Phillies Reach Rock Bottom (We Hope)

The host Baltimore Orioles pounded away at Phillies pitching for a 19-3 blowout at Camden Yards in what fans of the local nine have to hope is the proverbial “rock bottom” to this season of desolation.

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Let’s try to break this down for you as simply as possible. Phillies starter Jerome Williams was torched for 6 earned runs on 4 hits and 2 walks in just 2/3 of an inning before he had to leave after suffering an injury while covering the plate.

Williams was followed to the mound by Dustin McGowan, who may have been even worse. He allowed 7 runs, 6 of them earned, on 7 hits and 2 walks. The Orioles also scored a pair of runs each off Elvis Araujo and Justin De Fratus.

Phillies skipper Ryne Sandberg, apparently deciding that it was time for an “anything goes” moment, then went to his bench, not his bullpen. Outfielder Jeff Francoeur came on to pitch for the first time in his Major League career.

After a 1-2-3 inning in the 7th in which he struckout the leadoff hitter, Frenchy came out again for the 8th, becoming the first position player to pitch more than a single inning for the Phils since Bob Bowman in 1959. Francoeur then joined the club by allowing a homer of his own, and then another run, to cap the scoring at 19-3.

In all, Baltimore hitters slashed and bashed their way to 19 runs on 17 hits and 8 walks, including a new franchise record of 8 homeruns in the game. Manny Machado hit two, including leading off the game with a longball, and Chris Parmelee also crushed a pair. Also going deep were Jimmy Paredes, David Lough, Chris Davis, and Ryan Flaherty. Parmelee had 4 hits in the game, Machado and shortstop J.J. Hardy had 3 each.

The Phillies did score in this one. Odubel Herrera led off the top of the 4th with a double, moved to 3rd on a fly ball, and scored when Domonic Brown squirted a ball barely between 1st and 2nd for an RBI infield single. In the top of the 6th, Herrera started things again with a walk, and scored ahead of Maikel Franco‘s 7th homerun.

The ridiculously bad losing numbers continue to mount for this team. This loss gave the Phils an 0-8 road trip, the worst road trip in the history of the franchise. The team had previously gone through 0-7 road swings five times, the most recent in 1999. They are now 7-28 on the season in all road games.

The Phillies have also now lost 8 straight, 11 of 12, 18 of 21, and 21 of the 26 games since their season-best 6-game winning streak came to an end back in mid-May. They now sit 22 games below a .500 mark that isn’t even worth mentioning any longer.

The two teams will now come north on I-95 for a pair of games the next two days at Citizens Bank Park. The Wednesday night game will start at 7:05pm, and then this 4-game home-and-home series will end with a 1:05pm game on Thursday afternoon.