The Philadelphia Phillies lost the first game of their series with the Reds, falling 4-2 in Cincinnati. Their record has dropped to 6-7 on the season.
- Cliff Lee turned in another strong start. He threw seven strong innings, allowing just two runs. Lee worked quickly, and sailed through the Reds’ lineup until the seventh inning. The lefty allowed the first two runners to reach base, and then allowed two runs to score before getting out of the inning. He received a no-decision, but certainly pitched well enough to win.
- Once again, the team’s offense let them down. While Lee held the Reds in check for six innings, the Phillies struggled mightily against Bronson Arroyo, an average pitcher that the Phils have hit pretty well in the past. Tonight however, the Phillies made Arroyo look pretty darn good. The only runs that they scored came off of the bat of Chase Utley, who only appeared as a pinch-hitter, in the seventh inning.
- The team received next to nothing from the top of the lineup once again. Ben Revere, Freddy Galvis, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard went a combined 1-16.
- Although he isn’t getting it done at the plate, Ben Revere is playing some incredible defense right now. He made two great defensive plays early in the game, including a diving catch in which he turned into a double-play when the runner couldn’t return to first in time.
- Erik Kratz turned in another brutal outing at the plate, going 0-3 with yet another double-play ground out to kill a rally early in the game.
- Jeremy Horst took the loss tonight after a brutal appearance out of the bullpen in the seventh inning. Horst gave up two runs on two hits and a walk while recording just one out. Horst has struggled heavily so far this season, and I think its time for the Phillies to make him exclusively a lefty specialist, or they may have to send him down to the minors soon.
- Mike Adams took over for Horst and recorded the final two outs of the eighth inning, stranding the bases loaded.
Final Thoughts
Where are the bats?
This is the fourth consecutive game that the Phillies have scored three runs or less. They need to straighten themselves out soon, or they’ll be in danger of getting swept by this Reds team. Cliff Lee did his best to cover for the ineptness of lineup and make it a game tonight, but Kyle Kendrick and John Lannan won’t be able to do the same against this powerful Cincinnati offense.
You might be able to get away with poor hitting against a team that can barely score one run per game like the Miami Marlins, but you’ve got little chance to accomplish anything against a quality opponent unless your offense can be counted on to score three-to-five runs a game.
The Phillies made Bronson Arroyo look as good as Cliff Lee tonight. Arroyo never broke a sweat on the mound tonight, and got through eight innings on just 91 pitches. This is a guy who entered the game with a an ERA over 5.00, and has been an average pitcher for most of his career.
They’re capable of much better than what they’ve shown over the last few days.
Where are the bats? Ask Booben that ???? Denny! He put this team of ash truck juice together! Get used to it! They are a now a middle of the road, 500, or less team, with zero chance of making the playoffs!
*trash*
When I mention shaky Defense by the Phils, I mean the balls that the older Players just can get to.. That single past Zutley was a double play ball
2-3 Years ago.. Utkey has little lateral Defense, as does Howard and Young
We will see lots of ground balls get thru this aging Phiks IF,
They don’t go down as errors since the Pkayers never get to the ball, but it’s the plays not made by this IF that will cost this Team Games as the season progresses..
Your blaming utley for this.You kidding me the front 4 go 1-16 and you blame utley he ties the game up and u blame him your talking like an idiot.You should be blaming amaro for this weak offense team he fielded for the fans. He had a shot to get upton,cuddyer,armis rameriz etc yada yada you pay the money to watch these debacel cause i wont They are wasting probably the best year lee and utley are having. I say fire charlie and amaro give the reins to dallas green and sandberg theyll put a team together to compete oh and by they way WHY WASNT UTLEY IN TO PLAY FROM THE FRIGGIN START!!
I wouldnt want ramirez, just my opinion. he has bobby abreau stats and is 34…cody asche will be a 3rd baseman with young holding his position for him.
to your question about utley, I question the exact same thing. I rarely bash Charlies decisions but this was a bad one sitting utley as a manager you have to sit guys at times when they have below average batter/pitcher matchups you dont just randomly give days off. utley is 6 for 17 against arroyo with 2 homeruns and only 1 strikeout. it was a must start day for utley, real bad decision by charlie.
Utley if perfectly healthy will only play 150 games, he will sit him periodically ..he is managing the club he has, the other night it was young then Rollins and last night utley
You can’t pick one game and then say Charlie needs to get better at something. He looks at matchups as much as anyone if not more than others. He probably didn’t think that his lefties would suck A against a soft throwing RHP. Or that Horst would poop the bed.
Everyone likes to hammer on Charlie in losses, but Revere, Howard, Brown and even J-Roll shoulda teed off on Arroyo, but they didn’t.
I am not blaming Utley for the loss, merely pointing out on how limited this Phils Defense is in the Infield and it will cost a lot of Hits,Runs and ultimately Wins .. 1B,2B & 3B all have limited Range and that creates some bigger gaps to hit the ball thru or stops and plays that they just can’t make any longer.. Smart opponents will be hitting sown on the ball down and taking their chances of getting hits thru the IF with this limited Defensive group which puts more pressure on the Pithchers and Catchers ..
Stats are misleading sometimes, b4 last night’s game, Phils only had 4 Errors and were ranked pretty High Defensively, but it’s the Plays that Players can’t make any longer that fly under the radar and that are not accounted for that has me concerned with this 2013 Squad
Trash truck juice, that brings me back dcar, to a hot summer day in lower bucks county, sitting on the curb, watching the trash truck rumble away, the juice drizzling from the back, rancid smell, thanks for the memory dcar
Sorry jake! I’ve seen dead animals, people, feces, roach & rodent riddled homes, but that is the only thing, that makes me puke! Every time