Most of the season, Phillies fans have been concerned with Domonic Brown‘s poor hitting. We wondered what happened to the guy who hit 27 home runs and made the All-Star team in 2013. How did he deteriorate into one of the worst hitting outfielders in the National League?
Along the way, his hitting became such a focus that we sort of forgot that he’s a lousy fielder. On Wednesday night, he reminded us.
Brown’s misplay of a line drive in the fourth inning led to three runs by the Marlins and helped waste a fine effort by starting pitcher A. J. Burnett.
Even though the ball was ruled a hit, Brown admitted that it was a play that he needs to make:
"“That play has to be made. I told A.J. I was sorry about it. It was a hard-hit line drive. I made a break on it in and that definitely was a big mistake. I’m definitely upset at myself.”"
The Marlins tried to return the favor in the fifth inning. Second baseman Derek Dietrich committed a throwing error which looked like it would lead to a big inning by the Phillies. But despite having the bases loaded with one out, they could only manage to score one run.
That was a theme of the night. The Phillies got their share of runners in scoring position, but aside from a Chase Utley sacrifice fly and a single by Brown, they couldn’t get the runners home. The end result was a 3-2 loss.
The Phillies will look to salvage a series split on Thursday behind Cole Hamels. Hamels hasn’t gotten much run support this season, so hopefully they can find a way to get some of those base runners home tonight.
It would also help if they could avoid any major fielding mistakes, but that should go without saying.