The Phillies played awful baseball on Saturday night. Manager Don Mattingly made questionable decisions, they made poor plays on defense, the offense struggled against a 42-year-old pitcher, and the bullpen broke down. The result was that for the second straight night, they turned a very winnable game into a well-deserved loss to the Blue Jays, this one by a score of 7-5.
The early part of the game was a flashback to 2018 in that it was somewhat of a pitcher’s duel between Aaron Nola and Max Scherzer.
Never mind the fact that Nola is just a serviceable back of the rotation starter these days while Scherzer is a 42-year-old who entered the game with an ERA over 7.00.
Sure, Nola gave up the obligatory home run – Vlad Guerrero, Jr. in the first – but he limited the Blue Jays to two runs before being pulled after one batter in the sixth after taking a line drive off the leg. He also recorded the 2,000th strikeout of his career.
Unfortunately, the Phillies’ habit of providing Nola with zero run support continued. For five innings, they were completely stifled by Scherzer.
Finally, the Phillies broke through when Trea Turner and Bryce Harper hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth. They added two more against reliever Spencer Miles, and all they needed was for the bullpen to protect a two-run lead for three innings. Easy, right?
Brooks Raley (why isn’t he one of the main setup guys?) finished off the sixth after Nola’s exit, and Jonathan Bowlan did his part with a scoreless seventh.
Then came the eighth when Mattingly called on Jose Alvarado. As he often does, Alvarado walked two batters, but with two outs, he had a good chance to get out of the self-inflicted jam when he got to a 0-2 count on Andres Gimenez. At that point, the announcers mentioned that Alvarado didn’t necessarily need to throw a strike. Alvarado went a different route and laid a ball right in the strike zone.
Based on his other pitches in the inning, I have to think he didn’t actually want to throw a strike, but he can’t even throw the ball out of the zone when he wants.
The teams traded zeroes in the ninth, and with a dearth of available relievers, the Phillies turned to Chase Shugart to pitch the tenth. Shugart got the first out, and after a walk, coaxed a ground ball to first base. Unfortunately, the ball apparently melted the brain of Alec Bohm who had been put into the game as a defensive replacement for Kyle Schwarber. Bohm couldn’t decide what to do with ball until it was too late, allowing the runners to reach first base safely.
That meant that Gimenez’s subsequent fly ball was a run scoring sacrifice fly instead of the third out of the inning.
The Phillies actually played fundamentally sound baseball in the bottom of the innings, using a ground ball to the right side and a fly ball to the outfield to score the ghost runner and tie the game at five. (Note: This is why the ghost runner kind of sucks. The pitcher gets two routine outs but blows the lead.)
Shugart was sent back out for the eleventh and got the first two outs relatively easily. The third out proved more elusive, when Nathan Lukes hit a 3-2 pitch into the stands in center.
The Phillies had no answer in the bottom of the inning and suffered their second straight avoidable loss to the Blue Jays.
They’ll try to salvage the finale on Sunday behind Jesus Luzardo. It would be beneficial if Luzardo could pitch effectively and deep into the game, and the Phillies could help further that cause if they stop playing such mistake-prone baseball.
