If the Phillies remain interested in convincing Dave Dombrowski and Friends to buy ahead of next weekâs trade deadline, you sure as hell wouldnât know it.
All right, here we go. Atlanta Braves. Big series, back at home. Time to make a move. Gotta come out hot.
Out hot they came â a hot, sloppy, steaming mess. Let us review the play above:
Two routine opportunities to record an out. Two misses. 1-0, Braves.
âI mean, you gotta come up throwing and hit the cutoff man,â Joe Giradi said about the play. âAnd then the cutoff man determines if thereâs a play at second or not. He threw it to second and then we didnât make the play home, but I think you have to come up and hit the cutoff man.â
Iâve previously written about the Phillies lacking killers â guys who play with an edge and rise to the moment. Perhaps itâs unfair to suggest this team doesnât have those players, or at least doesnât have enough of them. Maybe thatâs an easy hole to poke for a media dude like me, a guy paid to create a narrative, but I donât think so. Plays like this one, which happen with baffling regularity, justifiably invite the criticism.
And you know what else?
Following a pair of tough losses to the Yankees, a lineup featuring Knapp and Herrera â and not J.T. Realmuto and Andrew McCutchen â doesnât exactly scream urgency. A late night of travel down the New Jersey Turnpike or a maintenance day are reasonable explanations for a night off, but in the opener of the teamâs most important series to date? After having Monday off? Less than a week back from the All-Star break?
The Phillies have scored just 12 runs during their current three-game losing streak. After wasting 11 free passes from Yankees pitchers on Wednesday night, the Phillies were held to just six hits and two runs by Charlie Morton and three Atlanta relievers.
They were just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position while leaving eight runners on base, bringing them to a collective 5-for-32 with runners in scoring position and 31 runners left aboard since Tuesday night.
Good thing two of the teamâs best hitters had the night off.
Letâs start this portion of the read with something positive.
Prior to his lousy start against the Braves, which ironically was his longest of the season, Matt Moore had been serviceable in four starts since rejoining the Philliesâ rotation last month. He didnât pitch past the fifth inning in any of those starts, but he did post a respectable 3.06 ERA while helping the Phillies to four wins.
Now for something not so positive. Moore buried his team in this one.
He didnât get any help from his defense in the first inning, but the third-inning disaster was entirely of his own making.
After retiring the first two batters, Moore proceeded to allow a pair of singles and a walk to load the bases. Up stepped a struggling Dansby Swanson, who effectively ended the game with a laser over the left field wall to make it 5-0.
âHe just made some mistakes,â Girardi said. âYou know, I think the first two balls werenât hit particularly hard, and then he issued a walk I believe, and then it was the grand slam, and that is where he made the big mistake.â
After the game, Moore shouldered the blame.
âBeing able to work out of that right there, even if I did give up a homer later in the game, itâs still two runs right there, and I like our chances with our team,â he said. âSo really, that was the story. It was about as poor of a pitch as I made all night right there to Swanson.â
While the loss is damaging to the Phillies in terms of the standings, it doesnât change anything on a higher level.
Nothing about Mooreâs latest start alters the big picture. Thereâs a place for Moore on this roster as rotation depth and as a long man, but he simply cannot make another 13-14 starts for this team down the stretch if Phillies management maintains honest postseason aspirations. Four innings of two-run baseball or six innings of six-run baseball doesnât change that reality.
A couple of questionable decisions worth noting:
If you were annoyed by watching the Philliesâ latest loss, just know it could have been worse. Way worse.
You could have been some guy in Indiana who woke up on Thursday morning and said, âYou know what? I gotta get me a piece of Matt Moore and the Phillies tonight, and I gotta do it for 50 large.â
The Indiana Grand Racing and Casino appreciates the donation.
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