The Phillies trailed 5-0 going into the sixth inning, but in the latter half of the game, they scored seven runs, and the bullpen overcame an early five-run deficit, giving the Fightins’ a chance to come back to complete the first series sweep since early June with an exciting 7-5 win.

Philadelphia came off of an offensive explosion looking to finish a sweep against the Twins. They would have to do it without Trea Turner, who fouled a ball off of his right knee in a freak incident.

The Twins didn’t wait around to get payback for the seven-run inning in Game 2; Brooks Lee came up with the bases loaded, and he hit a long grand slam to get the scoring started. Kody Clemens added another home run on a fastball to increase the lead to five. In the sixth inning, the Phillies put up four runs that were capped off with a long three-run home run by Alec Bohm to make the game 5-4.

In the eighth inning, the Phillies rallied, scoring three runs in the inning to take the lead scoring three runs, taking the lead on a timely two-run base hit off the bat of Bryan De La Cruz, giving the Phillies a 7-5 lead, which was more than enough for the Fightins to take the win.

Painter Gets Shelled in the First

The first inning was not kind to Andrew Painter in this game. His control was not there, specifically with how the sweeper was landing. He was having issues with how he wasn’t finishing pitches and the breaking balls were hanging, and everything was up in the zone. On the grand slam that Lee hit, the pitch prior he smoked a long foul ball that hooked just foul on a pitch that was up in the zone, and then the next pitch was a sweeper that didn’t have a sharp break to it and looked more like a batting practice fastball. On the next pitch, Painter threw a fastball that hit Luke Keaschall in the bill of his helmet.

He did settle down, but in that first inning, he threw 28 pitches, walked three, and gave up two hits leading up to the grand slam by Lee. The first inning was so bad for Painter that his line score won’t show how well he recovered to pitch very well, even with giving up the home run to Clemens. This start shows the mental growth of Painter, because in his earlier stint with the Phillies, this would have started a chain reaction that would have sunk him and the team.

Bohm Starting To Catch Fire

For the first five innings, Twins starter Dean Kremer was missing barrels, and the Phillies were starting to get frustrated by the unpredictable move on his cutter. This was a puzzle that Philadelphia was having trouble with until the sixth inning. They started to see the cutter better, and Kremer was flattening a bit as well. The Phillies pushed one run across, and with two runners on base, Kremer tried to slip a flat splitter past Bohm, and it never made it to the catcher because it was sent 405 feet down the left-field line, bringing the Phillies back into the game, 5-4.

In the next inning, Philadelphia started a rally on a very strange play where Luis Arraez hit a ball into the corner in left, which was ruled a ground-rule double, holding Harper at third. With the game in a pivotal moment, the Phillies sent their hottest hitter to the plate. There is a theory in baseball that when you’re going, the ball finds holes, and to prove this point, Bohm flared a ball behind first, and with the infield playing in, Royce Lewis wasn’t able to catch the flair, allowing Harper to score, tying the game. This was the hit that has eluded the Phillies for the last two months, and it came right when it was needed.

Pitching Recovers Well, Allowing A Comeback

In the first inning, control issues painted Painter into a corner, and he had about as bad a start to the game as can be. After that inning, he really settled in and, despite a home run by Clemens in the third, pitched very well. When he exited after the fifth, the Twins had not been able to get anything started.

The Phillies bullpen came in to continue the dominance that Painter found, with Tim Mayza, Orion Kerkering, and Jonathan Bowlan keeping the Twins hitless since the fourth inning, and truly keeping them in the game, allowing the offense a chance to come back. Jhoan Duran came in to close out his former team, and it wasn’t easy, with Kaelen Culpepper getting the first hit since the fourth inning, on a bat that absolutely decimated his bat. The ninth inning was a bit more exciting than anticipated, but Duran closed out his former teammate Byron Buxton to close out the sweep of the Twins, their first series sweep since the first week of June against the Padres.

Steve Hamilton

Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible; we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.

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