Phillies Blown Out in Windy City
By Matt Veasey
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | |
| Phillies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| White Sox | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | x | 9 |
The Philadelphia Phillies were crushed in the opener of a two-game Interleague series with the host White Sox in Chicago on Tuesday night.
In a disturbing development, the Phillies and their top pitching prospect, Jake Thompson, were blown out of Chicago by a 9-1 score in the opener of a quick two-game Interleague series at U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday night.
Thompson (1-3) continued a series of poor outings since his early August promotion. In his first four big league starts, Thompson has allowed 22 hits over 19.1 innings with a 13/13 K:BB ratio.
Last night the big 22-year old right-handed Texan allowed seven earned runs on eight hits over five innings, striking out two and walking four batters. He threw just 52 strikes over his 92 pitches.
“I’m not used to this,” Thompson said regarding his repeated failures per MLB.com contributors. “The issue is pretty evident. I’m not throwing strikes, and when I am throwing strikes, they’re not good strikes. It’s coming back to the drawing board and figuring it out a little bit.”
The Chisox got to him for a pair of 5th inning home runs that blew open what was already a 4-0 lead to an insurmountable 7-0 advantage.
Jose Abreu crushed his 17th of a the year, a two-run line shot to left field, and then Justin Morneau ripped his 5th of the year out on a line to right field to provide that cushion.
The beneficiary of the big offensive outburst was Chicago starter Carlos Rodon. The 23-year old lefty was the third overall pick in the 2014 MLB Amateur Draft.
Rodon (4-8) has been pitching well of late, and on this night he allowed just three hits over 6.2 innings, striking out four and walking just one batter.
Phillies reliever David Hernandez, who seems to be expending far too much energy worrying about Tim Tebow’s baseball tryout rather than doing what he is being paid well to do, retired opposing hitters, had another poor outing as well.
Hernandez yielded two runs on three hits in his lone inning of work. Signed last December to a nearly $4 million contract with the thought that he would become the new closer, Hernandez has been a major disappointment.
The righty has now allowed 64 hits over 59 innings with a 4.42 ERA and 1.542 WHIP. This was the 7th time that he has allowed multiple runs during an appearance in what should be his lone Phillies season. Good riddance.
In the American League park, it was a rare opportunity for manager Pete Mackanin to utilize a DH, and veteran Carlos Ruiz got the nod, creating the further rarity of a starting lineup featuring both Chooch and Cameron Rupp. The two catchers combined to go 1-7 on the night.
A 5th loss in their last seven games has left the Phillies 10 games below the .500 mark for the first time in two weeks, with any hope of making a run at that break-even point this season fading further away with each defeat.
The series ends tonight, and the White Sox will return the favor by visiting Citizens Bank Park for a pair of games in the third week of September.