Notes From The Phillies’ 6-2 Loss To Milwaukee

The Philadelphia Phillies lost their fourth straight game on Thursday night, falling to the Brewers 6-2. Their record drops to 3-6.

• Cliff Lee took his first loss of the season, allowing three runs on eight hits over six innings. Lee struck out eight. 
• Lee gave up two runs in the fourth, and one in the sixth. He allowed four extra-base hits.
• Marlon Byrd drove in both of the Phillies’ runs, going 2-4 with a solo homer in the in the second inning.
• Chase Utley returned to the lineup, and went 2-4 with a couple of singles.
• The Phils got very little production from the bottom of the order, with Domonic Brown, Carlos Ruiz, and Cody Asche going a combined 1-12.
• Ben Revere went 0-4 with three strikeouts.
• The offense as a whole was pretty feeble, and had five 1-2-3 innings on the night.
• Jeff Manship took over for Lee in the seventh inning, and allowed three runs on three hits without recording a single out.
• Jake Diekman relieved Manship, and allowed two inherited runners to score.
• Justin De Fratus pitched two scoreless innings to finish the game.

Final Thoughts

After a pretty strong performance on the road to start the season, the Phillies have come crashing down to Earth in the early stages of their 10-game homestand.

It was a bit of a disappointing start from Cliff Lee tonight. While Lee wasn’t terrible by any means and gave the team a chance to win, he’s got to be better than what he was today. The team needs Lee to be their stopper. He’s got to come out and be great, not good. Seven or eight innings with one or two runs was what the team needed in order to end their losing streak and salvage a game from this series. Going only six innings with three runs makes it that much more difficult for a team with a painfully inconsistent offense and a woefully flawed bullpen to take home a win.