Phillies stumble on path to playoffs, lose fifth straight in 18-11 rout by Blue Jays
At the worst time imaginable, the Phillies can't find their winning groove.
Four pitches into an all-important homestand — maybe the last week the Phillies will play at home this season, whether they make the playoffs or not — rookie shortstop Bryson Stott overthrew first base and hit a cameraman, bloodying his forehead.
Somehow, things didn’t get much better after that.
The Phillies blundered in the field and on the bases — a comedy of errors, if only the wild-card standings weren’t suddenly so serious — and got walloped, 18-11, by the Toronto Blue Jays before 21,129 believers (maybe?) at Citizens Bank Park.
At precisely the wrong time, the Phillies have lost five consecutive games, their longest skid under interim manager Rob Thomson and tied with a May 27-31 slide for their longest of the season.
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But the Milwaukee Brewers fumbled a lead at home and fell to the New York Mets. So, although it won’t settle anyone’s stomach around here, the Phillies maintained a 2½-game cushion (3½ including the tiebreaker) for the final National League wild-card spot.
Raise your hand if you feel good about that.
Yeah, didn’t think so.
The Phillies are trying to keep the fatalism of previous late-season collapses from seeping into the clubhouse. Kyle Schwarber, a veteran of six postseasons in seven years and the team’s undisputed leader, spoke up after the game, delivering a message: “Stay in the fight.”
“We’re going to end the night in a playoff spot,” starter Kyle Gibson said after allowing seven runs in five innings. “Schwarbs said it after the game. We still are in the driver’s seat. It depends on how we do. It doesn’t depend on how anybody else does. We’ve got a pretty veteran team in here that has been in these situations. I think we still have a lot of confidence.”
But even if they maintain their grasp on a playoff spot, the Phillies don’t have much chance of surviving the best-of-three wild-card round if they don’t clean things up.
A rundown of their miscues against the Blue Jays, after Stott’s first-inning errant throw:
Gibson threw a belt-high fastball to Matt Chapman for a two-out, three-run homer that gave the Jays a first-inning lead. Gibson gave up 12 hits, the most against a Phillies pitcher since Aaron Harang allowed 12 on Aug. 10, 2015, and has a 9.68 ERA in his last four starts.
Stott and Schwarber lost a fly ball in the twilight above left field to open the second inning, the start of a two-run rally that left the Phillies in a 5-0 hole.
After five consecutive hits against Jays starter Ross Stripling (six hits in a row overall) drew the Phillies within 7-5 in the fifth inning, Bryce Harper killed the rally by getting doubled off second base on Stott’s lineout to center field.
In the top of the sixth, Stott didn’t set his feet and made an errant throw that helped the Blue Jays get a run back.
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The Phillies allowed season highs in runs and hits (21) and were left to put backup catcher Garrett Stubbs on the mound to finish the ninth inning by flinging an 84 mph fastball by Danny Jansen.
Need we go on?
“It didn’t look real good,” Thomson said. “So, we’ve got to regroup and come back [Wednesday], get some runs, get a lead, and let those [pitchers] settle in.”
Said Harper: “We’re at the point where we need to win games. We’re at a crucial point in the season where we need to show up every night that we play, no matter who’s over there or what’s going on. We’re in a tough stretch right now.”
Marsh injured, Guthrie homers
For the second time in a span of five weeks, center fielder Brandon Marsh banged up his left knee while leaping for a ball at the wall.
Marsh tried to snag Jansen’s third-inning double but crash landed with his legs tucked beneath him. He stayed in the game and batted in the bottom of the third before exiting with what Thomson described as a bruise.
Matt Vierling moved to center field, while Dalton Guthrie entered the game in right and hit his first major league homer to kick-start the four-run rally in the fifth inning.
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The big 4-0
Schwarber became the eighth Phillies player to hit 40 homers in a season with a three-run shot off the facing of the second deck in the eighth inning.
The last Phillies player to have a 40-homer season: Ryan Howard (45) in 2009. Schwarber is the first full-time Phillies outfielder to reach 40 homers since Chuck Klein, who hit 40 in 1930.
Realmuto’s big night
Lost in all the offense and the Phillies’ sloppy play, J.T. Realmuto became the 23rd player in franchise history — and the first in a loss since Harry Anderson in 1958 — to finish a game with at least five hits and a home run.
Realmuto also became the fifth Phillies catcher to post two 20-homer seasons with the club, joining Mike Lieberthal, Darren Daulton, Stan Lopata, and Andy Seminick.