Flyball

Phillies blows it (three times) in a dismal 13-12 loss to Nationals

By Maya F. Wright
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Vince Velasquez rolled in, Travis Jankowski was scorching hot, and for four innings on Wednesday afternoon it looked like the Phillies were riding the duo’s efforts to a clean and easy matinee win over the Nationals.

But the 2021 Phillies don’t do well with clean and simple, and they damn well don’t do well with pep, so it shouldn’t have been surprising if:

  • You lost an early five-run lead during a disastrous top of the five
  • an inning later they blew a separate four-run lead and spoiled the short swing of an Andrew McCutchen bailout grand slam
  • Phillies rescuer David Hale was unable to clean up the base-laden havoc that his fellow rescuer Sam Coonrod wreaked in a still disastrous Sixth
  • You overcame all of the above and took the lead in the eighth
  • Hector Neris pissed off that leadership of the day and buried his team forever

Neris has missed 10 of 15 defense opportunities this season, including three of his last five chances.

The big souvenir?

With the Sixers ‘season ending prematurely and the Eagles’ training camp still a month away, the Phillies certainly caught the attention of the city’s wandering eyes this week, but they did so for all the wrong reasons.

A sticky substance debacle overshadowed the failed comeback attempt on Tuesday night before a ridiculously ridiculous defeat that somehow stands out in a season full of such defeats.

With the obvious chance of generating positive feedback this week, the Phillies failed, and spectacularly. Nobody stands behind this product. Why in the world should they?

Let’s dig into some observations from this recent mess, a 13-12 loss that slumps them to 34-37 ahead of an important (is that really?) Four-game streak with the Mets.

What the fuck man?

Phillies manager Joe Girardi had a 9-5 lead in the sixth game and decided to go with Hale to put out a base-loaded jam.

Hale, who is more of a multi-inning mop-up guy and / or triple-A dump, promptly allowed Trae Turner a two-run single before leading Juan Soto to reload the bases.

This time the result was worse:

Playing off the tweet above, opposing hitters now face 6-on-7 against Hale with the bases loaded this season. This includes three doubles, two grand slams, one singles and 17 runs.

If you’re looking for some expert beat writer analysis on the subject – that’s not great!

Just a footnote

Jankowski’s big day will only go down as a footnote in the defeat.

The 30-year-old outfielder scored three hits, including his first homer since September 26, 2018. In the lower part of the second, he took a three-run shot on a 0-2 pitch on right field, giving the Phillies an a . gave a 3-0 lead.

Jankowski’s first MLB homer in 1001 days set the tone early on and gave Velasquez space to control an up-and-coming Washington line-up. He was efficient through three innings and only took 38 pitches to pull the Nationals back for the first time in sequence.

Velasquez’s early innings success continued a season-long trend today where opposing thugs had to deal with him at first sight.

Such hitters have only 17 hits in 101 at-bats (.168 BA), the first time in a game against Velasquez this season.

And what happened after that?

Velasquez would get into trouble in the fifth round, however. After starting the inning with back-to-back walks, Starlin Castro double up the Nationals, preceding the latest example of the Phillies defense that turned a routine game into a bloody disaster.

Since the baseball gods can’t stand such incompetence, you pretty much knew what would happen next. Two strokes later, Velasquez was out of play and Kyle Schwarber pissed on an Archie Bradley hanging curveball to tie the game.

Bradley couldn’t get past anyone, let alone Schwarber, who is in the middle of a hot run.

Around the time that Schwarber’s game-defining rocket crashed from the blue seats over the left field fence, it became clear that Jankowski and Velasquez’s early contributions could be lost.

Just a footnote (part 2)

McCuthen’s pinch-hit grand slam was another moment that was likely to be lost in the wreckage of loss.

McCuthen’s 13th homer of the season temporarily erased the significance of Velasquez’s fifth inning command problems, Brad Miller’s defensive slip, and the aimless weirdo from Bradley’s hand.

It also left ample wiggle room that the subsequent outbreak of the Nationals in race six didn’t sink the Phillies – at least not immediately.

McCutchen is suddenly approaching a 30 homer pace. If the Phillies drop out of this in the next five to six weeks, he could prove to be an interesting option for a team that needs some outfield pop from the right.

Alec Bohm continues great June

Alec Bohm started the day with a profit of .3333 in June and increased his average to .371 after his first four-hit game of his career. In particular, he collected for the first time since 14-15. May be an extra base hit in back-to-back games.

It also delivered what could have been a two-pass game-winning single.

Having fun with foreign substances

A day after the emotions ran high on the sticky substance shit show between these two teams on Tuesday night, Max Scherzer and Ryan Zimmerman decided to have some fun with Bryce Harper.

This is a clown inspection, brother.

Harper would have a second laugh two innings later as he paused on a 95 mph sinker from Nationals starter Erick Fedde for an opposing homer to make it 4-0.

Amazingly, all 10 of Harper’s home runs this season have been solo recordings. That partly explains why, of 35 National League players with double-digit homers, only Patrick Wisdom, 14, of Chicago has less RBI than Harper, 20.





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Maya F. Wright
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