Rough fifth inning dooms Phillies in loss to Brewers
Final Score: Brewers 5, Phillies 3
After a successful eighth-inning rally against the Brewers on Friday night, the Phillies responded by surrendering a three-run lead in the fifth and going 2-for-18 from the fourth inning onward to finish off a 5-3 loss against Milwaukee. They are 6-9.
The Phillies, who somehow missed out on facing both Devin Williams and Josh Hader at home last season when they swept the Brewers, could not get anything going against Milwaukee’s pair of dominant late-inning relievers.
“They’re good in the front, the middle and the back,” manager Joe Girardi said on Milwaukee’s pitching staff after the game.
Zack Wheeler was strong through four innings but hit a wall in the fifth. He faced eight batters that inning and allowed four runs on five hits.
A pair of first inning doubles gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead. Bryce Harper doubled into the right-center field gap. Nick Castellanos brought him home with a two-base hit down the right-field line.
Two more runs came into score for Philadelphia in the third. Odúbel Herrera recorded his first hit of the season by legging out a triple to lead off the third. Milwaukee opted to play the infield in with the runner at third against the next batter Jean Segura, who popped-up to the second baseman Kolten Wong. Wong, a strong defender, had to travel a little farther to get the ball and it popped out of his glove. Herrera scored easily to make it 2-0.
Segura took third after he realized nobody was covering the base and it paid off as the clean-up hitter Castellanos knocked in his second RBI of the game on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
The Brewers scored four in the fifth to take the lead against Wheeler. Christian Yelich tied the game on a single to right. He subsequently stole second with Willy Adames at third. Realmuto’s throw to second landed in center field and Adames scored easily from third. Both Adames and Yelich were credited with the double steal.
The Phillies’ corner outfield defense did Wheeler no favors in the fifth. With a run already in, Adames hit a relatively short fly ball to Kyle Schwarber in left field. With a better read, Schwarber had a chance to catch it. A more competitive throw to the plate had a chance to get the speedy Lorenzo Cain at home.
“Everyone’s doing their best. I mean, that’s the bottom line,” Girardi said when asked about the play. “It’s frustrating because we had a 3-0 lead and we weren’t able to hold it.”
Milwaukee added another run on a solo home run from Hunter Renfroe in the sixth off of Cristopher Sánchez. Renfroe went 3-for-4 on the day with a home run, double and single.
The Phillies will look to take the series on Sunday night. Aaron Nola will face Eric Lauer in the series finale.
Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance
Adrian Houser: 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, 85 pitches
Houser’s outing was a tale of two halves. He gave up three runs in his first three innings, but settled down and allowed only one Phillies hitter to reach base safely over his final three innings. The Phillies may have thought they caught a break this weekend by missing out on facing Brewers co-aces Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes, but Milwaukee has one of the deepest rotations in the sport. They were facing a tougher starter on the mound regardless and Houser, who has a 3.52 ERA this season, is one of them.
Zack Wheeler: 5 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 84 pitches
Velocity was the biggest concern for Wheeler heading into this game. His final pitch of the afternoon was a 95-mph sinker. While he’s not quite where he was last year, the velocity concern shouldn’t be as pressing as it was in his last outing against Miami. He retired 10 straight batters from the end of the first through the fourth, but gave up five hits and four runs in an ugly fifth inning.
Phillies Nugget Of The Game
Rhys Hoskins’ single in the eighth inning broke an 0-for-12 slump for the Phillies first baseman.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Sunday, April 24 vs. Milwaukee Brewers
- 7:08 p.m. ET
- TV: ESPN
- Radio: Sportsradio 94 WIP
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