Homegrown talent and the bullpen carry the Phillies in opener of key series against the Cardinals

Score one for the Phillies’ farm system.

The bullpen, too.

For good reason, there haven’t been two more frequently criticized areas of the organization over the last several years. Yet here they were Friday night — recent call-ups Mickey Moniak and Darick Hall and five relief pitchers — carrying the Phillies to an uplifting 5-3 victory in the opener of a pivotal series with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Go figure.

Moniak kickstarted the Phillies’ comeback from a 3-0 deficit with an RBI double — off a curveball, no less — in the fifth inning. But it was Hall who cracked the go-ahead home run in the sixth and became only the third player ever to homer for his first three major league hits.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Darick Hall basking in glow of hitting three homers for his first MLB hits

“Long Ball Hall?” Moniak said, spilling the beans on the nickname given to Hall at triple-A Lehigh Valley. “I’ve seen it since low A. I’ve seen it since 2017. No surprise to me. But I’m glad that everyone gets to see it on a national level now.”

The Phillies called up Hall this week, even though he wasn’t on the 40-man roster, because they wanted extra left-handed power for a stretch of games against mostly right-handed starting pitchers. The 6-foot-4, 232-pound slugger fits that profile, with 118 homers in six minor league seasons.

Interim manager Rob Thomson put Hall into the cleanup spot of a batting order that will be missing injured Bryce Harper for at least six weeks, including a stretch of seven games in 10 days against the Cardinals, a chief adversary in the wild-card race. But Thomson also had simple instructions for the 26-year-old rookie.

“I said, ‘Don’t change your routine. Be nice and relaxed, do everything you did in Lehigh Valley, and just go out and play,’” Thomson said. “That’s what he’s doing. He’s having a lot of fun right now.”

Hall went deep twice in Thursday night’s rout of the Atlanta Braves, then hit a changeup from Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas into the right-field seats to break a 3-3 tie. Hall upstaged even Cardinals slugger Nolan Arenado, who hit for the cycle, and made himself the answer to a trivia question.

Name the only other Phillies player to homer for his first three major league hits: Ed Sanicki in 1949. It has happened only nine times overall in the expansion era (since 1961), most recently Pittsburgh’s Rodolfo Castro last season.

“To be able to come up and perform and be able to help the team is everything,” said Hall, taking a break from watching postgame fireworks with his wife, Ashley, and mom, Lynette Andrade. “Because that’s why you’re here. Winning games, that’s everything.”

» READ MORE: Mickey Moniak will get his best (and last?) chance to show the Phillies he belongs

Hall was in position to put the Phillies ahead in part because of Moniak. With Harper out, Thomson is giving the former No. 1 overall pick a run of playing time in center field. Thus far, Moniak has struggled, especially against breaking pitches. Unsurprisingly, he has seen a steady stream of curveballs.

With the Phillies trailing by three runs, Garrett Stubbs reached on an error, and Matt Vierling singled. Up stepped Moniak, who drove a curveball into the gap in right-center field.

It marked Moniak’s first hit off a curveball in the majors and his first extra-base hit of the season.

“I guess I can hit a breaking ball,” he said, laughing. “I’ve always been able to hit a breaking ball my whole career. I think the biggest thing is just relaxing, going out there playing my game, and having fun, man. Sometimes I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself, and today, I just took a step back and let things happen.”

Said Thomson: “You could see the blood come back in his face. He was trying to do too much.”

After starter Bailey Falter went only four innings, Nick Nelson, José Alvarado, Andrew Bellatti, Seranthony Domínguez, and Brad Hand passed the baton for the final 15 outs.

For a change, the fireworks waited until after the game with the Phillies safeguarding a late-inning lead.

It was the continuation of a nine-game stretch in which the bullpen, which appeared to be in disarray after struggling Corey Knebel was removed from the closer role, has allowed only 14 of 98 batters to reach base.

“I think they’re pitching to their level,” Thomson said. “That’s what we expected with some of these guys. When you’re struggling, you put a couple guys in the lower-leverage situations just to be able to breathe and relax, and now they’ve got their confidence back. We’re to the point now where you trust just about everybody.”

» READ MORE: As the Phillies forge ahead without Bryce Harper, Pat Gillick recalls 2007 trade for Chase Utley’s fill-in

Vierling is bidding to elbow his way into the lineup every day, not only against left-handed pitchers. It was notable, then, that he singled in the big fifth inning against Mikolas, a right-hander.

“We’ve always thought that he can hit righties and lefties,” Thomson said. “He just got off to a little bit of a slow start against righties. But he’s coming.”

Vierling also made his second major league start at third base. After handling three chances, including starting an around-the-horn double play to end the second inning, he made a throwing error in the eighth inning.

With Zach Eflin sidelined by a bruised knee, the Phillies called up Falter, as expected, to fill his spot in the rotation. Falter gave up three runs in four innings.

Falter threw 66 pitches and could’ve pitched deeper in the game. But the Phillies wouldn’t let him face the heart of the Cardinals’ order a third time. Paul Goldschmidt and Arenado combined to go 4-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs against him.