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Aug 14, 2023

Michael Lorenzen dominates in Phillies debut, wraps up series against Marlins with win

Michael Lorenzen dominates in Phillies debut, wraps up series against Marlins with win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia After Wednesday night’s karate-chop-to-the-throat loss, in which

Michael Lorenzen dominates in Phillies debut, wraps up series against Marlins with win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

After Wednesday night’s karate-chop-to-the-throat loss, in which the Phillies bullpen was scored on in the eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th innings, Phillies manager Rob Thomson was asked if he had sufficient relief reinforcements to get through Thursday’s high noon series finale against the Marlins.

“I think so,” he said.

Thanks to Michael Lorenzen, who filled up eight strong innings in his Phillies debut, the Phillies were able to get out of LoanDepot Park with a 4-2 win even though closer Craig Kimbrel, back-up closer Gregory Soto and two other pen pieces were unavailable. That left it up to Serathony Dominguez to come in and earned his second save of the season.

Thomson was also unsure about the availability of catcher J.T. Realmuto, who had missed the previous two games with what was described as a “huge gash” on his throwing hand.

Not only did he start, his two-run homer off veteran Marlins righthander Johnny Cueto in the second put the Phillies ahead for good.

The other crucial hit was a one-out bases-loaded single by Brandon Marsh in the seventh that gave Thomson a little breathing room to allow Lorenzen to complete eight innings for the first time this season even though Yunior Marte was warming up.

Marsh’s grounder through the right side was especially significant because it came against Marlins lefthander A.J. Puk who had struck out the lefty-swinging Marsh in all four of their previous match-ups, according to Thomson.

“I’m getting more at bats against these late-inning lefty arms,” Marsh said in his postgame, on-field interview. “They’re pretty dang good. Just the more times you see them, the better your chances are. Just a lot of practice and keep working.”

The top line for the day, though, was the 31-year-old righthander who, less than 48 hours earlier, had been acquired from the Tigers for minor league second baseman Hao-Yu Lee.

He’s been around the block, now with his fourth team after also playing with the Reds and Angels. His career stats are ordinary. But he’s talked about having refined his repertoire this season and there are certainly hints that he may be onto something.

In his last eight starts, he has a 2.45 earned run average.

“I was pretty stoked when (Thomson) asked me how I was feeling after the seventh,” Lorenzen told reporters in Miami. “Meaning, if I felt good he was going to let me get another one. So I was happy about that.”

After the game, the manager admitted that he wasn’t going to use Kimbrel under any circumstances and that he also wanted to stay away from Soto, Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm if at all possible. That left Dominguez, Marte and Dylan Covey as the only arms the manager felt comfortable bringing into the game.

“I just felt like he was in control,” Thomson said, explaining the decision to extend Lorenzen. “Very poised out there. He just went about his business.”

Continued Lorenzen: “J.T. did an incredible job for his first time catching me. Hats off to him. We were just mixing it really well. I didn’t shake (him off) once.”

That’s part of his new approach. “This year it’s kind of been that way for me,” he said. “Instead of multi-tasking out there and trying to figure out what’s the best pitch to throw, just trust in my catcher and being fully bought-in to just making a pitch. And that’s it. Just simplify it. So it’s helped me quite a bit.

“I’ve heard really good things about J.T. What I’ve heard is that he’s more prepared than anyone. And so it gave me a lot of confidence to say, ‘All right. You’ve got the game.’’’

Said Thomson: “He came as advertised. He filled the strike zone up. Got a lot of ground ball outs. His slider was really good. He was a blessing for us, really. We won the road trip and won the series. It’s huge.”

Lorenzen needed just 101 pitches to get through his eight innings, 72 of which were strikes.

The Phillies have now reached the juncture of their schedule which, presumably, turns team-friendly.

After their charter settled onto the runway at Philadelphia International Airport Thursday night, they have only one more scheduled flight this month, a two-game hop to Toronto. They also have three games in Washington which won’t require leaving solid ground.

Tote it all up and it comes to 24 of their next 29 at the friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park, practically a staycation for traveling band of gypsies who play baseball for a living and are accustomed to spending half their regular season nights in hotels. Or, to put it another way, a spell that starts at the very beginning of the dog days and ends at the height of Back to School Sales.

So will this be the trigger for the Phillies to finally put it all together and cement their wild card spot in the postseason tournament?

Eh. Maybe.

It was just a week ago that the schedule makers seemed to have done the Phillies a solid by lining up three last-place teams (Pirates, Royals, Nationals) and a slumping Marlins club that had recently dropped 10 of 11 games.

That hasn’t turned out to be the bonanza the Phillies might have hoped, at least not yet. They went 4-3 on the Pittsburgh-Miami jaunt. Two of the defeats were walkoffs, one of them coming after the bullpen failed to protect leads in the ninth, 10th and 11th before finally losing in the 12th.

Once again, the schedule has dealt the Phillies a favorable hand. It’s up to them what they do with that opportunity.

UP NEXT

•Royals RHP Jordan Lyles (2-12, 6.15) vs. RHP Aaron Nola (9-7, 4.43) Friday at 7:05 p.m.

•RHP Alex Marsh (0-5, 6.75) vs. LHP Cristopher Sanchez (0-3, 2.66)

•RHP Zack Greinke (1-11, 5.32) vs. RHP Taijuan Walker (12-4, 3.99)