Even the best team in baseball needs to breathe a sigh of relief now and then.
The Philadelphia Phillies, who lead the majors with 63 wins, avoided a three-game sweep when they posted a 6-0 road win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.
Now, the Phillies will look to build a winning streak as they open a three-game set against the Minnesota Twins on Monday night in Minneapolis.
“It was big,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said after his team’s latest victory. “We needed to get back on the winning side, and I think that makes everybody feel good. We’ll have a happy flight and go into Minnesota and start all over again.”
Meanwhile, the Twins are looking for a clean slate after a disappointing weekend series against the Milwaukee Brewers. They lost back-to-back, hard-fought games: An 8-4 setback in 12 innings on Saturday and an 8-7 loss on Sunday.
“Two-game series, we lost both of them,” Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And, looking in the mirror, we should win both of those games. That’s my opinion.”
The Phillies will turn to left-hander Ranger Suarez (10-4, 2.76 ERA) to start Monday’s series opener. Suarez, 28, has 112 strikeouts in 114 innings on the season.
In his most recent outing on July 12, Suarez took the loss after giving up four runs on six hits in six innings against the visiting Oakland Athletics. He walked three and struck out six.
This will be Suarez’s second career start against the Twins. He lost his first meeting on Aug. 13, 2023, despite limiting Minnesota to two runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings.
The Twins will counter with right-hander Bailey Ober (8-5, 4.14). The 6-foot-9, 260-pound hurler has 106 strikeouts in 100 innings this season.
Ober also took a loss in his last game before the All-Star break. He allowed three runs on four hits in six innings in a 3-1 defeat at the Chicago White Sox on July 10.
The 29-year-old Ober has never faced Philadelphia. In 13 career interleague starts, he is 3-1 with a 3.69 ERA.
Baldelli is hoping to see a turnaround from his team against the Phillies. In its past two games, Minnesota went 3-for-26 with runners in scoring position.
The Twins’ bullpen faltered as well. Minnesota relievers allowed home runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings in Sunday’s one-run loss.
“We scored seven runs. That’s plenty of runs to win a game,” Baldelli said. “Coming back after the break, we’ve got to play a complete game at some point. We have to really play better baseball as a team. Execute better, make better pitches, when there’s people on base find a barrel somehow.
“That will lead to winning more games.”
Philadelphia outfielder Nick Castellanos will try to stay hot after going 2-for-5 with a double and a solo home run on Sunday. It was his 14th homer and 50th RBI this season.
Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper added an RBI to give him 63 on the season, second-most on the team. He trails third baseman Alec Bohm, who also drove in a run Sunday and has 71 in 97 games.
–Field Level Media