Michael Lorenzen shines in debut to lead Phillies to series win over Marlins

MIAMI — To say Michael Lorenzen was efficient in his Phillies debut would be an understatement. The right-handed starter, acquired at the trade deadline on Tuesday, needed 101 pitches to get through eight innings in the Phillies’ 4-2 win over the Miami Marlins on Thursday.

Lorenzen threw 12 in the first, nine in the second, 11 in the third, 18 in the fourth, 10 in the fifth, 15 in the sixth, 15 in the seventh, and eight in the eighth.

The most trouble he had came in the seventh inning. With two outs, Lorenzen allowed a solo home run to Bryan De La Cruz and a double to Jesus Sánchez. But he induced a groundout to end the inning, finishing byallowing six hits and two earned runs with a walk and five strikeouts.

It was Lorenzen’s longest outing of the season. When manager Rob Thomson asked him if he was good to pitch the eighth, he was excited.

“I was pretty stoked when he asked me how I was feeling after the seventh, meaning, if I felt good he was going to let me get another one,” Lorenzen said. “I was happy about it. I was like, ‘Heck yeah.’ ”

“J.T. [Realmuto] did an incredible job of catching me,” he added. “Hats off to him. We were mixing it really well. We were in the strike zone enough with multiple different offerings, to where if they’re timed up to one, let’s throw this one and maybe get some weak contact. They’re pretty aggressive, so you just want to leverage that into weak contact. And the defense did a good job behind me.”

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It gave the Phillies a big lift. Thomson did not have an unlimited supply of relievers at his disposal after a four-hour, extra-inning game Wednesday night. He said after the game that he had just three. But aside from that, it was also another anemic day for the Phillies’ offense, which meant there was little room for error for Lorenzen.

The Phillies went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and combined for six hits, four runs, and two walks. The highlight of the day was Realmuto, who returned to the lineup after missing the past two games. Realmuto scraped his hand while sliding into a base on Monday night, which made it painful for him to swing.

But you wouldn’t have been able to tell that. He went 2-for-4, including a two-run shot to right-center field in the second inning. It gave the Phillies an early 2-0 lead, which they built to 4-1 the seventh after Brandon Marsh’s two-run single to right.

“I’m going to be honest, the first time I took a swing the last three days was in the game,” Realmuto said. “Even today, during batting practice, I didn’t swing very much because I didn’t want to irritate it. Every swing I took was a one-handed kind of letting go of the bat early. But I guess in the game the adrenaline kind of took over.

“[The home run] felt great. To be able to give the team the lead there after a tough loss last night and give us some momentum and give Lorenzen some runs early, it definitely felt very good.”

It was a tough series for some of the Phillies’ stars, notably Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber. Turner, who was moved to the eight-hole, went 0-for-3, and Schwarber went 0-for-4. Schwarber and Turner both went 0-for-5 with a walk Wednesday.

But once again, the Phillies found a way to win both the series and the road trip.

“Honestly it’s kind of what we’ve been doing as a team,” Realmuto said. “We feel like we’re leaving so much out there, but we’re still playing good baseball and we’re still finding ways to win games and win series. And this was a huge series for us.

“We knew coming in that it was going to be tough, and they’re a good ball club over there, who we’re fighting for a playoff spot with. So coming out with a win today was huge. Winning three out of four is a lot different feeling than splitting with these guys. Today was a very important game and I’m glad Lorenzen threw the ball so well for us.”