The Philadelphia Phillies have clinched a postseason berth. The Pittsburgh Pirates were the victims. Bae Ji-hwan was forced to watch as the Phillies clinched a postseason berth after the loss.
Bae started at first base against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on April 27 and went 0-for-4 at the plate. His season batting average dropped to .238 (77-for-324).
Bae sprinted to first base on a 1B2S count in the top of the first inning after hitting a 93.4-mph four-seam fastball from Philadelphia starter Aaron Nola, but was narrowly thrown out at the plate on an accurate throw from third baseman Alec Bomb, who caught the heavily bound ball.
In the third inning, the leadoff hitter struck out looking. On a 2B2S count, he watched Nola’s five-pitch, 85.2-mph changeup. As the pitcher’s hand went up, Bae shook his head in disbelief and walked away.
With the score tied at 0-0, Bae struck out again in the bottom of the sixth. This time, on a 2B2S count, he swung at Nola’s five-pitch, 79-mph curveball. In the top of the eighth, with the score tied 2-2, he hit a grounder to second base with the bases loaded. Facing a full count against right-handed reliever Craig Kimbrel, he pulled hard on a 96-mph fastball that rolled away.
The game was tightly contested. It was a back-and-forth pitching battle between Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller and Philadelphia’s Nola. In the top of the sixth inning, Brandon Marsh led off the inning with a solo home run off of Keller’s center field fastball that just cleared the center field fence. Bryce Harper followed with a sacrifice fly to put runners on second and third for a 2-0 lead.메이저사이트
Pittsburgh got a run back in the top of the seventh, however, when leadoff hitter Brian Reynolds took a knuckleball down the middle of Nola’s two-seam fastball for a grand slam. In the eighth, Henry Davis tied the game at 2-2 with a solo shot to left field off a Kimbrel curveball with one out.
The game was decided in extra innings. After Pittsburgh failed to score in the top of the 10th, the Phillies scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th on Johan Rojas’ game-tying double to center field.
With their sixth straight win, the Phillies improved to 88-69 and clinched the wild card. The Phillies can clinch the third wild card even if they lose all five of their remaining games.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh, already out of the postseason, has lost two straight to fall to 74-83. The last time Pittsburgh played fall baseball was in 2015. It was the eighth consecutive year that the Pirates had a fall season.