For about 30 shaky Aaron Nola pitches at the start of Tuesday night’s game, it looked like it might happen again. “It,” of course, being an 11th consecutive Phillies loss following a victory and the continuation of a turbulent 26-game streak in which they failed to win back-to-back games.

But with the bases loaded, two down, and the Phillies trailing 1-0, Nola would bear down by getting Brewers left fielder Billy McKinney to fly out to end the inning.

After his rocky first frame, Nola followed with five scoreless innings, including an impressive sixth-inning escape of a bases-loaded, one-out jam. With his 114th and final pitch of the night, he blew a 94 mph fastball by Brewers catcher Jacob Nottingham to extinguish the Brewers’ threat and solidify his second double-digit strikeout performance of the season.

As it turned out, every single out from Nola’s six innings of one-run baseball were needed to overcome a shorthanded bullpen and an all-time embarrassing managerial blunder for the Phillies to finally nail down those elusive back-to-back wins and move back to .500 in the process.

Oh, Joe…

For a change, it looked like the Phillies were in line for an easy victory, that they would finally coast to a win.

Of course, it wasn’t an easy victory. At all.

That’s because if we’re talking about a baseball game played by the 2021 Phillies, then you know there had to be at least one problem. That problem — one that almost proved devastating — occurred before the start of the seventh inning when Phillies manager Joe Girardi attempted to follow Aaron Nola with Enyel De Los Santos, who was called up earlier in the day.

Just one small problem — the Phillies didn’t list De Los Santos on the official lineup card that was distributed to the umpiring crew, meaning he could not enter the game. That, of course, cannot happen, but it did happen.

How, exactly did it happen?

“Every day, we submit the lineup, it goes to Major League Baseball,” Girardi said. “We made a roster change, and I just didn’t catch it. I mean, ultimately, it falls on me because I didn’t catch it.”

Girardi noted the team-produced lineup card had De Los Santos listed. That must have been the card that made its way into the hands of Brewers manager Craig Counsell.

“I look at it every day,” Girardi said. “Tomper (Phillies bench coach Rob Thomson) looks at it too. We missed it. It’s no excuse, but it’s happened to other teams where the player doesn’t get on the card for whatever reason. It’s just stupid on my part.”People were quick to raise the question on Twitter, but could you imagine if Gabe Kapler did that?

We can skip the deep dive down that rabbit hole, but this wasn’t the best look for a veteran manager in his 1,872nd game on the bench. Of course, the clerical gaffe was compounded by Girardi pivoting to David Hale, who, well, continued to pitch like David Hale. Unsurprisingly, it did not go well.

His night: single, hit by pitch, single, seeya

Hale, who, in hindsight, should have been an outgoing part of the team’s massive offseason bullpen overhaul, now has a 6.57 ERA in nine appearances. On the bright side, after hanging on by a thread thanks to a five-out save from Sam Coonrod, the Phillies now hold a 1-8 record in games pitched by Hale, so maybe things are looking up…

Had that record slipped to 0-9, this Girardi blunder would have carved itself into the Mt. Rushmore of you’ve gotta be f****** kidding me Philadelphia coaching boners, located somewhere between the 2007 Eagles opening the season without an actual punt returner and then promptly losing their first game at Green Bay because of it and Rich Kotite’s indecipherable rain-soaked play sheet.

Andrew McCutchen Finally Warming Up

Nola found his footing with his final pitch of the first inning, and it appears Andrew McCutchen may finally be finding his footing, too, as he launched his second leadoff homer in three nights to quickly tie things up.

With the game still tied in the third, McCutchen stepped in again and delivered his second homer of the game to put the Phillies in the lead for good:

It goes without saying, but a McCutchen resurgence, even one to league average, would be massive for a lineup that began the night producing just 3.86 runs per game, the fifth-lowest scoring average in baseball.

“He’s starting to find his stroke a little bit,” Girardi said. “He’s been working really hard with Joe D. [Phillies head coach Joe Dillon], and he’s been working on everything. He’s starting to find his stroke, and it’s important for us.”

Following an 0-for-4 night at the plate in last Friday’s 2-1 win over the Mets, McCutchen’s OPS sat at just .549. Following his two-homer night Tuesday, his OPS has now crept up to a more workable .671.

“There’s still more work to be done, but I look at the positives from today, and I take those into the next game and the next game,” McCutchen said. “It’s feeling good that all of the work I have been putting in is starting to translate on the field.”

Much-Needed Insurance

Following a Didi Gregorius RBI single that put the Phillies ahead 3-1 in the third inning, Brad Miller delivered a 405 ft. homer that gave the team what appeared to be a commanding 6-1 lead.

Rhys Hoksins seemed to have a pretty good read on the blast:

Notes

  • Roman Quinn finished a second-inning at-bat after suffering a gash on his right index finger on a failed bunt attempt. He then lined a base-hit to left before being replaced by Odubel Herrera in the third inning. He needed nine sutures to close the cut, but he wasn’t surprised that he stayed in and got a hit. “No, man, I’m a savage. I grind through whatever,” Quinn said with a smile after the game. He will likely head to the 10-day IL today.
  • After using just 13 pitches to strike out the side in the seventh on Monday night, the lineup card debacle caused Girardi to run Sam Coonrod back out there for a five-out save. He delivered, stranding the potential tying and go-ahead runs in the ninth. After throwing 28 pitches to get the save, he will almost certainly be unavailable on Wednesday night.
  • The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs began their minor league schedule on Tuesday night. Jean Segura (2-for-3) and Ronald Torreyes (1-for-3) made rehab appearances. Expect Segura back soon. Scott Kingery produced a two-run walk-off triple in his lone at-bat.