It was all Phillies at Wrigley Field on Thursday night.
Despite not having Andrew McCutchen and Rhys Hoskins in the lineup, manager Joe Girardi’s substitutes did quite nicely in the Phils series finale with the Cubs.
“Every decision that we make as a team and as a coaching staff is thought out, but there’s always a human element that you have to understand that, sometimes, things aren’t just going to work out,” said Girardi. “The other team’s paid to beat you, right? If the other team was paid to lose, it would always work out, so every move a manager made would always work. But you learn to make the best decisions with the information you have at the time.”
Among those substitutes was Brad Miller, who came up in the top of the third with Philadelphia leading 1-0. All he did was take a 2-0 pitch from Cubs starter Adbert Alzolay and hit it the opposite way for a home-run, which earned him a “homer hat” in the dugout.
But Miller would go on to earn two more of those, as he hit an 0-2 slider out to right-field for a two-run shot in the fifth, expanding the Phils lead to 4-0, and in the seventh, he took the first pitch out to roughly the same spot he hit his previous homer to give him his third on the night.
“I’m always going up there to hit a home run. I mean, seriously. I think I need to take that mindset in there, right?” Miller said. “Like do damage, get a pitch that I can drive. I’m looking to impact the baseball.”
Miller’s productive night also amounted to the first three-homer game the Phils had experienced since Jayson Werth did it in 2008, the year they last won a World Series.
Brad Miller is also no stranger to heroics at Wrigley Field. Last year, during his brief stint with the Cardinals, he drove in the go-ahead runs in the first game of a day-night doubleheader which ultimately led to a 3-1 St. Louis victory. In the nightcap, he went on to hit two dingers.
His heroics amounted to an 8-0 Phillies win, which also sent the Cubs to their 12th loss in their last 13 games. With the win, Philly moved to within a game of the .500 mark and moved to just four back of the first-place Mets.
For more MLB coverage, click here.
