Phillies Lose Seventh Straight

The Philadelphia Phillies dropped the opener of a four game series to the Milwaukee Brewers at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday night.

With another woeful offensive performance, the Phillies lost a 4-1 game on Thursday to the lowly Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a four game series.

The Phils have now started off the longest homestand of the season, a 10-gamer had the potential to help them right a listing ship, with an 0-4 record. They have now lost seven in a row overall, and 11 of their last 13 games.

After tying for first place in the NL East on May 14th, an anomoly that I will no longer refer to after this game piece, the Phils are now sinking towards the bottom of the overall MLB standings.

The division rival Atlanta Braves, the NL Central’s Cincinnati Reds, and the AL Central’s Minnesota Twins have been by far the worst teams in Major League Baseball over the course of the first two months.

But after this latest loss, the Phillies are now just five games ahead of the San Diego Padres and sinking fast towards the fourth-worst record in the game. Bill Baer commented on their run differential last night, which already has them in that position.

The single run scored came during a game in which the 4-5 hitters in the lineup came through. Maikel Franco hit cleanup and had two hits, including his team-leading 9th home run of the season. Tommy Joseph hit fifth, and also had a pair of hits.

But Phils’ skipper Pete Mackanin gave newcomer Jimmy Paredes his first start, and inserted him into the 3-hole in his batting order. Paredes responded by going 1-4 with three strikeouts.

On the mound, Jerad Eickhoff was not bad, but he also wasn’t particularly strong either. In the end, he again took a hard-luck loss. Eickhoff (2-8) allowed two earned runs on eight hits over 6.2 innings, striking out four and walking one.

With one out in the top of the 2nd, Kirk Nieuwenhuis doubled to right, but Jonathan Lucroy was thrown out at the plate for the second out. Rather than get out of the inning, Eickhoff quickly yielded an RBI double to Aaron Hill, and Milwaukee had an early 1-0 lead.

With two outs in the top of the 4th inning, Brewers’ slugging 1st baseman Chris Carter blasted a solo shot, his 14th of the year, and doubled the lead to 2-0.

The Phillies pulled one back in their half on Franco’s bomb to left off Milwaukee starter Chase Anderson, making it a 2-1 game. But that was as close as this pitiful Phils’ offense could get on the night.

Anderson (3-6) came in as one of the game’s most hittable pitchers, but the punchless Phillies were a great tonic for his ERA and WHIP. Anderson allowed just three hits and the one run on Franco’s homer over 5.2 innings, striking out six and walking no one.

Eickhoff came out of the game with two outs in the top of the 7th when he was hit on the foot by a comebacker. After the game, Mackanin stated that Eickhoff says his foot “felt fine“, but that x-ray results had not yet been received.

In the top of the 9th, with Phillies’ closer Jeanmar Gomez on to get some much-needed work, former Phils’ prospect shortstop Jonathan Villar drove a two-run homer that closed out the scoring at 4-1 in favor of the visitors.

The game marked the return to the big leagues of Cody Asche, who got the start in left field. He went 0-2 before being lifted for Tyler Goeddel as a pinch-hihtter. The move perhaps is an early signal that the two players may be headed for a platoon, at least in the short term.

There do not appear to be any easy answers for the season-long offensive woes. As many, including we here at TBOH, predicted during the early winning stretch, you simply cannot keep winning games when you produce no more than a couple of runs per game.