The Philadelphia Phillies lost their third straight game on Friday night, falling to the Dodgers 2-0. Their record drops to 20-25.
- Roberto Hernandez did a nice job keeping the Phillies in the game tonight, allowing just two runs over 6.1 innings.
- Hernandez gave up seven hits and four walks while striking out three. He allowed a run in each of the first two innings, but settled down well after that.
- The offense suffered through another lackluster performance, managing just three hits off of the L.A. pitching staff.
- The Phils had a decent threat going in the seventh inning, but failed to capitalize. Ben Revere led off the inning with a single, and Cesar Hernandez drew a walk. Tony Gwynn then reached on an error to load up the bases with no outs. Remarkably, Domonic Brown, Jimmy Rollins, and Carlos Ruiz all failed to drive any runs home in the next three at-bats. Brown lined out to left, failing to drive the ball deep enough to score Revere on a sac fly. Rollins grounded into a force out at the plate, and Ruiz lined out to right to end the inning.
- Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley each hit a double in the losing effort. For Utley, it was his 20th of the season.
- Ryan Howard and Marlon Byrd each went 0-4 with three strikeouts apiece.
- Darin Ruf started his first game of the year in left field, and went 0-1 with a walk.
- Carlos Ruiz went 0-2, but did draw two walks.
- Cesar Hernandez got a start at third base, and went 0-3 with a walk.
- Mario Hollands took over for Hernandez in the seventh, and got Adrian Gonzalez to ground into a inning-ending double play.
- Antonio Bastardo pitched two scoreless innings to finish out the game.
Final Thoughts
Another shut out.
The Phillies almost made it through an entire week without getting shutout by an opponent, but they had no answers for the Dodgers’ pitching staff tonight.
Its the third straight week that the team has been shutout at least once over a seven-day stretch. You could have probably assumed that an elite lefty like Clayton Kershaw would have given this lineup fits, but Kershaw was only around for six innings tonight.
The Phillies are really beginning to fall apart here at the end of May. They’re falling further and further below the .500 mark, they currently reside in the basement of a weak division, and there really isn’t a lot of reason for optimism at this point.
Cliff Lee is on the disabled list, the offense can’t be counted on the score more than three runs on a nightly basis, Ryan Howard hasn’t had the comeback year that many hoped he would, Domonic Brown has been a disaster, and the bullpen is still a weakness.
Its an inconsistent team stuck in mediocrity.
