High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Phillies Win Close Game 1 In Boston

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Kyle Schwarber hit another home run and Zack Wheeler dominated the Red Sox for 7 innings in Tuesday's win in Boston. Jack Fritz reacts to everything that went down at Fenway, including Jhoan Duran picking up another save. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome on, it is the final out. Jack Fritz hanging out with you here on this Tuesday night as we react to a Phil's win up in Boston. It kind of started like it was going to be a route, but ended up being. a close, tight, good ball game. The final out is always sponsored by the Philadelphia Parking Authority, offering valet park at the Philly Airport. So Phil's win, 2-1. We'll get into it all here.

The game wrap-up is sponsored by Roto-Ruder. When plumbing problems hit, wrap them up quick and call Roto-Ruder. Their team tackles clogs and leaks so you can stay in the game. Roto-Ruder, your MVP for plumbing solutions. 215-5-9-2-94 to get in on this one, if you were up in Boston, you know, sometimes I have luck when I say, hey, if you're up in Boston, I'd love to hear from you. Seems like there was a good amount of Phillies fans there tonight, or if you watch this one at home, would love to hear from you as well.

I was actually, I'll give the Red Sox fans credit for a team that has been kind of eh this year, and I think people are really mad at ownership, and people seem generally upset with the team. There's some electricity late in that game. Well, let's go Red Sox chance. you can, it really, honestly, just brought me back to, I don't know, the 2021 ALCS, 2018 run, 13 run, where that ballpark can get, get kind of, you feel like it's on top of you. So it was a good kind of old school Fenway feel tonight up there. But I love when the Phillies play there and Wrigley.

There's just a, the baseball culture in Philly is great. CBP is great. But we can all be honest. There's a different feeling when you're in one of those old ballparks. a traditional, you know, baseball town and the ballparks right downtown. It's just a, it's just a different feel that is really hard to replicate anywhere else besides really Wrigley and Fenway. Old Yankee Stadium, of course, but, you know, those two are the main ones.

So always, always, always so fun watching the Phillies go up there and play and seeing how they, seeing how they do. And much like 2025, we've talked a lot about this team starting to resemble 25 Phillies. all of a sudden under Don Mattingly, 11 and 3 under Donnie baseball. They take the first game of the series. And they've been pretty good at that since Don took over. They should have taken the first game of that series against the Rockies. But, I mean, it was a frustrating loss.

Thankfully, they still came back and won the series. Not to, I don't know if it's a hot take or not, much easier to win series when you take the first game of that series. So good to see the Phillies take care of business tonight. The biggest take with the game. brought to by Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. And it was a tough win. It was a character-building win.

It was tight. I liked watching them play in a tight game against a pretty decent. I know their record wouldn't suggest that they're good, but there's some decent talent on that roster for the Red Sox. And it was good to see this team come through, make the plays late in a tight ballgame. Turner had a good defensive night. I would have liked to see him flip that ball there,

but that ball was smoked and it was a bang-bang-play and he thought he could do the he thought he could just take it himself it didn't work but overall it's a really solid defensive night brandon marsh in left field keeping that that play in front of him not letting yoshita get the second base it ultimately didn't matter because the runner ended up being a scoring position anyway but it was a crisp night you're going to have to play in playoff games like that where the outcome is could be determined by how you are defensively Stott talked a little bit after the game about, or I think Team Matt kind of teed him up with the whole,

hey, you guys are doing more work defensively. And Stott kind of hinted at focusing more and more on the little things. And I feel like we as Philly's fans have been preaching that for years. If you don't emphasize the little things, major league players that are paid a lot of money are not going to care about them. They've played a lot of baseball. It's a grind of a season. If you don't prioritize the league,

little things, then if you make them like optional, maybe like Rob Thompson may have done. I don't know if he did do, but may have done. And usually players aren't going to care. If you prioritize them and you make them a big deal and you make them a part of your daily routine when you get to the ballpark as maybe Don Maddenly is doing, that's how you get crisp, clean baseball. And they've made one error in the Don Maddenly era. That's impressive.

That's a pretty quick turnaround. We talk about how much of a difference is Don Maddenly made. And maybe there's a different level of locked-inness now that Rob Thompson is not here. But we can all agree that they've been playing better baseball since Maddenley has taken over. They've done some different things on the base pass. He's generally been more aggressive with getting pitchers out of the ballgame. We'll get to that with Wheeler tonight. but there's been, he said there was going to be little changes with him as manager,

and I think the little changes are the little things. And ultimately they could end up paying big dividends for this team. So it was a tough win. I like seeing them in games like that. I felt like they were going to lose. The ball that Willier-Abreu hit off of Zach Wheeler, I thought was 900 feet, just happened to fall short. So that was good.

I think it was a home run in 29 out of 30 ballparks, I think, which kind of feels wrong because, I didn't, obviously in the corner and around Peske's pole, you know, that's when it gets kind of tight. But I never really thought of Fenway is some short porch in right field. So I was surprised that that ball didn't go out because with the camera workout, I thought I was going, again, like 900 feet. Second biggest thing is that Zach Wheeler was brilliant.

I mean, I think he was at 48 pitches through six innings. He was crazy, or maybe in the sixth inning. His pitch count was awesome. He was generating early ground balls after allowing a base runner and getting double plays and fastball velocity. He held that all throughout. He's still pumping 95 in that last inning. My only thing with Wheeler is, you know,

Madrigley has been very, very aggressive in getting starters out of games and having a good feel for. They might be losing it and getting a guy out of there before it's too late. And I thought tonight, I didn't think he lost it. in that seventh inning, and he rebounded and got out of it. But all of a sudden, they were starting to square up balls off him much more. And I know his pitch count was manageable. It was in a pretty good spot.

But I was really surprised. The one rule of thumb, if I was ever a big league manager, which I don't think is going to happen. But I don't love when a pitcher late in a start has a high stress inning, gets out of it, and then goes back out there. You know, some pitchers call it the fist pump rule. where if you see your pitcher fist bump, like show emotion, real emotion, not like a little cute fist pump, but a real fist pump and real emotion, you got to get him out of there because it's this thing where the adrenaline's going

and then he kind of sit down and it's hard to get that going again. And in Wheeler's case, you know, put him out there for the eighth. I understand the logic. It's a lot of, you know, creating a plan there to get Jeremy. Duran out who doesn't have bad numbers against lefties this year and did smoke that ball at Trey. To me, I would have to start with Kirkcring and let him go that inning against the righties to start it off before, you know, worrying about Jaron Duran, which hopefully in that case is with two outs anyway. So I just, I know his pitch can was manageable. I know that's enticing as a

manager. But for my money, I would have gotten him out of there and just gone to Kirkland. ring or even Alvarado if he wanted to, I just would have gone to Kirkering instead of putting Wheeler back out there, especially after getting out of a high stress seventh inning. But overall, he was great. I mean, seven and a third one run and just continue. I cannot believe how good Zach Wheeler looks. So he looks just like Zach Wheeler, which I think is the best compliment you could give him at this point.

And then this is just a minor gripe. but, you know, does every Duran 9th have to be so excruciating? You know, he's, Duran is one of the best closures in baseball. He's not Mason Miller. Mason Miller is on a different stratosphere. Duran's probably a top five closer in baseball. But, man, there's traffic every outing, it feels like. The one, two, three outings feel more, feel few and far in between.

Like there's just not many easy nights, especially in a one-run spot. You knew that that was getting a runner in scoring position, and you just have to kind of hold onto your butts. And man, he's converted a lot of saves. He's got one of the five best saved percentages in baseball history. But for his stuff, and man, I just, I am surprised at how tight to run nines have been, given the guy that I thought they were getting. But I guess you look at this right, got numbers,

and it kind of adds up. He's a pitch-to-contact guy that there's 101 miles an hour with like four different pitches. It's wild. But thankfully, he was able to get the job done, and he is now 102 saves away from passing Jonathan Papabond for the team's all-time saves record. 215-592-94.

Let's kick it off with my guy, Dave, and Maryland. What's happening, Dave? Hey, just a solid vintage wheel. It's just, I think one of the keys through the season, we said, is Zach Wheeler going to be Zach Wheeler? And so far he has been, which is just a great plus and just happy for him coming back from that. He's just been, you know, everything you expected to him to be and more so far. And just a fastball velocity getting up to 96 tonight consistently and just a welcome site and hopefully can keep that up. I mean, if he does, like, it just, it just gives the team.

He's given the team a lot of such a boost, and I'm just glad he's on our side. The stock continues to hit the ball pretty well, you know, the double in the first, or the first a bat pulling the ball and being aggressive in the strike zone. That's a great, great sight. And then I noticed something the Red Sox did tonight, and I was wondering your thoughts on, you know, possibly the Phillies doing that. Brian Beaux had been struggling, you know, starting games, and they brought the opener in for them.

And the one game that Andrew Painter threw very well this year was the migraine game where he came out of the bullpen. I'm wondering if the Phillies would ever consider doing something like that with him. You know, Dave, that's a great call. I appreciate the phone call, as always. It's really interesting. And he's dead right. The migraine game against the debacks that came in after, what,

the third inning or after two innings and then came in third and pitched until the seventh through the seventh and he looked great. That start and the national start and for the most part the brave start up until the Michael Harris

at bat which I don't think he should have even been in for down at Atlanta on that Friday night. So it's a good thought. It's a really really interesting thought. If he does continue to struggle at least it would give him, it would get him off the top of the order I guess the one thing in not doing it is you want him to develop as a starter at the big league level.

Obviously, I know that he's coming in and getting the bulk of the outing, but letting him kind of go through the trials and tribulations and figuring out the first inning and facing the top of the lineup, I know it would possibly set him up for success in the outing, but I do wonder if they just wanted to develop him as a starter. But it certainly is an idea. Maybe a month from now, I would give him a couple more starts here before I start doing that. At least Brian Bello, Bejo, he had years at the big league level where he wasn't getting a job done and then was getting blasted this year. Painter is six starts in.

I've heard some people say the same thing with Nola, and it could be a thought with NOLS. but I think Nola would that would probably throw off his routine a little bit too much so I don't think that would happen but it's certainly something with a young guy like Painter who is not getting off to the best starts against top of lineups

be something to maybe consider so it's definitely something to monitor as the season goes long. On the other side, we will get to the player of the game and speaking of some situations we're monitoring, There is some monitoring that needs to happen here because there's been two positive developments in addition to a lot of positive developments that are happening with this team right now, but two ones that are really, really important that I want to talk about next. Here on the final up on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you own a nail salon, everything needs to be perfect from tip to toe.

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and everywhere else you get podcasts. Yeah, Bryce and Stott, another pulled ball there, another piece of hard contact. And he is, he is looking closer and closer to the guy that we saw in spring where every time I turned around I watch a lot of spring training but sometimes you know you had to had to be present with the family so I would turn my back and then when I would turn back around it was like there was stop just slamming a ball

off the wall or up the middle and you know I mentioned it earlier on the high hopes podcast which we recorded yesterday and on the afternoon show by the way speaking of high hopes first event of the season is at the garage in written house on Thursday night 630 on until the end of the game as long as there's no rain delay so we are we're hanging out phil's trivia for for tickets we are obviously having some miller lights and we are enjoying some some phil's baseball lasardo versus ranger which would be fun and if you want we'll talk some minor league baseball because I would never bring up minor league baseball because I would never bring up minor league baseball because I would never bring up minor League Baseball on this on this show, but some exciting developments happening down there. So, you know, I mentioned earlier about Stott. And I know this is going to get an eye roll out of people. But, you know, his pull air percentage, which is the amount of balls that he pulls in the air is going way up this year compared to his league or his norms year to year.

He has a, he's in the much higher percentage. tile and hard hit rate, whereas last year he was in the eighth percentile and hard hit rate, which is very, very blue. And this year he's in the 50s, the 50th percentile between like 50 and 60. I'm curious what it's going to be after tonight because it had hit a ball well late to get a second hit of the game. But that pulled double, pulling the ball, looking to do damage, looking to slug, dry balls with authority, not just fouling off a ton of pitches, then making a week

out, this is a positive development. It might cost him a little bit in average, but if you get more, if you do more damage and it costs you a little bit of average, I'll take that trade every single day of the week. The other way wasn't really working. It was a lot of soft contact. You felt like he was swinging a pool noodle, but he's starting to make legit damage for Bryce and Stott standards. And that is a really positive, positive development. Really, I don't, they only scored two runs, and that was annoying, but, like, I don't have a, I don't feel it's overwhelming sense of dread from the offense tonight. You know, Schorber went yard. Harper smoked two balls, just right at people. Adolids did not have a great night. Marsh continued his, his hitting streak.

Bum got a hit, which was nice. Turner at the lead off spot, like, it's almost like we don't even talk about Trey, which is crazy for a $300 million shortstop. There's OAP's like $2.80. I just don't know what else they can do. I would love to put Marsh up there. But also, I don't want Turner all a sudden to be hitting second and then Schwerber batting fourth because I don't want Schwerber getting less at bats in a ballgame. So I'm always just riding it out with Trey. You know, if you wanted to put Schwerber one, Tray 2, Harper 3, or go, Harper, I never do it, but you know, Schwerber won, Harper 2, Turner 3, maybe. I don't know what the solution is. even if you want to move Trey down, I don't know how it all would be configured.

You can't really put Marsh 1 Harper to, or you can't really go Marsh Swarber Harper. That's three straight lefties. And if you're going to keep Crawford 9th, that's four straight lefties. It's too much of a matchup nightmare late in the game for them. So they're almost kind of stuck with it with Trey hitting leadoff. So it's a bit of bummer. They need him get going. he's a huge part of this offense,

but at least the rest of the guys are certainly picking up the slack from that standpoint. So we're monitoring the Stott situation because he's doing positive things under the hood that are starting to come to surface. And then Jose Avarado, who I pretty much wrote off two weeks into the season because the stuff wasn't popping. It was kind of just getting to the zone rather than exploding through the zone. And it was the outing in Miami. where he allowed runs, but the last batter, he looked like he developed this almost bleep you-type

attitude. And he's kind of been carrying it over since, and it's looked like a totally different pitcher. And you start looking at this bullpen. Really, Keller is the big one that you are frustrated with right now. Everyone else has done a good job. Having another lefty like Alvarado to go with Mazza, who I still think is more of a fifth, sixth inning guy rather than a high leverage guy. Banks, same kind of thing.

They don't really have that high leverage lefty, and they need Alvarado to be that guy. Backus, I don't believe is that either. So it's Alvarado's job, and it's good to see that there's signs of life there, and he's able to get a big out tonight on a big strikeout and continuing to look like he is maybe getting back to early season of Arvado last year,

just without the BEDs. Bill is in East Hampton. Captain, Bill. Hey, how you doing, Jack? What's going on, man? Not much. Loving the game tonight. I'm really happy to see that, you know, that Wheeler has, he has his command, he has location, everything looked great tonight, and that's why he was able to blind some of

these guys early on, and it really, it was a big difference. It was a great, it was a great, it was more than a quality start. It was a very good start. Oh, for sure. And, listen, late in the game, his command, kind of, kind of, kind of, kind of, kind of, of fell apart, but hey, that's the seventh inning. He's still coming back. I think he's still building up some strength, and they kind of jumped him a little bit. But still, you give him credit for fighting his way through that seventh. And I wouldn't put him back out there for the eighth,

but Matt only did. At least he got him out there early. But Wheeler was brilliant, and I'm just shocked at how good he looks so far. Oh, yeah. And I got to say, I was happy yet tentative to see Alvarado come out. Alvarado needs to be a serious lynchpin in this bullpen. And I know that might sound crazy, but they really do need him to come through. Oh, yeah. With all the issues last year, he throws smoke. He throws triple digits.

Like, we need him to do that. And we really need him almost to be a second to Ron. But if he can do that in the setup role, that's a really great thing. Yeah, Bill, and I appreciate the phone call. You know, I think it's going to be match with the pendant if he's the setup guy. I think that they want Keller to be the setup guy. He just hasn't totally looked apart so far. Kirkcourne is developing nicely.

I thought Boland's last outing was great. Alvarado looks very, very solid. Mesa is solid. But Alvarado is definitely an important part of this bullpen, 100%. And if they're going to win a World Series or they're going to go on a run, they're going to need him to get big outs against tough left-handed hitters. and it is good to see that there has been some signs of life with him because I thought two weeks ago that he was the lost cause

and if they were going to get back into this thing and they were going to go on a run maybe at the deadline they would need to go trade for a lefty but if he continues to pitch like this he's always going to have a little bit of a high wire act because of the command isn't always there but he certainly looks more good than bad in his last couple of outings which is a positive to be.

element. On the other side, we will get to the wow moment of the game and look ahead to tomorrow. All of that coming up next year on the final out on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. Fifth day in a row for Schwartz, six in five games. He is locked in. Welcome back. This is the final out sponsored by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. It would be very baseball. It would be pretty, you know, one of those moments where you turn to your buddy and say, how can you not be romantic about baseball? If Don Madeline takes over his manager and Schwaber, you know, ties them or passes them for, what, eight straight games with a home run, and Natalie joked about it after the game about how he, he at least got the All-Star break off. So I think he hit five and then

he had three after that after the All-Star break. It wouldn't be consecutive, oh, it's consecutive games, but there's not a break besides the one day off. So Schwerber certainly is on fire. You feel good about the top of the lineup, you know, Trey will see. But, you know, with Schwerber and Harper and Adoles didn't have a good night, but I've still been more, I feel more positive about Adoles than negative. I thought the bat was going to be worse. I'm surprised the OPS is so low. I do think he's hitting the ball hard, sometimes right at people.

And Brandon Marsh did continue his hit streak tonight as well. Stott, good developments there. All of a sudden, if stock can be real and Bome can show signs, life and, you know, J.T. can just not be a black hole at his point in the lineup. The makings of a decently deep lineup is there. So some good signs from the office. I know the only scored two runs tonight, but I don't think that told the whole story. I didn't think it was a vintage, horrible Phillies, just dreadful offensive performance. I guess I've seen worse, would be my point.

But the Schwabber moment was the wow moment of the game brought to you by the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism, from waterfalls to fairways, mountain resorts to Lighthouse Tours. Find your wow at visit nj.com. My player of the game was Zach Wheeler. Player of the game is brought to you by South Jersey Gas. Make the smart play, save energy, and money with South Jersey Gas at SJG Save Energy. dot com. Tomorrow, 645 start yet again, all 645 starts this week up in Boston. And it is Andrew Painter on the mound versus Sunny Gray.

Sunny Gray making his second start since coming back from injury. He has a good, has a good like ERA this year. I think he can still pitch. But what made Sunny Gray so great for a long time was a lot of strikeout numbers. He does not have that this year. So not the same guy strikeout wise. And then Painter, you know, we keep saying this is a big star for Painter.

Sure, it is. We are in the growing phase with Andrew Painter, where we're going to go through these growing pains, and we're going to take our lumps, and you have to continue to see some signs of him having good stuff, and you can still have the hope. But I think to expect him to take the league by storm in year one and be a Skeens and be a Nolan-McLean type of guy,

clearly not happening. There's going to be growing pains with Andrew Painter. You just hope to see more flashes, more prolonged stretches of being a quality pitcher. You don't want to see what happened in the A's start where they just came out and blasted him from Jump Street. Now, I do wonder about a tipping thing with his last start against the A's

because, you know, Rooker being able to turn on 97 on the hands like that is not common. So maybe they fix some things there. I think they've been tweaking with his fastball a little bit to make that pitch more efficient. We'll see. Hopefully the stuff behind the scenes starts coming to fruition on the actual mound because people are restless with Andrew Painter. And how could you not trade him?

He's untouchable. He stinks. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm definitely not there. So I would definitely like to see him. Start reeling together and putting together some good starts. So Andrew Painter on the mound tomorrow with his ERA over six against a Red Sox offense that only scored one run tonight. So Andrew Painter versus Sunny Gray, 645.

That is going to do it for me. Francisco Rojas produced the program tonight. TK's next big night as Darrell Mori was fired by the Sixers earlier today. TK will react to it all along with another Phillies win. So I'll talk to you tomorrow night. here on the final out.