The Philadelphia Phillies continued their “slump” last night, losing 3-2 to the Baltimore Orioles, marking their fifth loss in their last six games. 

Last night was a messy game from the start, with Rob Thomson rolling out a lineup against the best team in the American League that featured Josh Harrison, Jake Cave, and Garrett Stubbs.

Phillies Starting Lineup against the Orioles Last Night

It was a puzzling move, but according to Topper, Realmuto and company were going to get a day off in Cleveland but ended up playing on Sunday as the Phillies were looking to avoid getting swept. 

Fine. Whatever. 

During the game, Thomson and the Phillies dugout clearly missed a dropped ball by Orioles centerfielder Aaron Hicks on a line drive hit from Johan Rojas to the gap in left-center.

Aaron Hicks loses baseball after making contact with the ground

Aaron Hicks drops Johan Rojas line drive hit into the gap in left-center

After the game, Thomson spoke with the media and explained that he didn’t challenge the catch by Hicks because he did not get the correct footage showing that the baseball was dropped.

The above video was aired on the broadcast, but the Phillies’ dugout never saw it in the timeframe given to challenge the play.

Rob Thomson didn’t get video angle needed in time to challenge

Where’s Brandon Marsh?

Definitely a tough break for the Phillies on that play and just when you thought they got through the worst of it when Nick Castellanos tied the ball game at 2-2, Thomson and company did not make what should have been a no-brainer defensive substitution in the ninth inning, which resulted in this missed catch from Kyle Schwarber.

Kyle Schwarber Missed Catch

Brandon Marsh was available off the bench and should have been a defensive substitution in left field. That didn’t happen, and the reason behind it was that Thomson didn’t want to remove Kyle Schwarber’s bat from the lineup in a tie ball game.

That reasoning really doesn’t hold much weight, given the fact that Brandon Marsh currently has the highest OPS on the Phillies at .814.

Brandon Marsh .814 OPS

NL Wild Card Traffic Jam: Phillies 0.5 Games Out

Luckily for the Phillies, as they continue to play bad baseball, everyone else in the National League is too.

With the loss last night, the Phillies dropped to 53-47 on the season. They have lost 5-of-6, but thankfully everyone else in the National League are basically doing the same and the hunt for one of the final NL Wild Card spots is completely jammed up with the Reds, D-Backs, Fish, Giants, and Phillies all fighting for the three tickets to the postseason.

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