Phillies pitchers stifle Marlins for 3-1 victory
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Miami Marlins fouled pitches, took pitches and ballooned Vince Velasquez's pitch count.
The final pitch of each at-bat was nearly the same -- strike three.
Velasquez and the Phillies pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts and Philadelphia beat the Marlins 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Velasquez (5-1) struck out 10 in five innings, his highest total since he fanned 16 San Diego Padres in a shutout April 14. Velasquez has not pitched out of the seventh inning since that game and was lifted against the Marlins after 103 pitches.
"We got his pitch count up but weren't able to do much with him after that," Marlins left fielder Christian Yelich said.
Tommy Joseph hit his first major league homer and had three hits for Philadelphia. He hit cleanup in just his third big-league game and homered in the second inning off Marlins starter Wei-Yin Chen (3-2). Joseph's single in the sixth helped make it 3-0 when Marlins center fielder Marcell Ozuna booted the ball and allowed a runner to score.
Jeanmar Gomez allowed a run in the ninth and earned his 15th save.
Velasquez entered the game having fanned 49 of the 171 batters he faced, a 28.7 percent strikeout rate that was seventh-best in the National League. He struck out the side in the second inning, then whiffed two batters each in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
The Marlins made him work for those strikes. He put the first two hitters on base in the first inning before he retired the next three. Velasquez allowed a two-out triple and a walk in the third, then struck out Justin Bour to end the inning.
Joseph received the good-natured silent treatment when he returned to the dugout after he lined a 1-2 pitch that hit the foul pole in left field.
Marlins manager Don Mattingly didn't expect the effects of the loss to linger.
"They seem pretty even-keeled about the way they go about their business," he said. "You don't really feel a difference when we've lost a couple in a row."
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
Carlos Ruiz caught his 1,000th game for the Phillies. He's the fourth player in Phillies history with 1,000 or more games at catcher, joining Mike Lieberthal, Red Dooin and Bob Boone. He's just the 48th player in MLB history to catch 1,000 games with one team.
IT'S OVER
Ozuna went 0 for 3 and snapped a 16-game hitting streak. He hit .415 with five homers and 11 RBIs over his career-high tying streak.
"He's using the whole field now," Mattingly said. "Before he was pulling a lot of balls, chasing balls out of the strike zone. Early on, he was really wanting to get off to a good start. If you keep swinging at crap in the dirt, you ain't going to hit. It's pretty simple."
TRAINER'S ROOM
Marlins: RHP Edwin Jackson, on the DL since April 19 with a strained right triceps, is likely to return Friday. ... LHP Mike Dunn has thrown two bullpen sessions as he tries to return from a left forearm strain. Mattingly said the next step for Dunn was back-to-back bullpen sessions.
UP NEXT
The Marlins send RHP Tom Koehler (2-3, 5.14 ERA) to the mound against Philadelphia RHP Jeremy Hellickson (3-2, 4.12). Neither pitcher has a decision against the opposing team.
