Notes From The Phillies’ 5-4 Loss To New York

The Philadelphia Phillies had their two-game winning streak snapped on Sunday, falling to the Mets 5-4. Their record drops to 17-19.

• Cole Hamels came up with his strongest effort of the season, lasting seven innings and allowing just one run.
• Hamels struck out 10, and threw 133 pitches.
• Jimmy Rollins went 1-3, and drew three walks.
• Chase Utley went 1-5 and drove in a run. He also hit his second triple of the year.
• Marlon Byrd went 2-4 with a walk and a double.
• Domonic Brown went 0-5 with a walk.
• Wil Nieves went 2-4 with an RBI and a double.
• Cody Asche also went 2-4 with a double and an RBI.
• Tony Gwynn started in the center, and went 0-6.
• Mario Hollands pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
• With Jonathan Papelbon and Mike Adams unavailable, Antonio Bastardo was asked to come get the save in the ninth inning, and the veteran blew the three run lead, giving up three runs on three hits while only managing one out.
• Roberto Hernandez came on to get the final two outs of the ninth.
• Jeff Manship took over in the 10th, pitched a scoreless inning, but gave up a run in the 11th to take the loss.

Final Thoughts

Through the final few innings of yesterday’s game, Cole Hamels must have been thinking “Something’s gotta go wrong, because things are going too damn good”.

Hamels had been cruising through his best start of the season. Heck, the offense had even given him a little run support. So where was it going to go wrong for him this time.

The answer was within the painful lack of depth in the bullpen. Jake Diekman, Mike Adams, and Jonathan Papelbon were all unavailable today.

How frustrating is a guy like Antonio Bastardo?

Spotted a three-run lead, and asked to come in to record three outs, and the veteran couldn’t handle it.

It also says a lot about how good Ryne Sandberg feels about some of the arms in his bullpen that he decided to bring in one of his starters (Roberto Hernandez) who had just pitched two days prior.