Tampa, Florida – It took a month, but the Phillies range was announced.
The Phils struck the Rays, 7-0, Wednesday evening at Steinbrenner Field to win their fourth consecutive series and eighth game in their last 10.
They chased the best starter in Tampa Bay, Shane Baz, with one in fourth round after forcing him to launch 83 locations, many of them stressful. A main theme of the series was the capacity of the phillies to crump kicks in the range. Tuesday evening, Drew Rasmussen needed 58 throws to pass the second and third rounds and was released by the fifth.
“We see a lot of land,” said manager Rob Thomson. “We really work on the starter, obtaining his pitch account and bringing him out. We use the whole field. The fourth round, we had four strokes in the opposite field. We control the striking area and that’s what you have to do.”
The phillies also did not put runners on the basis and left them there either. They scored 66 points in 10 games with more than seven points in seven. On Wednesday, they scored in all points of view – with power, wasting blows together and even a small ball.
“We just feel like everyone does something, which is always nice,” said Trea Turner. “Topping runners, but we are also driving the ball. Just the total package.”
Turner, reaching 0.397 in his last 16 games, has pulled a 90 mph and intermediate cursor who was barely moved for a solo home run at the top of the third, his second of the season.
“What was really impressive is that after the Home Run, he still obtained a base field on the right later in the match,” said Thomson. “It tells me that he stays with this approach.”
The approach that Thomson refers to is the one he discussed with Turner before the season. The manager’s message was: Don’t worry about Home Runs. I want a basic percentage. 380, 100 points scored and 40 stolen bases, and everything else should take care of itself.
“It’s always my game and who I am, but I think the walks have helped this,” said Turner. “I walk, at least at the beginning, I was walking a little. Lately, not as much, but I think it has just put the ball in play and make a good contact, you walk less.
“The simple fact of having this high basic percentage is nice. If you hit .300, you should climb on the base higher than what I have in the past. This is where I feel like I see the difference – control the area and make my walks.
“I just think it’s difficult to do for me, personally. I get in touch, so in the past, even if I swing a bad pitch, I put it into play. And wherever I hit, I was online where there is generally someone larger and more frightening behind me, so I have the impression of being ready to strike, they attack me.”
The phillies stacked five more points in the fourth with six of the seven strikers reaching before the second withdrawal.
One of the largest parts in the fourth row of the five points was a safety stroke of the security filed by Johan Rojas with a withdrawal and runners in the corners before the Phillies marked in the Channel. Baz tried to turn around on the plate but did not succeed, letting run and put two men on the base for the top of the order. Bryson Stott and Turner followed with singles RBI and Bryce Harper led the two with a double away in the left center.
Harper was frustrated during a two -week section during which he hit 0.200 on his nose, but he has shown signs to get out of this in recent days. He dominated and smoked a simple Sunday. He saw the lowest throw rate inside the striking area of any striker in all baseball, but mostly avoided becoming too impartial. One of Harper’s many positive attributes is always to find ways on the basis during a crisis.
Rojas found various ways to contribute to Wednesday’s victory. After locating himself on board and marked in the fourth, he chose, stole second and scored again in the sixth. Rojas strikes 0.303 in 73 plaques appearances this season. The goals were not perfect but they improve. With his speed and defense, it is difficult to sit down when he plays like that. Thomson said pre-match on Wednesday that he called Rojas and Brandon Marsh in his office after the opening of the series to exhibit the game plans over the next nine days while the Phillies face a multitude of right-handed launchers.
Cristopher Sanchez had far from his best control, but operated on six -sleeves aimlessly against the low infraction of the Rays. He walked three but only granted one move, a single to the third striker of the match. At a time in the sixth round, Sanchez had launched 39 strikes and 36 bullets, but he launched when they counted. He did not want to apologize but said after the match that there was a difference between the mounds in the enclosure of the lifts and on the field at Steinbrenner Field, which forced an adjustment.
Sanchez is 4-1 with an MPM of 2.89 to seven departures. He gave a point in 18 career rounds against the Rays, the team that exchanged him at the Phillies in November 2019 for Curtis Mead, who started first goal on Wednesday and went 0 for 4.
“I thought that his command and control were a little deactivated tonight,” said Thomson. “He was looking for his secondary lands at the start of the game. The speed fluctuated a little. But I thought he had improved over the game, finally found his change and started to order the typing area.
“But this is the difference between Sanchy now and Sanchy a few years ago. It could have gotten rid of. But he is mature, he has some experience now, he trusts, he believes in himself and he continues to fight.”
Taijuan Walker launched the last three innings for the first backup of his career in his first appearance of the surveys enclosure in 2025. His release began with five consecutive withdrawals and it took seven in total. It was the perfect type of exit from confidence while Walker went to “pen with Ranger Suarez Healthy.
The phils withdrew JT Realmuto at the end of the seventh, at the top of seven, with a contusion of the left foot after having hidden a step in the upper half. He was walking very well after the match, said Thomson, and the Phillies did not send him for x -rays. They will check it early tomorrow afternoon.
The phillies are the best 21-15 of the season. They are 8-3-1 in series 12, the best serial record of any team of the National League. Only the navies (9-2-1) won more.
