Phillies blow three-run lead, drop series finale to Guardians: ‘We just got to turn the page’

A pair of Kyle Schwarber home runs weren’t enough to power the Phillies past Cleveland in the rubber game of the three-game series Sunday.

The Guardians totaled nine hits to the Phillies’ five. Steven Kwan’s solo home run off José Alvarado in the seventh inning proved to be the difference-maker, lifting Cleveland to a 4-3 win at Citizens Bank Park.

While Alvarado has struggled with his command this month, he still consistently finds success in lefty-on-lefty matchups. Entering Sunday, Alvarado held left-handed hitters to a .087 batting average. So it was surprising — even to Alvarado himself — when Kwan sent his sinker 371 feet to right field. It was the first home run Alvarado has allowed to a lefty all season.

Even so, Alvarado still believes he’s turned a corner from his earlier difficulties.

“I feel really, really good. I feel like my command is really good,” he said. “I don’t have a question about that homer. He’s a lucky hitter, because I [saw] the video, the ball was way, way in. ... I’m very surprised.”

It didn’t help that outside of Schwarber, the Phillies couldn’t get much going at the plate.

Schwarber entered Sunday batting .336 against left-handed pitching, ranked first in the National League. He continued that dominance against Cleveland lefty Joey Cantillo, welcoming the rookie to the big leagues with a leadoff homer and then a two-run shot in the third inning. But that was the extent of the Phillies’ scoring — they finished 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, and left eight men on base.

“We just got to get back to keeping it simple and using the field and staying on pitches,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson.

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Brandon Marsh, playing center field, started against a non-opener left-handed pitcher for the first time since May 16. He made some solid contact against Cantillo with a single in the fourth inning.

Left-hander Kolby Allard made his Phillies debut after being called up from triple-A on Saturday to take over for Ranger Suárez (back soreness) in the rotation. Allard, pitching in a major league game for the first time since July 2023, allowed six hits in four innings. Unfortunately, one of those hits was a three-run homer by rookie Jhonkensy Noel that tied the game. Allard recorded one strikeout and zero walks.

“He pitched well. I thought his cutter was good. He threw strikes, went right after them,” Thomson said.

Noel followed two infield singles to start the fourth by sending a 90 mph fastball 436 feet to dead center. Allard retired the next three batters to end his day.

“I felt me and [catcher Garrett Stubbs] were kind of getting ahead of some guys, and executing pitches pretty well,” Allard said. “A few hits to start that fourth inning ... I wish I could have that one fastball back, but that’s baseball sometimes.”

After the bullpen got a day off thanks to Tyler Phillips’ shutout, Gregory Soto, Orion Kerkering, Alvarado, Jeff Hoffman, and Matt Strahm each got an inning on Sunday.

Kerkering entered the game in the sixth. The 23-year-old has struggled with his command recently, though he worked a scoreless ninth inning in the series opener against Cleveland. Kerkering gave up a single and a double on Sunday, but escaped trouble when Tyler Freeman hit into a fielder’s choice.

A strikeout by Stubbs and groundouts by Schwarber and Trea Turner in the bottom of the ninth sealed the Phillies’ fourth straight series loss. They haven’t won a series since sweeping the Dodgers on July 9-11.

“We’ve had chances to win games and we’ve been in the games and haven’t been able to get the job done,” Bryce Harper said. “We just got to turn the page and understand we’ve got a lot of season to go.”