A seven-run lead had dwindled Thursday to just one when Joe Girardi walked to the pitcher’s mound with one out in the sixth inning.
The Phillies had already lost the first-game of a doubleheader, 3-2, on a walk-off single after another bullpen failure. Girardi was determined to not let it happen again. So he summoned Hector Neris – his closer – to record the final five outs and finish a game that started with the Phillies sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring seven runs in the first inning.
But Neris provided the Phillies with just one of those five outs, and the bullpen imploded yet again in a 9-8 loss to the Blue Jays in Buffalo. The Phillies lost both of Thursday’s seven-inning games on late-inning letdowns, but it’s hard to find a worse way to lose than how the Phillies lost the second game.
The Phillies used four pitchers – Vince Velasquez, Connor Brogdon, Hector Neris, and Reggie McClain – committed two errors, and uncorked a wild pitch as the Blue Jays scored seven times in the sixth inning.
Rowdy Tellez homered off Velasquez, and Lourdes Gurriel hit a three-run homer off Brogdon before Neris entered. The Blue Jays tied the game when Neris’ splitter bounced past catcher Andrew Knapp and allowed Danny Jansen to sprint home. Tellez then dropped a two-run single into center field, and the Blue Jays took the lead.
The Phillies forced the Blue Jays to use two pitchers in the first inning and throw 46 pitches. They looked to be cruising to a win, moving away from the disappointment of the first game. But then baseball’s worst bullpen entered.
In the first game, Jose Alvarez left the game in the fifth inning after a 105.3-mph line drive by Gurriel hit him in the groin. Alvarez fell to the ground after being hit but somehow managed to retrieve the ball and throw it to first base for the final out of the inning. Alvarez’ exit planted the seeds of another late-inning loss.
Gurriel was the lone batter Alvarez faced as he would have remained in the game for the sixth, when the Blue Jays had three lefthanders due up. Instead, the Phillies turned to righthander Tommy Hunter, who allowed a single to left-handed Billy McKinney and a game-tying two-out double to left-handed Cavan Biggio to right field.
An inning later, Delois Guerra allowed three one-out singles before the winning run scored. Baseball’s worst bullpen struck again.
Alvarez has allowed just one run this season in eight appearances, and the unassuming lefthander has been a steady presence since joining the team in a rather anonymous trade before last season. Losing him Thursday may have cost a win, but more importantly the Phillies hope the injury is not as serious as it looked to be.
The Phillies had six hits in the first game, just one of which was for extra bases. Bryce Harper homered with two outs in the first, and Andrew McCutchen dropped a bloop single over a pulled-in infield to add a run in the third. Harper has reached base in each of the 20 games this season.
Spencer Howard allowed one run in 4⅔ innings before he was lifted in the fifth with runners on first and third and two outs. He struck out five batters and generated eight whiffs with his fastball, four more than he combined for in his first two major-league starts. Howard did not pitch deep into the game, but he looked more like an elite pitcher than he did in his previous two outings.
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August 21, 2020 at 06:48AM
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Phillies blow a seven-run lead and lose to the Blue Jays, 9-8, in a doubleheader sweep - The Philadelphia Inquirer
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