The Philadelphia Phillies lost the second game of their doubleheader with the Nationals on Sunday night, falling 6-5. Their record drops to 14-21.
On The Mound
- Vince Velasquez lasted just five innings, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks.
- Luis Garcia picked up the first two outs of the sixth inning and allowed a run.
- Edubray Ramos got the final out of the sixth, and came back to throw a scoreless seventh.
- Pat Neshek gave up a two-run homer in the eighth that cost the team the game. It was the first runs that the veteran has allowed all season.
At The Plate
- The offense put up five runs on 10 hits.
- Brock Stassi got a start at first, and went 2-3, driving in a run with an RBI-single in the fourth.
- Andrew Knapp caught the game, and singled home a run in the fourth, finishing 1-4.
- Andres Blanco started for Maikel Franco at third, and went 1-4 with an RBI.
- Freddy Galvis went 2-4, briefly giving the team the lead in the eighth with a two-run triple.
- Cesar Hernandez went 0-5 at the top of the order.
- Odubel Herrera was back in the lineup for the night game, and went 1-5 with a single.
- Aaron Altherr turned in an 0-4.
Final Thoughts
The Phillies’ bullpen once again struggled to hold a late lead, this time veteran Pat Neshek being the guilty party.
All three of the games in this series were decided by one run or less, and the team’s relievers just haven’t been up to the challenge of late.
The Phillies won’t the Nationals again until the end of the season in September after playing them 13 times through the first month and a half.
Tags: Phillies
Well I must have Jinxed Pat Neshak as he got the chance to put the Game away and failed to do so giving up a Game Winning 2 Run HR to Nationals CF Michael Taylor off the Left-Field Foul Pole.. It was Neshak’s first Runs Allowed this Season in 15 Appearances
Onme thing we know is that Phillies are Further away from competing as some of us thought
Their Pitching has been Terrible, no 2 Ways about it, from their Starters to the Their Bullpen.. they Rank 15th in th NL with a Team ERA of 4.74
Teams are Batting .264 Vs the Phillies PItchers, The Pitchers have only Struck out 248 Batters (2nd Fewest in the NL behind the Braves) and have given up a whopping 55 Home Runs so far this Season which is the Worse in the NL
The Starting Staff has only 13 Quality Starts out of 34 games — Remember that a Quality Start is 6 Innings Pitched with 3 Runs allowed or less (Basically a 4.50 ERA which is really Average and not Quality)
The Relief Corps has not performed any better and actually is in worse shape and has Blown 9 Save Opportunities out of 14 Save Chances which is 35.7 % which is just Terrible and Dead Last in the NL..
Anyways, they are lacking all across the Board and their young Arms (Nola,Eickhoff & Velasquez) have been nothing more than #4/#5 Pitchers at Best and really not eve that .. Zach Eflin has been the best of the Youngters so far…
Word is that Phillies may look to unload Hellickson sooner rather than later as many Teams are in need of a Decent Starter and after a hot start to the Season, Hellickson has been Average so his value may be the Highest right now instead of Waiting until Late June/July..
But Phillies if they are going to think about even competing and playing .500 Baseball need about 5-6 Arms on this Pitching Staff… 2 Additional Starters and at least 3 Other Arms in this Bullpen which outside of Neshak, Neris and Newbie Garcia has been downright atrocious….
Benoit and Gomez should both be flat out released..
Hell, its not even Hot yet and this Pitching Staff is on Fumes…
And yet as inconsistent as the pitching has been, they have been in almost every game. I am very concerned about the pitching, but I want to see the season play out a little more. Knew from the beginning that this would be a tough season when we were all hoping for them to be just .500.
Joseph and Altherr killing the ball in May!
Nola,Velasquez and Eichoff have to show Improvement and more Consistency..
They waste too many Pitches, need to be more aggressive but don’t seem to have the “Stuff” that MLB Batters are intimidated or fooled by..
Velasquez has great Stuff but he doesn’t work the edges enough to get Batters to chase, when he misses, hes way off, then when Batters can sit on his flat fast ball, he gets tagged..