Phillies fall to Braves for embarrassing, ugly loss in burgundy uniforms

Before another loss unraveled into an embarrassment Saturday, before the first E-A-G-L-E-S chant echoed through Citizens Bank Park, and before the Phillies decided to score once they were down double-digits, Zach Eflin needed just one more pitch.

The outcome of a 15-7 loss may not have changed had Eflin been able to find one more strike against Max Fried with two outs in the second inning. But it certainly did not help that Eflin kept the inning alive by walking the opposing pitcher. Fried fouled off three straight pitches with a full count and Eflin tossed ball four.

The next batter — Ronald Acuna — crushed Eflin’s slider 447 feet into the visitors’ bullpen to cap a four-run rally. Eflin had already allowed two runs before Fried’s walk, but perhaps the game does not develop the way it did had Eflin retired the opposing pitcher and ended the second with the Phillies down just two.

“It’s frustrating,” Eflin said. “It’s not what I want to do. I feel like these past couple outings, I’ve been getting hurt pretty good with two outs in the inning and not being able to shut down the inning. It’s frustrating.”

Instead, the rout was on. The Braves would score seven more times in the third, chase Eflin after just 2⅔ innings, and outclass the Phillies for the second straight night. The first-place Braves have outscored the Phillies, 77-31, in their last eight meetings since the Phillies started the season by sweeping them.

“I would just say that they have played better baseball than us,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “To beat us handily is unacceptable. We have to be better. We’re a much better baseball team than we’ve shown against the Braves since that opening series. We have to get better quickly.”

Atlanta used the first two games of the series to expose the Phillies’ starting rotation, silence the lineup Matt Klentak built this winter to outscore opponents, and display the delta between first and third place in the National League East. The Phillies may have worn their 1979 burgundy uniforms on Saturday night, but they did not resemble a team that was just a season away from winning a championship.

The trade deadline is Wednesday and the Phillies could still be buyers if they convince themselves that this team can win one of the National League’s two wild cards. The first two games of the weekend were enough to admit that the division — which the Braves now lead by 7½ games — feels increasingly out of reach.

Eflin was charged Saturday night with six earned runs, which brought his ERA to 10.46 over his last six starts. Take away Aaron Nola and the Phillies’ starting rotation has a 6.30 ERA in July. Saturday night was the team’s 20th game in July and a starting pitcher has lasted more than five innings just nine times, four by Nola.

“It could be a lot of different things," Eflin said of his struggles. “It’s my job to figure out what it is and go back to what I was doing when I was doing good. I’ll go back and look at some video and have a couple conversations and go from there.”

The Phillies knew their starting rotation would be a concern when they neglected it this winter. But they did not envision it blossoming into this large of a problem with more than two months remaining in the season.

Eflin said after his last start in Pittsburgh that his body felt heavy. Kapler, who introduced the theory that night that the pitcher’s body was heavy, said on Friday that the heavy-bodiness “took on a life of its own" and seemed to dismiss the notion. But it was hard to imagine that something was not ailing Eflin on Saturday night when he was rocked yet again. Eflin said after Saturday’s start that he’s healthy.

“I think he’s having a hard time hitting his spots and these teams are really good,” Kapler said. “Especially, a team like the Braves. They don’t miss many mistakes, so when you make them, they take advantage and they did tonight.”

The Braves scored once off Eflin in the third, before he seemed to escape the inning by inducing a double play grounder. But Jean Segura bobbled the throw to second and the runner was safe. Just like Eflin’s walk of Fried, this would hurt.

The next batter, Ender Inciarte, singled in a run and Fried scored another by beating out a double play. Then Acuna walked to load the bases and that was it for Eflin, who was booed lustily as he walked off the mound. Maybe his night is different if he does not extend the second inning. Or maybe the boos were unavoidable.

The E-A-G-L-E-S chants had not yet begun. The game was fading away, but it had yet to be an embarrassment. The Phillies lineup was still four innings away from putting together much of a threat.

Ranger Suarez needed just three pitches to give up a grand slam, bury the Phillies into a 10-run hole, and label Saturday night as a black mark on a season that is charting to be just as disappointing as the campaign where they last wore the burgundy uniforms.