Phillies Remain Snake-Bitten
By Matt Veasey
Final. 1. 6. 4. 8
The Philadelphia Phillies lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park in South Philly.
Things have gone from bad to worse for the Phillies, now losers of five straight and nine of their last 10 games following this afternoon’s 4-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Not even halfway through the regular season, already 2/5 of the season-opening starting rotation is on the disabled list. The two arms called up from the minor leagues have pitched poorly to this point.
This afternoon, the pitching was again less than stellar, and yet it really wasn’t the difference in the end. It rarely is when your offense only produces one run.
Jerad Eickhoff was the pitcher on this day. He lasted just 5.2 innings, allowing nine hits and a walk while striking out six. Two of the hits that he allowed were 5th inning home runs.
First came a one-out solo homer off the bat of Dbacks’ shortstop Nick Ahmed, his 4th of the season. Ahmed would go 3-4 on the day to raise his average to the .221 mark.
The next homer was far more conventional from an Arizona perspective, as Paul Goldschmidt blasted his 14th home run of the year, his second in as many nights. The two-run shot put the Dbacks up by a 3-1 score.
The Phillies had opened the scoring back in the bottom of the 1st when Odubel Herrera cranked his 7th homer of the season, a solo shot of Arizona starter Zack Greinke.
Greinke would toss another in a series of stellar ballgames. He allowed just two more hits, lasting eight innings while striking out six and walking just one.
The Dbacks put one final run on the board in the top of the 7th, again thanks to the long ball. This time it was 3rd baseman Jake Lamb taking Phillies’ reliever Severino Gonzalez out to provide the final 4-1 margin of victory.
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Phillies 3rd baseman Maikel Franco took an 0-3 collar, and the young potential star has watched as his batting average has now dipped to a .239 mark.
“We sure need his bat,” manager Pete Mackanin said per MLB.com correspondents. “We need him to be what he’s capable of. For some reason, he just got out of sync. He’s not giving us disciplined, professional at-bats right now. Partially I think that’s because he’s over-anxious, and he feels he needs to do too much.”
Greinke, one of the hottest starting pitchers in baseball, has now won seven consecutive starts. In eight of his 15 starts, including four straight now, Greinke has lasted at least seven innings. Brad Ziegler came on to record his 14th Save of the year.