Worley Struggles; Bats Shutout In 5-0 Loss To Mets

For the second straight game, the Phillies fell into an early deficit against the New York Mets, and once again it was too much for them to overcome.

Starter Vance Worley struggled heavily in his second appearance of the season. The righthander gave up four runs on eight hits, struck out four, and walked four. He struggled with his command, either missing his target too often, or hanging pitches over the plate. The second-year pitcher began his tough day by allowing David Wright to hit a solo homerun in the first inning.

The Phillies offense had a chance to answer back in the bottom of the first inning, but the hitters responded with several poor, impatient at-bats. Shane Victorino led off the inning by striking out. The centerfielder was in a 1-2 count, and swung wildly at a pitch out of the strike zone. Placido Polanco and Jimmy Rollins picked up back-to-back base hits, but Hunter Pence quickly ended the threat by swinging at the first pitch and grounding into inning-ending double play.

Worley then had a rough fourth inning in which he surrendered three runs. He loaded the bases to start the inning, but then forced Jason Bay into a double-play (which allowed one run to score). The young starter then failed to take advantage of his opportunity to escape the inning allowing only one run, giving up a two-run homerun to the next batter, Lucas Duda.

The poor batting approaches continued in the fifth inning. Ty Wigginton lead off with a single, but Freddy Galvis followed him up with a strikeout. Galvis has been swinging a hot bat in the last few games, but he remains a regular double-play candidate, and should have been bunting in that situation.

The Phillies haven’t had any timely hitting to speak of so far in this series. In the sixth inning, Victorino led off the inning with a single. Three batters later, with a runner at second, Pence grounded out weakly to third. It was the second time in the game that Pence had failed to come through with runners in scoring position, and the Phillies as a team have gone 0-10 in the series.

It’s been a disappointing series so far, as the Phillies have been unable to build on the momentum they gained from winning two games against the Florida Marlins. They’ll try to salvage a game from the series on Sunday with Cole Hamels on the mound.