Phillies offense falls flat, Jake Arrieta struggles in loss to Braves

The Phillies were “refreshed and optimistic,” manager Gabe Kapler said, when they arrived Friday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.

They were off Thursday, had won five of their last six, and were able to rest several players in the final game of a five-game road trip as they shifted their attention to a weekend series against first-place Atlanta.

But that optimism faded quickly Friday night in a 9-2 loss to the Braves. Jake Arrieta struggled to complete five innings, the offense coughed up early opportunities, and Kapler seemed to turn the page early to Saturday when he opted for the less-relied-upon Cole Irvin in the sixth inning of a four-run game.

The Phillies spent a week beating up on the cellar-dwelling Pirates and Tigers before returning home to be thumped by the Braves. It was the type of night that made Atlanta’s division lead feel like 16½ games instead of 6½. Maybe the Phillies needed more rest.

Yes, it was just one loss. Yes, the Phillies will have Aaron Nola pitch this weekend and can still win the series. But Friday night was no way to start a series that could have jump-started the chance to fight for a division title.

This weekend seems to be the Phillies’ best chance to indicate to the front office how real a contender they are before Wednesday’s trade deadline. Friday was not their best look.

“I think it would help if we won the series, shrink the deficit, and stay close in the wild card or get ourselves in one of the wild-card spots after the series," Arrieta said of being able to grab the front office’s attention this weekend. “But we have to keep it close to make a decision to continue to make moves. And it’s up to us.”

Arrieta, pitching with a bone spur in his right elbow, was plagued by a loss of velocity before the Braves jumped him in the fifth. He held his own through four innings, but then it flipped, the pitcher said. His elbow flared up, his command went awry, and his pitches lacked bite.

It is fair to wonder how much longer Arrieita can pitch before having surgery. But it’s also fair to wonder how the Phillies, ever thin on starting pitchers, could replace him.

His sinker’s average velocity dropped more than 2 mph from the first inning to the fifth. Brian McCann greeted him in the fifth with a first-pitch homer to start a four-run rally. The Phillies were then in a five-run hole, which was enough for Kapler to have Irvin warm in the bullpen.

“It’s unfortunate, but that’s just what I’m dealing with,” Arrieta said. “... I still want to go out there, especially the way I was throwing the ball to start the game. I don’t want to pull the shoe unless there’s a reason to do so. Things just compounded pretty quick in the fifth.”

Since being shifted to a relief role, Irvin has seldom been used in a high-leverage situation. He pitched two scoreless innings last Friday to close out a five-run win at Pittsburgh and the Phillies were intrigued by the look of Irvin’s lower arm slot.

But the Phillies had a rested bullpen and are off again on Monday. They could have elected to use a higher-leverage arm and take a better shot at keeping the lineup within striking distance. This seemed like a move by the manager to accept a series-opening defeat, preserve the preferred pieces of his bullpen, and move on to Saturday.

“We have a ton of confidence in Cole,” Kapler said. “He’s coming off a great outing. He was the guy who was there to give us length, get us through a couple of innings. It was the right part of the lineup to get a couple of innings out of him. It just didn’t work out in our favor.”

The Phillies scored a run in the bottom of the fifth, but Kapler’s decision did not change. They had runners on the corners in the fourth and loaded the bases in the fifth but failed to cash in. Maikel Franco ended the fourth-inning rally by hitting into a double play and J.T. Realmuto squashed the fifth with a groundout.

A four-run deficit seemed to be insurmountable. The Phillies had 12 hits Friday night but just two were for extra-bases. So Irvin entered, gave up four runs in the sixth inning, and defeat no longer had to be accepted. It was realized.

“We just weren’t able to get the big hit. That was the difference in the game,” Kapler said. “We weren’t able to come up big in the moments where we had a chance to get one big ball in the gap or the seats. We couldn’t come up with that one.”

The Phillies were booed as the final out was made. They were no longer refreshed and it was hard to be optimistic.