Notes From The Phillies’ 9-3 Loss To Texas

The Philadelphia Phillies lost their third straight game on Wednesday night, falling to the Rangers 9-3. Their record drops to 14-23.

On The Mound

• Zach Eflin turned his worst start of the season, getting abused left and right for seven runs on 11 hits over just four innings.
• Eflin struck out only one batter, and walked two.
• Eflin’s ERA shot up to 4.25. He didn’t throw a single scoreless inning.
• Luis Garcia pitched three innings, and allowed two runs on six hits.
• Hector Neris and Edubray Ramos combined to mop up the eighth.

At The Plate

• The offense managed three runs on nine hits.
• The club was held scoreless until the seventh inning when Michael Saunders hit a two-run homer.
• Maikel Franco added a garbage time RBI in the ninth.
• Cesar Hernandez went 1-2 with a walk.
• Odubel Herrera went 0-4, dropping his average below .250.
• Aaron Altherr went 1-3 with a single.
• Tommy Joseph went 2-4 with a double.
• Daniel Nava was used as the team’s DH, and went 2-4 with a couple of singles.
• Cameron Rupp went 0-3.

Final Thoughts

Another miserable showing from a team that’s in an outright freefall.

Plain and simple, not a lot’s going well for this franchise right now. Aaron Altherr and Cesar Hernandez have been the only consistent bright spots throughout the season. Everything else has been disappointing, or up-and-down at best.

You have Maikel Franco who has looked completely lost at the plate all year, and is barely hitting above .200. He lost the cleanup role despite the team having very few alternatives. Then you have Odubel Herrera, fresh off of his new contract extension that also hasn’t given the team anything.  And of course, the backend of the bullpen has been a trainwreck with Pete Mackanin constantly switching up roles.

The end result is a team that is on the brink of being 10 games below .500 a month and a half into the season.