Bailey Falter hurt by homers again as Mariners snap Phils’ win streak, 5-3

Bailey Falter has given up a home run in four of his last five outings. More times than not, the left-hander has been able to curb the damage, but he struggled to do so Tuesday night in a 5-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Citizens Bank Park that snapped the Phillies’ three-game winning streak.

Falter cruised through his first four innings. He had allowed just one hit and struck out three over that span. He was at just 38 pitches through three innings, and 48 pitches through four. But Falter struggled in the fifth. He gave up a solo home run to Jarred Kelenic, and allowed two more singles that resulted in another run.

He came back out for the sixth, but allowed a double and a two-run homer to Teoscar Hernandez. He finished his night after six innings with a line of six hits, four runs, three earned, no walks, and seven strikeouts, with two home runs.

The mistakes Falter did make were costly. The slider that Kelenic crushed for a 424-foot homer to center, arrived in the middle of the strike zone. Hernandez’s homer in the sixth inning came on a hanging curveball. characterized these past few outings as “very frustrating.”

“A couple of bad pitches and those guys capitalized on them, yet again,” Falter said. “I feel like I’ve been telling you guys the same [stuff] since the season started.”

Overall, it was a solid outing, but the Phillies didn’t do enough offensively to overcome it. After a brief rally in the ninth inning, they finished with 10 hits, and three runs against a tough Mariners’ pitching staff, with just one run in five innings against starter Marco Gonzales, and went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Entering the 2021 season, outfielder Cristian Pache was one of the top prospects in baseball. MLB Pipeline had him ranked No. 12, and he made Atlanta’s opening day roster. He provided above-average defense, but struggled to hit at the big league level. After a 2021 season marred by injuries, the Braves dealt him to Oakland in March 2022.

The A’s gave him 241 at-bats and dealt him to the Phillies on March 29 for right-hander Billy Sullivan. Manager Mark Kotsay said that they “ran out of time” to develop Pache offensively.

The 24-year-old has already had two organizations pass on him, but he says this one feels different.

“In each organization, I learned a lot,” he said in Spanish. “But now I feel more comfortable. I feel happy to be here. The communication, the camaraderie in the clubhouse, the players want to help, the coaches do, too. They’ve given me confidence.”

There wasn’t a ton of optimism that he would suddenly figure things out with the Phillies, and it’s too early to say if he really has. But he certainly looks good so far.

After a slow start, Pache is now batting .348/.348/.565 with a .913 OPS. He has recorded more hits (eight) in 23 at-bats with the Phillies than he did in 63 at-bats with the Braves in 2021.

Pache has been working with hitting coach Kevin Long on staying back and “staying in my legs.” He said he started to notice the changes when he was hitting in Yankee Stadium in early April.

“I was staying in my legs so much that I started to feel sore in my legs,” he said in Spanish. “That’s when I started to notice that things were starting to change.”

On Tuesday night, his hot streak continued. Pache not only went 2-for-3 against the Mariners, but made a diving catch in the sixth inning to rob Kelenic.

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Utility man Edmundo Sosa hit his third home run on Tuesday, a 421-foot solo shot to left-center field in the fifth inning. Sosa is batting .311/.333/.578 through 45 at-bats.

After a strong spring training that earned him a spot on the opening day roster, reliever Yunior Marte struggled in his first two regular-season outings with the Phillies. He was sent to triple-A Lehigh Valley on April 3 and pitched well there, posting a 3.60 ERA through five innings with eight strikeouts. On Tuesday, he made his first outing with the Phillies since they called him back up on Sunday. He gave them a 1-2-3 eighth inning, with one strikeout.

“That’s the guy we saw in spring training,” manager Rob Thomson said of Marte. “His last two outings in Lehigh were like that. Where he was just peppering the zone, getting soft contact, heavy sink, 96, 97 mph, mixed in with the slider. He’s got outstanding stuff. When he throws it over the plate, he’s going to get people out.”