Phillies Defeat Mariners 6-0 to Salvage Series Finale in Seattle

The Philadelphia Phillies adjusted to the Seattle Mariners' fastball-heavy pitching strategy to secure a 6-0 victory in their series finale at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Wednesday.

Seattle starting pitchers heavily relied on fastballs throughout the three-game series. Don Mattingly, the bench coach for Philadelphia, noted the similarity in approach among Seattle's rotation prior to the final game.

"Their starters are all similar. They remind me of Pittsburgh, where you get four or five guys and they’re all the same," said Mattingly, bench coach for the Phillies. "They’re not exactly the same, but they all have good stuff, good velocity, they speed you up. They seem to pitch good in this ballpark."

The Mariners sent right-hander Bryan Woo to the mound, who threw his fastball on 57 percent of his pitches after entering the day with a 1.96 home ERA across 10 starts.

"The challenges are the same because you still gotta hit it," said Mattingly. "It’s back to game planning. What can you handle?

What can’t you handle? Where do you want to try to take? What are you given?"

Philadelphia attacked early in the first inning when Kyle Schwarber hit a ground-rule double, followed by Bryce Harper hitting a two-run home run on a 98 mph high fastball for his 27th homer of the season.

The Phillies extended their lead in the second inning after Bryson Stott doubled, Brandon Marsh walked, and Justin Crawford drove in a run with a single through the right side during a nine-pitch at-bat.

"He’s got two really good fastballs and he relies on those two fastballs," said Schwarber, designated hitter for the Phillies. "He wants to attack with fastballs, wants to get ahead. I felt like we did a really good job of laying off some tough ones that he wants to get swing-and-miss on, or get foul balls, and when we got the ones that we needed to hit, we put those in play."

The team's aggressive early approach proved effective in countering Woo's strategy.

"Just trying to get pitches over the plate that we can drive," said Harper, first baseman for the Phillies. "They did a good job the first two games, and we were able to put it on them early today."

Schwarber added to the lead later in the inning, hitting a fastball over the right-field wall for his 40th home run of the season, marking his fourth 40-homer campaign in the last five years and tying Ryan Howard's franchise record.

"It’s not more about going out there and trying to achieve or attain a certain number," said Schwarber. "It’s more trying to stack as many at-bats as you can and keep trying to help the team win."

On the mound, Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo allowed just one hit and zero runs over seven innings, striking out nine batters while improving his road ERA to 1.80 as Philadelphia moved to 16-2 over his last 18 starts.