Phillies continue to have two good hitters, not much else in loss to Rockies

Two Phillies reached base in Monday’s tough 8-1 loss against Colorado, and anyone who’s been paying attention this month would be able to guess who.

Tommy Joseph, one of baseball’s best hitters this May, knocked in the team’s only run in the fourth inning. It also comes as no surprise that the player crossing the dish was Aaron Altherr, who has become among the team’s few success stories in the first quarter of the season. Altherr had 2 hits of his own.

The pitching was no better. Eickhoff, who was thought to have worked out a kink in his mechanics that may have explained some poor recent performances, allowed 4 earned runs on 9 hits in 6 innings pitched. Focus on the fact that a pitcher lasted 6 innings again, after starting pitchers struggled for a while to do so, and shield yourself from the rest.

It was clear early on that Eickhoff wasn’t fooling Rockies hitters. As Bill Baer of Hardball Talk noted, he wasn’t missing bats:

Pat Neshek continued his stellar season by pitching a scoreless frame in which he struck out 2, but Joely Rodriguez allowed 3 runs (2 unearned) and Luis Garcia gave up another.

It’s true that the Rockies have been a tough team in 2017, but it’s hard to take anything positive away from this one.