Things aren’t going swimmingly. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Fans watched the Philadelphia Phillies drop their fifth straight game Monday night, this time against the Miami Marlins in 11 innings. The team showed life in this game, and it’s hard to place the blame in any one area.
In terms of Phillies’ scoring, how I like to begin these recaps, the offense was pretty evenly spread. At the top of the lineup, Ben Revere, Jimmy Rollins, and Chase Utley each had a hit. Marlon Byrd, Cody Asche, and Domonic Brown each had two as well.
The team scored early, with Utley singling in Rollins in the first. Brown would similarly single in Byrd in the fourth, but the team would be unable to produce more runs until the eighth. With Miami reliever Kevin Gregg pitching, Marlon Byrd and Cody Asche would hit back-to-back home runs, tying the ball game.
Byrd hit his team-leading 16th of the season, and Asche smasche-d his 5th. Byrd in particular has performed well of late, hitting 7 HR with a .293/.337/.585 line since June 10th. He’s going to garner interest around the trade deadline.
These homers were the end of offensive production for the Phillies, which means the pitching had to carry the team for the game to reach the 11th inning.
Starter A.J. Burnett wasn’t his most efficient in this game, only throwing 66 of his 116 pitches for strikes, and allowing 4 walks through only 6 innings. However, he paired that with only six hits and double-digit (10) strikeouts.
A bases-loaded single by Jarrod Saltalamacchia scored two runs and tied the game in the 4th. Giancarlo Stanton scored Christian Yelich with a single in the 5th, and Stanton would also reach home on a wild pitch by Burnett.
Phillies relievers held down the fort for the next four innings, but there’s only so many sudden-death extra innings they can take without any run support.
Ken Giles continued his dominance with a strikeout in the 7th, Jake Diekman struck out two and walked one in the 8th, and Antonio Bastardo kept the score tidy to end the scheduled nine.
Justin De Fratus was handed the ball in extra innings, and cleanly got through the 10th. However, two hits strung together in the 11th (including the walk-off single by Ed Lucas) eventually sunk the game.
The series continues tonight at 7:10, with Phillies’ ace Cole Hamels facing off against Tom Koehler (4.12 FIP, 97.1 IP).