Dust Bowl! Phillies Offensive Drought Continues, Fall to Dodgers 4-1
The Phillies offensive drought continued into the Dodgers series, as they failed to score a run until the 9th inning and dropped the first game of the series 4-1 in front of a disinterested home crowd.
Dodgers (26-12) Beat Phillies (18-21)
- Winning Pitcher: Julio Urias (3-3, 2.63)
- Losing Pitcher: Ranger Suarez (4-2, 4.12)
- Save: Craig Kimbrel (8)
The Phillies offense stinks. Until Bryce Harper comes back I don’t know what else to say..
Harper missed his fifth straight game after after receiving an injection in his injured right throwing elbow on Sunday. Since he has been out of the lineup the Phils have dropped four of those games and been shutout on three separate occasions.
Pain.
This team had somehow managed to go 21 straight innings before scoring a single run in the 9th inning tonight and have now scored four total runs in the last four games. They are averaging almost two runs less within the friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park and have now scored an anemic four runs in the last 42 innings there since Sunday.
Pain.
Julio Urias, who got knocked around by the just Phillies over a week ago, looked dominant, tossing five innings while allowing no runs and striking out five. Roman Quinn singled in the 3rd and Kyle Schwarber doubled in the 5th, yet the Phillies were unable to capitalize on either opportunity and never seriously threatened Urias.
Phillies starter Ranger Suarez struggled with his command, throwing only 48 of his 84 pitches for strikes. Ranger looked like he was laboring from the start, uncharacteristically walking two batters in a long 1st inning in which he threw 34 pitches. That seemed to set the tone for his entire night, as he was only able to go 3 innings while allowing 3 runs. Joe Girardi elected to go with the bullpen in the 4th, rather than allowing Ranger to approach 100 pitches.
The Phillies bullpen has quietly been solid, keeping the team in the games despite the offense forgetting the the point of the game is to score runs. Andrew Nelson, James Norwood, Jeurys Familia, and Andrew Bellatti combined for 6 scoreless innings, effectively silencing a potent Dodgers lineup. Despite having a 4.27 ERA entering the night, good for 27th in baseball, the pen has come up big in more than a few spots this season, grading out at 9th in the league in reliever WAR.
The only person having a good week for the Phillies is Nick Castellano’s son Liam, who is getting smoked in the head by foul balls and then giving them away to local kids.
The Phillies will look to bounce back tomorrow night with Aaron Nola on the mound who famously doesn’t receive any run support from his team.
Great.
Freddie Freeman knocks in two runs with and RBI single in the 2nd inning.
3-0 Dodgers
Roman Quinn cant hit for shit but made with a great diving catch in the 4th inning and has looked solid in the center field overall.
With a couple of walks, Nick Nelson pitched himself into a bases load jam and then managed to pitch himself out holding the Dodgers scoreless in the 5th inning.
The Phillies were threatening in the 8th inning, but Mookie Betts covered a ton of ground to rob Alec Bohm of an extra base hit in the 8th inning.
JT Realmuto throws a ball past Jean Segura and into center field in an attempt to get a stealing Freddie Freeman. Freeman reached third on the error and was driven in by Tuner with a sac-fly a few pitches earlier.
4-0 Dodgers
JT Realmuto puts the Phillies on the board in the 9th inning with an RBI single.
4-1 Dodgers
The Dodgers brought in Craig Kimbrel to face Odubel Herrera who was representing the tying run. Odubel wasn’t even close and the Dodgers win 4-2.
Pain.
Up Next
The Phillies will look to finally score some runs in game two of a three game series against the Dodgers on Saturday night.
Aaron Nola (1-4, 3.64) will toe the rubber facing off against TBD (0-0 0.00), with the first pitch scheduled for 6:05 pm.
NBC Sports will carry the broadcast of the game.
Mandatory Image Credit: Delco Times
