A’s avoid sweep, beat the Phillies 4-1 in series finale

It was a cold and windy early season afternoon in South Philly as the Phillies lost to the Athletics’s 4-1.

The players seemed cold, the fans were definitely cold, and even John Kruk was cold inside the booth while not eating his Manco and Manco pizza. I was hungover as hell following a long day that began with a Sixers victory over the Pacers at the Wells Fargo Center and ended in Delco hazily gambling on women’s UFC bouts. The Phillies must have had a similar day because their energy was dog shit and the freezing fans had nothing to cheer about until a Jean Segura shot in the 9th.

Too little, too late.

I guess were going 161-1 now.

Schwarber, Harper, Castellanos and Hoskins were a combined 0-15 including five strikeouts.

After cruising through a scoreless 1st inning, Johan Camargo made this sweet defensive play in foul territory tracking the ball through strong wind.

Don’t count Johan Camargo out from becoming an everyday player at some point for the Phillies this season. He provides defensive utility that Alec Bohm lacks and a veteran plate approach that Bryson Stott will need to develop.

After loading the bases with nobody out Zach Eflin showed off some great glove work to secure a clutch double play. Eflin eventually managed to wiggle out of trouble and exited the inning allowing no runs.

Zach Eflin capped off his first start of the new season, striking out Stephen Piscotty, one of his three strikeouts over four innings of work.

Eflin allowed two hits and two walks in a strong performance in which he threw 42 of 68 pitches for strikes.

I would have preferred that Zach pitch five full innings as he seemed to be rolling along nicely and had avoided any extended innings of 25+ pitches. But I can certainly understand Joe Girardi’s decision to stay conservative with Eflin’s workload following a shortened spring training schedule and his recovery from off season knee surgery.

Eflin: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

Seth Brown managed to fight off this Bailey Falter fastball to score Elvis Andrus and put the A’s up 1-0. Falter who appears to be the preferred first arm coming out of the bullpen, took the loss after tossing 2.1 innings in relief of Eflin, allowing two earned runs on four hits while punching out two.

Home plate umpire Ben May was terrible today! He called out a handful of Phillies this afternoon on pitches well off the plate including this off-speed pitch at least three inches off the corner of the plate.

In the 4th inning, Jean Segura was called out on a similar pitch and had a brief interaction with May regarding that call and an earlier check swing that was also recorded as a strike.

May had no idea what a check swing was the entire day and his erratic strike zone sure seemed to hurt the Phillies more than the A’s.

Billy McKinney sent this Bailey Falter curveball hung over the plate 391 feet to right center for a solo shot that put Oakland up by 2-0 in the 7th inning.

Connor Brogdon entered the 7th inning in relief of Falter and managed to strand a pair of runners at the corners keeping the game within reach for what was a struggling and lethargic Phillies offense.

Damon Jones was cruising through 1.1 innings of hitless work when he began to unravel plunking a batter and then allowing two straight hits including this 2 RBI single to Tony Kemp to put the A’s up 4-0.

Thats a tough missed tag for JT Realmuto, who is usually spot on defensively in these situations. In the end it wouldn’t matter as the Phillies never made the game close.

Jean Segura took Lou Trivino to the opposite field in the 9th inning for a meaningless solo shot cutting the A’s lead to 4-1.

• A’s (1-2) Beat Phillies (2-1)
• Winning Pitcher: Daulton Jefferies (1-0)
• Losing Pitcher: Bailey Falter (0-1)

Up Next

The Phillies will host the Mets on Monday in the first of a three game set at Citizens Bank Park. Ranger Suarez (0-0) will face off against Taijuan Walker (0-0) with the first pitch scheduled for 6:45 pm.

FS1 and NBC Philadelphia will both carry broadcasts of the game.

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