Categories: 2023 Postgame Recaps

Misplay costs Phillies in yet another loss in San Francisco

Bryson Stott hit an RBI single but couldn’t grab a key pop-up on Tuesday. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)

Final Score: Giants 4, Phillies 3

SAN FRANCISCO — Is a place the Phillies simply cannot win.

But Tuesday’s loss didn’t come just because Oracle Park is a house of horrors. It came because the Phillies blew far too many scoring opportunities and struggled to catch the baseball. It’s hard to win like that anywhere. Tuesday was evidence. So was Monday.

The Phillies lost the second leg of their three-game series against the Giants, their staggering 22nd loss in their last 27 games in San Francisco.

After the Phillies blew runner-on-second, zero- or one-out opportunities in the first and second innings against Alex Cobb, the Giants cracked the scoreboard in the third against Zack Wheeler on an RBI single by Thairo Estrada. Brandon Marsh made a good throw home to prevent LaMonte Wade Jr. from testing him, but Michael Conforto singled Wade home two batters later anyway for a 2-0 lead.

The Phillies got those runs right back. Bryson Stott lined an RBI single into center to plate Marsh and snap an 0-for-28 team streak with runners in scoring position.

Then, Kody Clemens, who had singled after Marsh, scored on a balk, about which Cobb was irate. (He technically balked, though the move — slightly twitching the front leg before stepping with the back — is rarely called).

Trea Turner struck out swinging but reached on a drop third strike, putting runners on the corners with one out. Cobb retired Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos, however, to keep the score tied.

The Giants got those runs right back, aided by a brutal miscue. Wheeler induced a Joey Bart pop-up that should’ve ended the inning, but Clemens and Stott both lost it. Once Stott found it, he raced over and got a glove on the ball, but it trickled off and into foul territory, allowing Casey Schmitt to score from first.

Wade then singled Bart home on a play that the Phillies challenged, but the call — that J.T. Realmuto didn’t tag an oddly non-sliding Bart on time — was upheld.

That score stood until two outs in the top of the ninth, when Kyle Schwarber walloped his 10th home run of the year, another solo shot, to straightaway center field.

Still, the Phillies trailed, in part because Schwarber had grounded into a double play with two on and no outs in the seventh. It wound up costing them, as J.T. Realmuto struck out against Camilo Doval to end it.

Starting on April 26, the Phillies began a four-game winning streak. Then they lost six straight. Then they won five straight. Now they’ve lost three straight. That’s one way to go .500. They’re 20-22 overall this season, and they’ll try to avoid dropping to the current year behind Taijuan Walker on Wednesday.

Shibe Vintage Sports Notes

Gregory Soto threw a perfect eighth inning, his 18th scoreless appearance in 21 chances this season. His 3.79 ERA feels quite deceptive, given how confident you feel with Soto on the mound these days.
The Phillies’ aforementioned hitless streak was their longest such hitless streak since 2009, as noted by Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
This feels almost impossibly bad:

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