Cristopher Sánchez gets rocked as the Phillies lose their third straight to the Diamondbacks

PHOENIX — The Phillies had an opportunity to wrap up their 10-game West Coast swing on a positive note and secure a season series win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.

They did neither. A rough outing for starter Cristopher Sánchez and a lack of consistent offensive production resulted in the Phillies’ third straight loss to Arizona, 12-5. The Phillies were outhit, 18-8, as they closed out the road trip that also included the Mariners and Dodgers with a 4-6 record.

“[Arizona is] a really good team. They ain’t scared,” Bryce Harper said. “They go about it the right way. They play the game hard. They have guys that walk, they have guys that can hit, good pitching, good bullpen; they’re a good team.”

Sánchez pitched with a lot of traffic on the basepaths, surpassing his career high by allowing 12 hits in 4⅔ innings. He also issued two walks. Alec Bohm’s two-run double in the first inning gave Sánchez a lead to work with, but he allowed three straight singles in the bottom of the inning that gave the Diamondbacks a run back.

“[The issue was his] command,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I thought the stuff was OK. Changeup was good. They fouled it off. Left a lot of pitches in the middle of plate and created a lot of foul balls, which created a lot of pitches.”

Things fell apart in the third inning. Sánchez left too many pitches in the middle of the plate and the Diamondbacks capitalized with three singles and two doubles that, combined with a run-scoring wild pitch, made it a four-run inning as Arizona took a 5-2 lead.

“I missed a lot of pitches,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “I think it was just the location.”

The Phillies’ bullpen didn’t fare any better. Tanner Banks entered the game with two outs and two on in the fifth, and gave up a walk and a bases-clearing triple. The Diamondbacks tacked on an unearned run off Orion Kerkering in the sixth and scored three runs off José Alvarado in the seventh. Two of those runs scored on an opposite-field homer by Corbin Carroll, just the second of the year Alvarado had issued to a left-handed batter. The first came against Cleveland on July 28.

“It’s happened a couple of times now here in the last couple of weeks,” Thomson said of Alvarado. “Again, it’s command, and being able to locate pitches and stay out of the middle of the plate.”

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The Phillies’ bats seemed to wake up in the seventh, when the bottom half of the lineup strung together four hits off reliever Dylan Floro to manufacture three runs. Trea Turner hit into a double play to end the rally.

Diamondbacks left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. robbed Harper of an extra-base hit in the third inning when the game was still in reach, making a leaping catch up against Arizona’s bullpen fence. Harper launched the ball 351 feet the opposite way, for what would have given him a home run in 20 out of 30 major league ballparks.

Merrill Kelly returned from a right shoulder strain to make his first start for Arizona since April 15. After the Phillies’ two-run first inning, Kelly kept the Phillies off the board until he was relieved in the sixth.

“I thought, obviously we had our chances, just weren’t able to cash in on them,” Harper said. “I thought Kelly threw the ball well, [we] just [weren’t] able to get the job done.”

Catcher J.T. Realmuto was checked out by the trainer in the seventh inning after getting what Thomson called a “stinger” in his neck, although he remained in the game.

“He kind of twinged it a couple times or two afterwards, but I think it’s fine,” Thomson said.