Notes From The Phillies’ 2-1 Loss To Arizona

The Philadelphia Phillies lost their second straight game on Thursday night, falling to the Diamondbacks 2-1. Their record drops to 16-20.

• More tough luck for Cole Hamels. Once again, the ace pitched a solid game but received no help from his teammates. Hamels allowed two runs over six innings. He wasn’t at his best tonight, but certainly gave the team a good chance to win, and pitched out of several tight situations.
• This was just one of those games where the top of the order went completely MIA. Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Michael Young, and Ryan Howard combined to go 0-14.
• Domonic Brown went 2-4 and scored a run. Brown hit a one-out double in the ninth inning.
• Ben Revere made his third straight start in centerfield, but Charlie Manuel has absolutely no confidence in Revere at the plate, lifting the young outfielder for John Mayberry late in the game with two runners on and one out in the seventh inning.
• Mayberry was thrown out at second in the seventh inning. Mayberry couldn’t read whether or not the ball was going to be caught, and hesitated to make his break for second.
• Delmon Young went 2-4, although on one of his hits he was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.
• Kevin Frandsen drove in the team’s only run.
• The offense as a whole went just 1-8 with runners in scoring position.
• Phillippe Aumont and Jeremy Horst were able to combine for two scoreless innings to finish the game.
• Horst worked out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh.

Final Thoughts

It’s just another one of those nights.

At least once or twice a week, the Phillies have a game where their offense is just absolutely pitiful, and they lose a close game by one or two runs.

The additions of Carlos Ruiz and Delmon Young have had very little impact so far. Since returning over a week ago, the two hitters have combined for just one homerun and three RBI’s (all belonging to Young), and Young is batting just .185 and Ruiz is batting just .156. They’re going to be better than what they’ve shown so far, but clearly their presence isn’t enough to make a significant difference on this lineup.

The way that this Phillies team has played this season is really starting to remind me of the 2012 group. Every time you thought the 2012 team was about to turn the corner and really get some serious momentum going, something would go wrong and they’d fall flat on their faces. That’s how its been for this team. The Phillies will impress with a couple of nice wins over the Giants, only to drop the next two games in disappointing fashion, pushing themselves back to four games below .500.

I’ve never seen a team look so hopeless with their ace on the mound. When it’s your top pitcher’s turn in the rotation, it’s supposed to be the team’s best chance for a victory. But with this team, the opposite is true. Even though Cole Hamels has pitched well for most of the season, the Phillies just can’t find ways to win when he’s on the mound. At this point, you can practically expect the offense give one of these lousy efforts whenever Hamels goes out to pitch. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

The offense will need to do much better tomorrow with Tyler Cloyd on the mound.