Notes From The Phillies’ 4-3 Loss To St. Louis

The Philadelphia Phillies lost their fourth straight game on Thursday night, falling to the Cardinals 4-3 in Philadelphia. Their record has dropped to 6-10 on the season.

• Cole Hamels was good tonight, but not great. Hamels allowed three runs over seven innings, allowing five hits, two walks, and struck out eight. He gave the team a good chance to win the game, but the team really good have used a dominating performance from their ace. Hamels has been up and down in his four starts so far, and has yet to deliver an elite performance that he’s more than capable of.
• Setup man Mike Adams earned the loss tonight, allowing a solo homerun to Carlos Beltran in the eighth inning.
• The offense was much better tonight than they’ve been over the last week, but they still left a lot to be desired. The good news was that they got a lot of guys on base, got a couple of hits with runners in scoring position, and consistently threatened to score throughout the game. The bad news was that this was the seventh straight game that they’ve scored three runs or less, and once again failed to draw a single walk.
• Charlie Manuel shook up the lineup, putting Jimmy Rollins in the leadoff position, starting Freddy Galvis in left field and hitting him second, and dropping Ben Revere to the seven-hole.
• Galvis went 2-4 with a double and drove in a run. He had an opportunity to come through the ninth inning with two on and two outs, but was unable to come through.
• Chase Utley went 2-4 and also drove in a run.
• Ryan Howard had a three-hit game, but was unable to drive in a run.
• Erik Kratz had a productive night at the plate, going 2-4 with an RBI. Kratz hit home a run that tied the game in the seventh inning, and picked up a base hit in the ninth inning.
• Domonic Brown made an appearance as a pinch hitter, despite not making the start with a sore back.

Final Thoughts

Another tough loss for the Phils, but at least there were some positives to take from this game.

The Phillies offense has been putrid for the last week, but tonight they showed some signs of life. It was good to see them put together 13 hits, and threaten to score throughout the game. However, the bottom line is that their effort tonight as a group wasn’t good enough. The pitchers were unable to shut the Cardinals down, and the offense didn’t have enough firepower.

Tomorrow, the focus will back on Roy Halladay. Will he be able to build off of his strong outing against the Marlins, or will the Cardinals lineup force him back into his struggles from his first two starts?