The Philadelphia Phillies sent Cristopher Sanchez to the mound last night in against the NL Central’s first place Milwaukee Brewers and lost a bizarre game 5-3. 

The loss really wasn’t the fault of the Phillies fifth starter.

Sanchez, who entered the night with a 2.61 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP over six starts since being recalled from Lehigh Valley in June. He tossed five innings, allowing six hits, three runs (one earned), and a walk while striking out three. 

The Brewers struck first in the bottom of the second inning on a sharp line drive double from Blake Perkins to score both Jahmai Jones and Andruw Monasterio.

Christian Yelich then doubled to left field, scoring Blake Perkins to give the Brew Crew a 3-0 lead. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Nick Castellanos finally got the Phillies moving with a home run to deep left field to cut the Brewers lead to just two runs. 

Nick Castellanos Solo Home Run (14)

Kyle Schwarber then continued his red hot home stand by ripping a double to centerfield that scored both Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh in the bottom of the fifth to tie the ballgame at 3-3. 

Kyle Schwarber Game-Tying 2-Run Double

The Bryce Harper At-Bat 

In the bottom of the sixth inning, with zero outs and nobody on base, Bryce Harper stepped up to the plate against Brewers reliever Hoby Milner. 

Harper took five straight pitches, not even attempting to swing or really, take much of any batting stance, before Milner threw a fastball directly down the center of the plate to strike him out. 

Watching this live was bizarre. Check it out. 

Conway wrote up a (funny) post last night about the at-bat which you can check out here >>

Okay Seriously, The Likely Reason:

As Conway stated and which I absolutely agree with, the likely answer here is that Bryce Harper didn’t think that Hoby Milner was going to be able to throw him a strike so in what could have been the most badass way to draw a walk while actually standing in the batters box, Harper just stood there forcing Milner to actually do get baseballs over the plate.

The part that everyone is glossing over as they shout on social media about the at-bat, making ridiculous takes like “Bench him” or “Harper wants to be traded” is the fact that Harper forced Milner to throw six pitches to him while not even moving.

It almost worked too.

Again, Milner tossed six total pitches and Harper worked a full count before a baseball was thrown directly down the middle of the plate to give Milner the strikeout.

Think about this: If Harper did draw a walk there, almost everyone would be celebrating how badass it was and he would be going viral for all the right reasons.

Unfortunately, that’s just now how the cookie crumbled for Harper. Not going to “harp” over it too much. Plus, he roped a single to centerfield in the bottom of the ninth inning in his next at-bat. 

Anyways, William Contreras gave the Brewers a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning, hitting a double off Jeff Hoffman. Hoffman was then pulled for Andrew Bellati, and Milwaukee was able to tack on an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning to make it a 5-3 ball game. 

The Phillies did have some life in the bottom of the ninth inning. Bryce Harper led things off with a single to centerfield. JT Realmuto then struck out, before Bryce Stott had a single of his own to put runners on the corner with one out. 

Stott then tried to steal a bag but was gunned down by William Contreras on a ridiculous throw and Alec Bohm struck out on a foul tip to end the ball game. 

Up Next for the Phillies

It was a tough, bizarre loss for the Phillies, who entered the night winning four straight games. 

Luckily the Miami Marlins dropped their sixth straight game last night and the Atlanta Braves lost their fourth straight, so nothing really changed in the National League East standings but damn, would it have been nice to make up some more ground. 

The Phillies are 52-43 on the year and 6-4 over their last 10 games. They sit 9.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves and hold a half game lead on the Miami Marlins.

In the NL Wild Card, the Diamondbacks and Giants hold the top two spots (+1.5) with the Phillies lining on to the third and final playoff ticket, a half game up on the Fish. 

Taijuan Walker will face Corbin Burnes today at 12:35 PM down at Citizens Bank Park. 

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