The Philadelphia Phillies were shut out by the Atlanta Braves in a Saturday afternoon game at Citizens Bank Park.
To say that the Phillies offensive attack has been anemic during this surprising season of early contention would be an understatement.
The Phillies entered this series next-to-last in Major League Baseball in runs scored – ahead of only their opponents, the visiting Atlanta Braves.
Now after two losses by a cumulative 9-1 score, the Phillies are just two runs ahead of the Braves. Perhaps just one more putrid effort such as today’s 2-0 shutout loss will officially drop the Phils to worst-offense-in-baseball status.
The Phillies managed just two hits on a miserable, rainy afternoon in South Philly. Braves’ starting pitcher Williams Perez had shut the Phils down on just one earned run and two hits over eight innings back on May 11th in Atlanta. He did virtually the same today.
Perez (2-1) allowed just two hits once again, striking out four and walking just one batter over 6.1 innings. Ian Kroll, Jason Grilli, and closer Arodys Vizcaino then followed with 2.2 perfect relief inning, with Vizcaino earning his 5th Save on the season.
Left-hander Adam Morgan wasn’t quite as effective on the mound for the Phillies, but he wasn’t bad either. Morgan allowed just four hits and walked two over six innings.
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Morgan (1-2) simply received no support from his offense, something that has become commonplace for Phils’ starters to deal with this year.
This was just the 2nd time that the Phillies offense has been shut out this season. However, it marked the 14th time in 43 games, nearly a full 1/3 of their 2016 games played, that the club has been held to two or fewer runs.
Perez received all the run support it would turn out he needed in the top of the 4th inning. With one out and runners at 1st and 2nd, Ender Inciarte delivered an RBI double. When Nick Markakis followed with a sac fly, it was 2-0. That would be it for the scoring on the day.
The Phillies entered this series in a surprising 2nd place in the NL East race, just a game back of 1st place. Playing the Braves, the worst team in baseball, this was an opportunity to begin to establish themselves as a legitimate contender.
Instead, they will lose the series, and have dropped into 3rd place, two games out in the division. While that is still better than anyone had a right to hope at this point, the fact is that taking the field on Sunday trying to avoid a sweep at home at the hands of the last place ball club is not what they had in mind when the weekend began.