Phillies Bats Still Not Wei-Yin In

The Phillies were held in check all night by lefty Wei-Yin Chen, who is rapidly becoming the Baltimore Orioles top starting pitcher. Chen shut the Phils down for 8 innings, and the Orioles won the opener of a 4-game home-and-home by a 4-0 score at Camden Yards.

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Phillies starter Aaron Harang was strong for most of the night, but was touched for one big blast that didn’t ultimately make the difference in the game, but did open up what had been a close contest. Harang (4-8) went 6 innings, allowing 5 hits and a pair of walks. He also kept the game at 0-0 into the 5th.

The Orioles got on the board first, breaking through against Harang for a two-out run in that home 5th inning. Travis Snider doubled to left just over Cody Ashe’s head on a ball that the Phils left fielder probably should have caught. J.J. Hardy then singled Snider home to give the O’s a 1-0 lead.

In the home 6th, it was another two-out rally, only this time for more than a single run. DH Jimmy Paredes singled with one out, and was erased on a force out grounder off the bat of Adam Jones. With two outs, Chris Davis worked a full count, and then drew a walk from Harang on a pitch that could easily have been called a third strike to end the frame. Instead came the game’s big blow, as Matt Wieters blasted a 3-run homer to deep right-center field making it 4-0.

That was plenty for Chen (3-4) on this night. The Orioles lefty went 8 dominant innings, allowing just 4 hits and a walk while striking out 9 Phillies batters. Closer Zach Britton came on in the 9th and retired the Phils in a non-Save situation to clinch the combined shutout.

This was the 3rd time in the last 4 games that the Phillies have been white-washed. They have been held scoreless in 21 consecutive innings now. It was the 8th time that they have been shutout this season. The team has scored 2 or fewer runs in 27 games to this point in the 2015 season.

The loss was the club’s 7th straight defeat, their 10th in 11 games. Going back to a month ago, they have lost 20 of their last 25 games. The Phils are now 21 games below the .500 mark, with easily the worst record in Major League Baseball. Frankly, it just can’t get much worse than this.

On Tuesday evening at 7:05pm, the Phils will end this 8-game, 3-city road swing still looking for their first victory of the trip. Jerome Williams (3-6, 5.71 ERA) will take the mound, opposed by Chris Tillman (4-7, 5.68 ERA) for the Orioles. The two clubs will then travel up I-95 for games on Wednesday and Thursday.