On a night when the Phillies inducted Chase Utley onto the Wall of Fame, neither the weather nor the team performed up to the standard of the former star. The game was delayed almost two hours due to rain, and once it was played, Zack Wheeler had a shaky start, and the offense couldn’t take advantage of ten walks as the Phillies dropped a 5-4 decision to the Blue Jays.
Wheeler hasn’t been his best in recent starts and that continued on Friday. His command wasn’t great and he gave up solo runs in the
second, third, and fourth innings. It’s possible he was distracted by the Blue Jays’ insistence that he was not maintaining contact with the pitching rubber. He certainly didn’t seem to appreciate the Blue Jays’ complaints.
The Phillies matched the Jays’ output in the early innings. J.T. Realmuto’s single combined with an error by Toronot right fielder Jesus Sanchez gave the Phillies their first run in the second, and Bryce Harper’s RBI single tied it at two in the third.
But they wasted some prime scoring opportunities after that. In the fifth, Bryson Stott led off with a walk and Justin Crawford followed with a double, giving the Phillies runners at second and third with nobody out. But Blue Jays starter Jose Soriano rebounded to strike out Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Harper.
Things fell apart for Wheeler in the sixth. He got the first out of the inning but then gave up a single to Josh Smith. He followed that by walking Brett Bateman – Wheeler’s fifth walk of the night – before Nathan Lukes ended a 15-pitch at bat by singling to right.
With Wheeler’s pitch count at 115, that ended his night. Tim Mayza entered and gave up a sacrifice fly but was able to limit the damage after that.
In the seventh, the Phillies had another great opportunity to score when they loaded the bases on three walks, but a Luis Arraez fly out ended the inning with all three runners still on base.
After Caleb Kilian gave up a solo home run to Josh Smith in the eighth (that’s now two of three bad appearances by Kilian since he arrived), the score was 5-2 and it felt like the game was as good as over. But the Blue Jays did their best to let the Phillies back in it. In the ninth, Trevor Rogers walked the first two batters before Schwarber loaded the bases on catcher’s interference.
Trea Turner made it 5-3 with a fielder’s choice ground out, and Bryce Harper cut it to 5-4 with an infield single that probably should have been converted into an out. Arraez re-loaded the bases with a walk, but with the infield in, Alec Bohm’s weak groundball resulted in a force out at home (which Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk almost botched).
It was left to Brandon Marsh with two outs. The Jays almost left first base uncovered on his ground ball to second, but Rogers got over to cover just in time to record the out and end the game.
They’ll be back at it on Saturday evening. Presumably, Utley will stick around to watch that one, and hopefully, the Phillies can do a better job of honoring his legacy the second time around.
