted a nine-run lead before throwing a pitch.
“I was pretty loose to start with, but then we scored the nine runs so I was just walking around, moving the arm, stretching a little bit,” Nola said. “You’ve got to take a step back and treat it like a zero-zero game.”
Nola wasn’t his sharpest. He walked three batters and allowed five hits in six innings. But he also had an easy 10-pitch first inning and established that the Reds wouldn’t inch back into the game, unlike opening day in Texas when he couldn’t hold a 5-0 lead against the Rangers.
”It’s tough for pitchers sometimes in that type of game because they’re sitting down that whole time while we’re hitting,” Thomson said. “But he responded pretty well.”
Marsh takes center stage
It’s rare for an outfielder to actually rob a hit on a sacrifice fly, but Marsh did just that in the fourth inning.
With runners on second and third, Kevin Newman scorched a liner to center field that was ticketed to go over Marsh’s head after he broke in on the ball. But Marsh changed direction, retreated, and raised his arm to make the catch.
Even with the initial misstep, Marsh made a nice play. Newman’s drive carried a .580 expected batting average, according to Statcast.
