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On Saturday, the Phillies lost their fourth consecutive game in head-scratching fashion.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, and the game scoreless with two outs, Guardians slugger Jose Ramirez sent what seemed like a harmless fly ball to shallow right center field.

Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott went back on the ball, while center fielder Brandon Marsh closed in for the out. Right fielder Nick Castellanos, who closed in late on the play, also had an opportunity to run under the routine pop fly.

Instead, the three players inexplicably allowed the ball to hit the grass.

The virtual three-player blunder allowed speedy Guardians infielder Amed Rosario, who was running hard on contact with two outs, to come around and score all the way from first base.

The one run was the deciding factor in the Guardians’ 1–0 win, spoiling a splendid outing by ace Zach Wheeler, who went seven strong innings allowing just five hits while striking out eight.

To compound matters, the Phillies were unable to make up for their mistake in the field, managing just two hits over nine innings, with Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee besting Wheeler by hurling seven scoreless frames to earn the win.

Philadelphia, who is in the thick of the NL wild card hunt, will try to avoid being swept by Cleveland when they send Aaron Nola to the bump on Sunday.

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Xzavion Curry Records First Career Win Against Cardinals pitching the final three innings
setting up the Cleveland Guardians to walk off the St. Louis Cardinals.


Xzavion Curry starting Sundays game vs Aaron Nola. Nola will be making his first career start.

A much needed sweep is not out of the question after Bibee out pitched Philly ace Zack Wheeler on Saturday night.

I'd like to give Curry the edge over Nola in this one.

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You know, with 2 out and a runner on first, a lazy pop fly would prompt the runner to follow the base path to the dugout, but Rosario ran the whole way and scored the only run of the game. I don't think enough is said about his doing that, most other players would have ended up on third, or thrown out by the defender.

Totally agree Dennis.

That's why I posted the event. The effort is there and should be a reminder to the rest of the club that this is how baseball should be played. Follow the example and good things will happen.

GUARDIANS

Cleveland Guardians, Philadelphia Phillies starting lineups for July 23, 2023: Game No. 99

Updated: Jul. 23, 2023, 10:58 a.m.|Published: Jul. 23, 2023, 10:31 a.m.

By Joe Noga, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Here are the starting lineups for Sunday’s game between the Guardians and Phillies.

Where: Progressive Field, 1:40 p.m.

TV/radio: Bally Sports Great Lakes, WTAM 1100 AM, WMMS 100.7 FM and the Guardians Radio Network.

Teams: Guardians (49-49) vs. Phillies (52-46).

Starting pitchers: RHP Xzavion Curry (3-0, 2.86) vs. RHP Aaron Nola (8-6, 4.39).

LINEUPS

Guardians

LF Steven Kwan.

SS Tyler Freeman.

3B José Ramírez.

DH Josh Naylor.

1B Josh Bell.

2B Andrés Giménez.

RF David Fry.

CF Will Brennan.

C Cam Gallagher.

Phillies

DH Kyle Schwarber.

SS Trea Turner.

RF Nick Castellanos.

1B Bryce Harper.

C JT Realmuto.

2B Bryson Stott.

3B Alec Bohm.

CF Brandon Marsh.

LF Jake Cave.

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Guardians’ running man runs his team into a 1-0 victory over the Phillies

Updated: Jul. 23, 2023, 10:35 a.m.|Published: Jul. 23, 2023, 9:02 a.m.

Cleveland scored the lone run with two outs in the sixth, when José Ramírez's pop-up fell between second baseman Bryson Stott, center fielder Brandon Marsh and right fielder Nick Castellanos in a classic example of miscommunication.

Rosario capitalized on the mistake, racing around from first and spoiling a strong outing by Philadelphia starter Zack Wheeler (7-5). The right-hander pitched seven innings, allowing five hits while striking out eight in his first loss since May 22, against Arizona.

“It’s an absolutely unbelievable feeling to get that one,” Bibee said. “You can’t make any mistakes against an offense like the Phillies, and they made one mistake and it ended up costing them.

“Amed’s focus right there was the difference between winning and losing.”

A crowd of 37,937 was in attendance, marking Cleveland's first back-to-back home sellouts since July 13-14,

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Nick Castellanos, Rob Thomson gets brutally honest on costly error that doomed Phillies vs. Guardians

The Phillies had a tragic case of miscommunication that led to a costly error, one that would ultimately lead to their loss.

By Gerard Angelo Samillano

Jul 23, 2023 at 8:24 AM CDT

Well, that's one way to lose a game. The Philadelphia Phillies were doing a good job holding down the Cleveland Guardians. In the sixth inning, though, disaster struck. Zach Wheeler induced a routine pop-up into center right field. Three players converged towards the ball… but none of them were able to come down with it. Instead, the ball dropped… and a run was scored.

That run, unfortunately, was the only run scored by both teams in the game. After the game, a couple of Phillies players talked about this costly blunder. Rob Thomson and Nick Castellanos confirmed what everyone suspected: it was a bad case of miscommunication that led to the error, per The Inquirer.

“Manager Rob Thomson called it a miscommunication. Castellanos and Stott agreed. Stott thought he heard Castellanos say something just before the ball reached the ground and interpreted that as a sign to back off. Castellanos said he assumed Stott was under it and didn’t call him off. Regardless, Thomson said it was up to one of the outfielders to make the play.”

Fly balls require communication from all fielders involve to make the right play. Catching the ball is the easy part: the hard part is figuring out which player is going to make the play. The Phillies outfielders (Castellanos and Brandon Marsh) assumed that second baseman Bryson Stott would field it. On the other hand, Stott misheard Castellanos and though he was getting the ball.

While that was a brutal mistake from the Phillies, it's also worth pointing out that that mistake could've easily been nullified if they got a run of their own. Philly was shut out by the Guardians' elite pitching staff, with Castellanos and co. faltering in the few RISP opportunities they got during the game. It was a rough outing, and here's to hoping they bounce back after two dreadful showings.

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Guardians turn to Xzavion Curry in bid to sweep Phillies

MLB

Published July 23, 2023

The Cleveland Guardians will try to get back over. 500 when they host the Philadelphia Phillies in the finale of their three-game series on Sunday.

The Guardians won the first two games of the series and four of five overall to move their record to 49-49.

Cleveland was over .500 on July 8 — the first time it reached that mark since mid-April — but lost the next day and hasn’t climbed back over the hump since.

The Guardians are making their most recent run without right-hander Shane Bieber, the 2020 American League Cy Young winner who was placed on the 15-day injured list on July 15 because of inflammation in his throwing elbow.

Bieber, who went 0-3 with a 5.22 ERA in his five outings before going on the injured list, likely would have been the starter on Sunday. Instead, Xzavion Curry will fill his spot for the second straight time.

Curry (3-0, 2.86 ERA) allowed one hit in three innings of Cleveland’s 11-0 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday. It was his first start this season following 24 relief appearances.

Starting is nothing new to Curry, however.

He started 40 of his 44 games while in the minors the past two seasons and made two more starts in his only appearances for the Guardians last season.

“I wouldn’t say it’s been difficult,” Curry said of his spot starts. “I would say it’s been an adjustment, just preparing my body to be ready to come in in situations and not have the same amount of time as a starter.”

Curry said the key is to be efficient.

“Just go out there and eat up innings without letting them score any runs,” he said.

The Phillies will try to end their four-game losing skid behind veteran right-hander Aaron Nola.

Nola (9-6, 4.27) has won three of his past four starts.

He most recently allowed three runs (two earned) and four hits in 7 1/3 innings of a 4-3 win against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday.

Nola retired the first 14 batters he faced.

“He threw a ton of strikes, which is something he does,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “He throws strikes in a good part of the zone for him — on the edge of the zone. We didn’t get ahead [in] many counts. That’s what he’s good at. He did a nice job sprinkling in more offspeed tonight, I thought. His offspeed was strikes.”

Nola has never faced Cleveland in his career.

The Phillies will try to provide some offense for Nola after coming up empty for Zack Wheeler.

Wheeler held the Guardians to one run and five hits in seven innings, but his counterpart, Tanner Bibee, blanked Philadelphia on two hits over seven innings.

The top five hitters for the Phillies — Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto — combined to go 1-for-17 on Saturday.

“They’ve got to come out of it. They’ve got to hit,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said. “Those five guys got to hit, and that’s where we’re at.”

–Field Level Media

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Bummer! Twins swept the Sox. We're 3 back now. Most since spring. We are digging a deep hole.

Could have been worse. Much worse. We could very easily have been 5 behind. 5 back at this point in the season would be very difficult to overcome.

Well, Monday we host the Royals and the Twins get Seattle at home.

Bullpen guys are either falling apart or are overused. Tito thinks the latter. And have to agree; we are getting few starts that last as long as 6 innings.

On the other hand Hentges has been stunningly bad of late and could well benefit from some R and R in Columbus. 13 runs in 5 innings over his last 7 appearances. ERA 23.40 WHIP 3.40

Fry catching today. They're go with a 3 man catching rotation.

2 long balls for Ramirez. Williams labors through 4. 5 relievers allow 2 runs over the final 5. 2 behind the Twinss

Guardians done in by too much Touki (Toussaint) in 3-0 loss to White Sox

Touki Toussaint, who will be part of the rotation for the rest of ‘23 and probably into ‘24, earned his first victory with the White Sox by striking out four over five scoreless innings.

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