Defense Doesn’t Help Lopez’s Cause

Rodrigo Lopez most likely made his last start as a Phillie.  Not because he didn’t pitch well, but because of new additions to the Phillies rotation.  If he had pitched well, the Phillies may have considered Lopez differently, but he could not handle his own pressure.  Also, poor defense did not factor in well.

Lopez allowed seven runs, three earned, in four innings.  In the first, the Phillies had a 1-0 lead, but the Giants went ahead 2-1 in the bottom half of the inning.  Jayson Werth misjudged a line drive, and that opened the gates.

In the fourth inning, Pedro Feliz made a throwing error which led to two runs.  At the last second, Feliz decided to go for the force out at second base instead of the easy play at first.  Assuming Feliz was throwing to first, Chase Utley was off the bag and the ball tipped his glove, scooting to right field.

Pablo Sandoval must have been very unhappy with Charlie Manuel’s All Star selections.  He showed Manuel what he missed.  He went 2-for-4 with a home run and four runs batted in.

The Phillies weren’t able to provide any offense other than Ryan Howard’s RBI double and Utley’s solo homer. Sanchez threw a pitch that sailed over Utley’s head. Utely clearly had a problem with it and stared him down.  On the next pitch he called time before he homered down the right field line.

The Phillies were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.  The three fielding errors didn’t help either in the 7-2 loss.