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HomeNews UpdateAll-Star starter and Marchan lead Phillies to series victory over Cubs – Phillies Nation

All-Star starter and Marchan lead Phillies to series victory over Cubs – Phillies Nation

July 4, 2024
All-Star starter and Marchan lead Phillies to series victory over Cubs – Phillies Nation

Alec Bohm hit a home run on Wednesday. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)

Final result: Phillies 5, Cubs 3

CHICAGO — One night ago it was his power. On Wednesday it was his speed that killed.

Fresh off a two-game, four-RBI performance against the Cubs in the series opener, Trea Turner, a 2024 National League All-Star starter, left no stone unturned to score two crucial runs in a 5-3 win at Wrigley Field on Wednesday.

Turner opened the sixth inning with an infield single that most other baseball players — perhaps anyone below the 95th percentile in sprint speed — can’t hit. Turner made it, which meant that a subsequent 415-foot big fly by another newly minted All-Star starter, Alec Bohm, counted as a double and put the Phillies ahead.

Two innings later, after the Cubs tied the game in the seventh against a struggling Matt Strahm, Turner and Bohm advanced on a passed ball before the former scored on a sacrifice fly 261 feet to center field. Turner slid, as he always does, but there was no play at the plate — and there might not have been had the throw been on the line. (The Phillies scored another run in that inning on a single by Whit Merrifield.)

“I thought in Detroit I started to feel good,” Turner said of his legs after the game. “I knew it would take some time, and you don’t feel great every day. But today I felt like there were some plays where I needed to be quick and get into the next gear, and I tried to do that. And obviously, it’s all good.”

Despite his nimble 2-for-4 performance, Turner may not have been the Phillies’ player of the game. That honor could well go to Rafael Marchan, whose 414-foot solo home run tied the game at 1-1 in the third inning before he hit a double in the fifth.

Since his hitless season debut, Marchan has a .281 batting average with two doubles – and three home runs, continuing his inexplicable, MLB-exclusive power surge.

“He likes the bright lights, I guess,” Thomson said after the game. “He’s a good-looking kid. He really does.”

The trio of Bohm, Turner and Marchan helped the Phillies win a middling pitching duel. Zack Wheeler allowed two runs in six innings, while former Phillies candidate Shōta Imanaga, a potential Cy Young contender from a Phillies trio, allowed three runs in six innings.

“It was a tough battle,” Wheeler said after the game. “I wasn’t at my best and I wasn’t at my best, so I just pushed myself a little bit. Marchan called a great game, you have to give him that … He’s one of those guys that came in and did very well. I like throwing to him. He’s younger, but he knows how to call a game, which is nice. And he took it well. You have to give him that.”

Orion Kerkering pitched a scoreless eighth inning and José Alvarado saved the Phillies. The aforementioned Strahm allowed two hits in the seventh inning to tie the game, the only blemish of the night for the bullpen. It has been in a slump of late.

It doesn’t matter right now. They’re 57-29.

Ticket IQ Next game

  • July 4 against Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field
  • 2:20 p.m. ET
  • TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia, MLB Network (out-of-market only)
  • Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP
  • Spanish Radio: WTTM1680

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