Phillies lose their sixth straight after another ineffective starting pitching performance

Bailey Falter trudged away from the mound Saturday night, boos cascading down upon him. It was the fourth inning, and five runs were already in, another dud by a starting pitcher that left the aggregate ERA of the Phillies’ rotation at 5.03.

Repeat: 5.03.

Go ahead, then, and carp about Kyle Schwarber (batting average: .176) atop the order, or Trea Turner’s meh start, or the bullpen. It’s all background noise. The Phillies are 15-19 after a 7-4 loss to the Red Sox at sold-out Citizens Bank Park — their season-high sixth consecutive defeat — because of that starters’ ERA, which is an unsightly 9.91 over the last six games.

Really, it’s that simple.

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“We’re just not being consistent enough,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “I feel like we’re falling behind a little too often, getting in a lot of three-ball counts. And it’s not all the time. It seems like it’s one inning every outing where we just kind of lose focus.”

It has been eight games since a Phillies starter completed seven innings. But forget that. Lately, manager Rob Thomson would beg for a five-inning start. Phillies starters haven’t made it through five innings in 13 of the 34 games, 38% of the schedule so far.

That’s a tough way to win. Not only does it burn out the bullpen, but it also puts inordinate pressure on an offense that entered Saturday night leading the league in hits (312) and tied for fourth in slugging (.431) despite Bryce Harper’s 30-game absence and the aforementioned struggles of Schwarber and Turner.

Falter, a fifth-starter candidate when spring training began, took his seventh turn in the rotation and retired the first nine Red Sox hitters on 37 easy, breezy pitches.

The second time through the order couldn’t have gone differently. The Red Sox batted around in the fourth inning, going 6-for-8 with a walk against Falter. Rafael Devers drove in two runs with a bases-loaded double; Christian Arroyo singled home two more and scored on Raimel Tapia’s RBI single.

And, in a flash, Falter was done, charged with five runs and headed for the showers — with an 0-6 record and a 5.75 ERA.

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“Honestly don’t know what happened,” Falter said, tersely.

Thomson had an idea. After rewatching video of the fourth inning, he suggested that Falter was unable to put away hitters with two strikes. Devers, for instance, fouled off a two-strike curveball before lashing a fastball to left-center.

Whatever the case, all that stands between the Phillies and a second consecutive series sweep is Taijuan Walker. They signed him to a four-year, $72 million contract to bolster the middle of the rotation. Instead, he will drag a 6.91 ERA and a nearly 14% walk rate through six starts into Sunday’s series finale.

Rotation help is on the way. Sort of. Ranger Suárez, sidelined since early March with an elbow strain, is scheduled for his final triple-A tune-up on Sunday before rejoining the rotation next week.

But Suárez will take the spot that has been occupied by reliever Matt Strahm, who has shown signs of fatigue in his last few starts after being moved to the rotation three-quarters of the way through spring training.

If the Phillies were inclined to replace, say, Falter, they lack internal options. Top prospect Andrew Painter is still only playing catch in Clearwater, Fla., as he makes his way back from a spring-training elbow injury; right-hander Griff McGarry began his season only just this week after being slowed by a strained oblique muscle in his side.

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At triple A, the Phillies could turn to lefty Cristopher Sánchez. Nick Nelson, who was reinstated from the injured list this week and optioned to double A, is being stretched out as a multi-inning reliever.

Mick Abel? The No. 2 prospect in the organization has a 2.53 ERA through five starts at double-A Reading. But although the Phillies were being aggressive with Painter in spring training, they are less inclined to move as quickly with 21-year-old Abel.

And meaningful trades are rare in early May, when most teams are still assessing what they have. Even most noncontenders aren’t ready to raise a white flag. Not if they still hope to attract fans to their games.

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For now, then, Thomson said he expects Falter to make his next start, slated for next weekend in Colorado.

“I do, at this point,” Thomson said. “We have not talked about anything else.”

Other than how they can derive better, longer outings from Falter and the rest of the starters.

“For the most part, once things start happening, it starts to tumble pretty quickly and kind of snowball on us,” Realmuto said. “We just have to find a way to just slow it down as best we can. Right now, it seems like everything’s speeding up on us, and we’re not able to make the big pitch when we need to.”

In his fourth game back from Tommy John surgery, Harper hit his first homer, a solo shot in the fourth inning against Red Sox starter Corey Kluber.

But he made a bigger impact on a Sox player before the game.

Boston left fielder Masataka Yoshida regards Harper as his baseball idol. He wore No. 34, Harper’s number with the Nationals, in Japan. He even named his dog “Harper.” And before batting practice, they finally met.

Harper gave Yoshida two bats, including an autographed game-used bat from last year’s National League Championship Series, and a pair of neon green spikes

“The last year of my college career, he was a really appealing player to me, and he has a great swing, and that’s why I became his fan,” Yoshida told reporters through a team interpreter. “He had already played really well in big league games, and that’s the reason I became such a fan of his.”

Hard-throwing reliever Jeff Hoffman made his first appearance for the Phillies since getting called up this week.

Hoffman racked up two strikeouts in a scoreless eighth inning, cranking his fastball to 99.2 mph. But he also walked two batters and threw only nine strikes in 17 pitches.