April 12, 2013: Phillippe Aumont earns only career win for Phillies

Phillippe Aumont through 2022 is the highest selected Quebec-born player in the history of the major-league free-agent draft. In 2007 the Seattle Mariners made him the 11th overall pick in the first round. The Gatineau, Quebec, native was sent to the Phillies in 2009 as part of the Cliff Lee deal. He made his major-league debut for the Phillies in August 2012 and made the Philadelphia roster out of spring training in 2013. Aumont had a brief major league career. He made 22 of his 46 career appearances in 2013, all of them out of the bullpen. In fact, all but one of his career appearances came as a relief pitcher. Aumont split the 2013 season between the Phillies and Triple-A Lehigh Valley. In the Phillies’ 10th game of the 2013 campaign, Aumont earned his only career win.

On Friday evening, April 12, 2013, the Phillies defeated the sad-sack Miami Marlins 3-1 in 10 innings at Marlins Park before a reported crowd of 17,923. This was a matchup of two teams that struggled in 2013. While the Phillies were no hot shakes in 2013, winning just 73 games two years after a five-year run of postseason appearances, the Marlins fell to 1-9 with the loss and were already well on their way to a 100-loss season. The win that evening improved the Phillies’ record to 5-5.

The Marlins were admittedly shorthanded that night. Miami slugger Giancarlo Stanton sat out that evening with a sore shoulder. Even with their sterling slugger in the lineup, Miami had shown considerable difficulty plating runs that spring. In their first nine contests, the Marlins had scored just 16 times.1 The absence of Stanton put a definite spring in the step of Phillies starter John Lannan.

“That was the one guy [Stanton], if he is in there, you probably have to pitch around him,” Lannan intoned after the game.2 That sense of confidence was evident on the mound all evening for Lannan. It was not until his final inning of work, the sixth, that the Marlins scored their only run. Former Phillies infielder Plácido Polanco brought Juan Pierre home with a single.

The 2013 season proved to be the last of an esteemed 16-year major-league career for Polanco, who enjoyed two successful stints in Philadelphia (2002-2005 and 2010-2012). One of the finest defensive infielders of his generation, Polanco was also an elite stickman, stroking 2,142 career hits and posting a .297 lifetime batting average.

Polanco’s single tied the game at 1-1, matching Philadelphia’s run from the top half of the inning. Domonic Brown had driven Ryan Howard in with a double in the top of the sixth. This was the only run allowed by Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco, who held Philadelphia to just one run on seven hits over six innings.

But this evening belonged to Phillippe Aumont, the pride of Gatineau, Quebec, a city of nearly 300,000 that sits across the Ottawa River from the river’s namesake city, Canada’s capital.

Aumont, a tall, robust, hard-throwing righty, came into the game in the bottom of the ninth, relieving Mike Adams, who put up a scoreless inning after starter John Lannan gave up just one run over six innings. Lannan, who won 46 games over eight seasons, also enjoyed a banner evening. This was one of his best starts as a member of the Phillies. He made just 14 appearances for Philadelphia in 2013, his only season with the team, before a knee injury not only ended his season but spelled the beginning of the end of his career, which concluded in 2014 after a short stint with the Mets.

Now an organic farmer outside his native Gatineau, Aumont cultivated three outs in three batters in his inning of relief work. He got Polanco to ground out before walking Justin Ruggiano. He then coaxed Greg Dobbs to hit into a double play.

“I came out, did my job to put up a zero on the board and we scored the next inning with Papelbon closing it out,” Aumont recalled.3

In the top of the 10th inning, Chase Utley and the Philadelphia Phillies took care of business. Ben Revere lined a one-out single to right field off Marlins reliever Jon Rauch. After Jimmy Rollins popped up to third, Chase Utley tattooed a ball down the right-field line. The six-time All-Star second baseman chugged around the bases to third and Ben Revere scored the go-ahead run.4 Newly-minted Marlins manager Mike Redmond, who was a trusty backstop for 13 major-league seasons, decided to intentionally walk Ryan Howard, setting up a first-and-third scenario. Michael Young then plated Chase Utley on an infield single, giving the Phillies a 3-1 lead. Domonic Brown flied out to end the top of the 10th inning.

Jonathan Papelbon took to the Marlins Park mound in the bottom of the 10th inning. The perennial All-Star did what he did best, securing himself the save and a win for Aumont. Papelbon set the Marlins down on a mere seven pitches. A fly out to left by Austin Kearns, a lineout to center by Rob Brantly, and a fly out to right field by Adeiny Hechavarría kept all of the Phillies outfielders in practice.

The victory was Philadelphia’s third in a row, bolstering their record in the young season to 5-5. Miami got one back on them on Saturday, winning 2-1. On Sunday the Phillies took the rubber match, 2-1. Philadelphia sat at .500 at the end of the weekend in Florida but that proved to be their best winning percentage of the season. After the Florida series, the Phillies dropped four straight games, three at Cincinnati and one at St. Louis. They fought their way back to .500 at the All-Star break but then went on a late July slide that cost manager Charlie Manuel his job. By the time Ryne Sandberg came in to replace Manuel, Aumont was back in Triple A, where he would spend the rest of the season.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIA/MIA201304120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B04120MIA2013.htm

Notes  

1 Matt Gelb, “Extra Effort by Phillies Pays Off,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 13, 2013: D6.

2 Gelb.

3 Phillippe Aumont, interview by the author, June 14, 2021.

4 “Phillies Reach .500 in Miami,” Allentown (Pennsylvania) Morning Call, April 13, 2013: C1.