Philadelphia Phillies vs Cincinnati Reds: Five Observations from Philly’s First Loss

The Phillies couldn’t stay perfect for the 2017 season as they lost their second game of the season to the Reds by a 2-0 score.

Well, I guess expecting the Phillies to win every single game this season was a bit of a stretch.

After winning on Opening Day, the Phils fell back to .500 as they received their first loss of the season. Jerad Eickhoff was stuck with the loss without really deserving it, the offense struggled, and the rain as usual played a factor. Hopefully, they can bounce back Thursday and win the series with Clay Buchholz on the mound.

Anyway, here’s five observations I had from Wednesday’s shutout loss to the Reds.

No One Wants to Deal with Your Rain Delay Questions

The Phillies and Reds were delayed by 50 minutes and no one wanted to be the one in charge of saying when the game would actually begin.

The weather was quite bad, and Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly said the Reds ground crew had to park tractors on the tarp in order to keep it from flying away due to the wind. Meghan Montemurro of the News Journal thought the game wouldn’t be able to start until 9:00, but they were able to get it going by 8:00.

Pat Neshek is so Deceptive

Wednesday was the first time I actually watched Pat Neshek pitch, and boy is his motion hard to follow.

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He starts off in a full windup, brings his hands behind his back, leans over to the side like he’s going to throw it submarine-style, then brings his arm up just enough to throw it with his arm parallel to the ground. It’s so deceptive with so many moving parts. Even John Kruk on the CSN broadcast said he would have trouble hitting against Neshek.

Neshek was dominant as a whole in his Phillies debut, striking out two in his lone inning of relief.

He threw 14 pitches, 10 of which were strikes.

Plus, Neshek is just so gosh darn fun to watch. He was so energetic during the World Baseball Classic, and he carried that same energy into Great American Ballpark. When he struck out Jose Peraza to end the eighth, Neshek was amped.

Neshek should be more fun to watch as the season goes on. Let’s see if he can stay excited as this season wears on.

Yeah, This Offense Still Needs Some Work

Just when you think the Phillies have started to cobble together a competent offense, they blow up those hopes the next game. As mentioned earlier, Brandon Finnegan controlled Philadelphia’s lineup. After a first inning where Finnegan was forced to throw 25 pitches, he had to throw just 63 to get through the next six innings.

The Phils helped Finnegan out quite a bit, striking out nine times. Tommy Joseph struck out three times during the game, while Cesar Hernandez and Freddy Galvis both went down on strikes twice. On the post-game show, the analysts discussed how the Phillies were getting “over-anxious” and got themselves throughout the game.

Philadelphia finally had a chance to score in the eighth when Aaron Altherr and Cameron Rupp had two straight infield singles to open up the inning. Galvis and Michael Saunders then both struck out before Hernandez ground out to end the inning and kill Philadelphia’s best chance to tie the game.

Odubel Herrera Still Has His Cavalier Attitude

Odubel Herrera and manager Pete Mackanin butted heads several times the past two seasons over how Herrera plays the game. Most of the time it was for lack of effort, but the two could have a different conflict after Wednesday’s game.

In the ninth inning, Odubel Herrera reached base on an infield single, and Maikel Franco struck out after him to give the Phillies two outs. Herrera made an attempt to steal second base but was originally called out. The umpire’s view was blocked, and replay review showed that Herrera was able to get his hand in before the tag was applied. Tommy Joseph struck out to end the game, so the stolen base was moot.

However, Herrera engineered the steal on his own rather than taking a signal from the coaches. Had he been called out and then the play stood, he would look like a major bonehead.

Mackanin certainly wasn’t happy with the play, as Montemurro reported:

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While this may not be the biggest thing to have a conflict over, it still shows that Herrera acts on his own accord on occasion, even in his third season.