Considering how poorly they played for most of Tuesday’s game, the Phillies probably should have been blown out. Instead, they decided to tease the fans by getting just close enough before their multitude of mistakes finally did them in. The end result was a supremely frustrating 6-5 loss to the Astros.
Andrew Painter got the start and showed that development for young pitchers is often non-linear. Coming off a great start against the Diamondbacks, Painter ran into trouble early on Tuesday. The top
half of the second inning began with a double, a single, and then a blast by Christian Walker.
After finally recording an out in the frame, Painter walked a batter who came home on a double by Jeremy Pena.
The Astros made it 5-0 in the fourth when Cam Smith took Painter deep.
With the offense doing little against Astros starter Hayden Wesneski in the early going, it looked like the Phillies were going to sleepwalk through a one-sided loss. But the bats finally woke up, which in a way made what happened the rest of the game even more annoying.
In the sixth, Justin Crawford hit a double and then scored on a single by Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber then scored when Trea Turner hit his first home run in a month’s time.
Any momentum gained by the home run was squashed the following inning when Brooks Raley gave up a home run of his own to Daulton Varsho to make it a 6-3 game.
Then came the eighth inning when the Phillies’ baserunning became the story of the game. Alec Bohm led off with a double and Bryson Stott was hit by a pitch. Brandon Marsh – mired in an awful slump – finally got a hold of one, hitting it off of Monty’s Angle in centerfield. Unfortunately, Bohm chose to tag up, forcing Stott to slow up rounding second, and had to halt at third.
That proved especially costly when J.T. Realmuto hit a liner to shortstop, and for some reason Marsh was running on contact and was doubled off second base.
Bryan Abreu was brought in to pitch the eighth for the Astros. After Turner doubled (two extra base hits…i the same game?), Bryce Harper showed that his hot streak from August is officially over.
After Harper was retired, Abreu hit Arraez with a pitch, but Bohm was unable to take advantage. He was late on two fastballs in the zone and then took one on the black for strike three. (Using the team’s final ABS challenge as a cherry on the sundae of failure.)
The Phillies couldn’t let us go without one final tease in the ninth. Stott led off with a single and scored when Edmundo Sosa hit a ball to the fence. However, between watching the ball out of the box and tripping on the basepaths, Sosa could only get as far as second base. Naturally, one out later, Derek Hill hit a fly ball to right that probably would have been deep enough for Sosa to score from third. He did eventually steal third, but it was all for naught when Schwarber popped up to end the game.
They’ll be back in action on Wednesday. The hope is that the Phillies will get a better performance from their starting pitcher, start to hit sooner than the middle innings, not mess up on the basepaths, and just avoid playing stupid baseball in general. Is that too much to ask?
