Despite another Kyle Schwarber blast, Phillies open up second half with an epic stinker against the last-place Cubs

It doesn’t matter how many home runs Kyle Schwarber hits if the Phillies are going to allow runs like they did Friday night. Blame the starter. Blame the bullpen. Blame the defense. All three played their part in a disastrous fifth inning that saw the last-place Cubs hang a six-spot on the Phillies and turn a tie ballgame into what eventually ended as a 15-2 loss on Friday night.

With 10 days remaining before Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, Dave Dombrowski has little choice but to treat his team’s first game out of the All-Star Break as a harbinger of things to come. For the Phillies feel confident about their chances of putting together the type of second half they will need to keep pace in the wild card race, they can’t have Kyle Gibson and Bailey Falter bracketing Zack Wheeler in a weekend series. They need someone better to call on than Jeurys Familia when the situation calls for someone to stop the bleeding. They need to be able to sweep last-place teams like the Cubs, and doing that with any degree of regularity requires a regular rhythm of consistent pitching.

We knew all of this well before Friday night. But a 13-run loss sure drives home the point.

One of the biggest differences we saw in the Phillies during their 28-14 run to end the second half was the lack of signature moments like the one that roared back from the grave in the sixth inning on Friday night. With nobody out and the game tied at 1-1, Cubs rookie Christopher Morel laced a double to left field that sent Alfonso Rivas rounding third and heading home as Didi Gregorious gathered in Schwarber’s relay throw in shallow left field. Gregorious had plenty of time to throw home in time, but Rhys Hoskins apparently judged the resulting attempt to be offline and decided to cut it off. At first, Hoskins’ split-second decision looked like it might salvage an out, as Morel slammed on the breaks in no-man’s land after taking a hard turn around second. Instead, Hoskins unleashed a low throw to second that center fielder Matt Vierling was unable to field while scrambling to cover the bag. As the ball rolled deep into center field with no Phillies fielders anywhere close, Morel resumed his trip around the bases and coasted home for the second run on the play.

After Gibson loaded the bases with one out, the Phillies called on Familia, who proceeded to allow a pair of doubles that scored three more runs. By the end of the frame, the Phillies were down 7-1 and seemed resigned to their fate.

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Familia’s contributions to the Phillies’ disastrous sixth inning raise further questions about his future with the team. When the team signed the 32-year-old right-hander to a one-year, $6 million contract this offseason, they envisioned him as a veteran power arm whose ability to miss bats and induce ground balls would provide a much-needed upgrade in the middle innings. What they actually got was a reliever who has become such a liability that one has to wonder whether the Phillies might consider jettisoning him to make room for lefty Bailey Falter, who is slated to start Sunday.

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Familia, who has a 4.99 ERA this season after posting a 4.97 ERA in his last 30 outings of last season, has been barely pitchable for nearly a full calendar year now. In his last 22 outings, he has allowed 14 earned runs in 19⅓ innings. Of his 34 outings this season, only 11 have seen him enter and exit without allowing a baserunner. He has allowed multiple baserunners in 16.

That said, Familia was not alone in his struggles. All five Phillies relievers allowed at least one baserunner, including catcher Garrett Stubbs, who drew mop-up duty in the ninth inning and allowed a walk and a single before giving up a loud three-run home run to Cubs rookie Nelson Velázquez. Even before Stubbs’ appearance, the Phillies bullpen combined to allow 10 baserunners in 3⅔ innings, five of them by 25-year-old lefty JoJo Romero, who was making his second appearance since returning from the injured list.

Schwarber didn’t wait long to pick up where he left off at the All-Star break. The Phillies’ red-hot left fielder crushed the first pitch of the game off Cubs lefty Justin Steele for his NL-leading 30th home run of the season. The towering solo shot was Schwarber’s 20th home run in his last 45 games. And then Darick Hall added a solo shot with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. So there was that.