Phillies’ offense, searching for answers, quieted yet again in 4-1 loss to Rockies

DENVER — J.T. Realmuto had neither dropped his bat nor run more than halfway down the first-base line when the Phillies offense stalled once again here Monday night.

Things were finally starting to percolate. Not much. But after being muted for seven innings in this notorious hitter’s ballpark by the Colorado Rockies, the Phillies were rallying. Pinch-hitting Didi Gregorius had just doubled in a run, and Realmuto stepped to the plate as the tying run with Bryce Harper on deck.

Realmuto hit the ball hard, too. But he lined it directly at Rockies reliever Jhoulys Chacín, who snared it out of midair and threw to second base to double off Gregorius and help send the Phillies to a 4-1 loss in the opener of a three-game series at Coors Field.

The Phillies fell to 1-4 on a road trip that can’t end soon enough. They have lost six of their last seven games. Not coincidentally, they have scored three runs or fewer in five of those games. That’s what happens when a team that is built to mash -- and trots out a $130 million lineup for most games -- goes quiet.

“It sucks. There’s no way around that,” Nick Castellanos said. “Our lineup obviously is much better than what we’re doing. We just haven’t been able really to get anything going. To say I’m not frustrated would be lying.

“Every game that we lose, I’m frustrated, especially to teams that I feel like we’re better than. But it is 162 games. All we can do is stay the course and continue to put the work in.”

Yes, it’s early. How early? The Phillies have played 11 games, 6.8% of the schedule. If they were an NFL team, it would still be the first quarter of Week 2.

But manager Joe Girardi’s behavior suggests an unusual urgency for the middle of April. Girardi, whose contract isn’t guaranteed beyond this season, has already shuffled the names in that pricey lineup. It hasn’t worked yet. Not even a night in the thin air of the Rocky Mountains could ignite the slumbering offense.

Rockies starter Chad Kuhl, the pride of Newark, Del., shut down the Phillies for six innings. He gave up a single to Harper in the first inning and didn’t allow another hit until Realmuto’s two-out single in the sixth.

There’s an incongruity to the Phillies’ offensive struggles. Entering Monday night, they were 10th in the National League in runs scored. But they were batting .325 and slugging .542 against fastballs, among the league leaders in both categories. Alec Bohm, Castellanos, Gregorius, and Jean Segura had all seen at least 30 fastballs and were hitting at least .400 off them.

Clearly, the word is out. Scouting reports don’t lie. And the Phillies are seeing a lot of breaking pitches. Kuhl, for instance, fed them a steady diet of sliders.

It wasn’t a surprise to Castellanos. But that doesn’t mean the Phillies have any answers at the moment. Maybe they’re pressing. Maybe they’re trying to do too much with every swing.

“J.T. and I were talking about it in the training room,” Castellanos said. “It just kind of feels like we really haven’t had that inning where we’re compounding baserunners, whether it’s through singles or walks, instead of everybody hunting the long ball, you know? Just spitting out thoughts and ideas. We’re brainstorming as well.”

The brainstorming sessions figure to continue until the bats awaken. And the feeling within the clubhouse is that the lineup is too good not to stir. Eleven games, the Phillies insist, aren’t enough to shake their confidence.

“Huge confidence,” pitcher Aaron Nola said. “It’s still early. These guys are going to turn it around. There’s no doubt in my mind. Once they all get hot, I mean, it’s going to be crazy.”

The offense’s struggles have provided little margin for error for the pitchers. In this case, Nola didn’t make many mistakes until the sixth inning. He finally hung a sinker to Charlie Blackmon, who crushed a 453-foot leadoff homer to right-center field to snap a scoreless stalemate.

It was a considerable improvement from five days earlier, when Nola got knocked out in the fourth inning by the New York Mets. Nola said he focused on his mechanics between starts.

“Just tried to stay over the rubber longer today,” he said. “That was my main focus. It kept me behind the ball.”

It took four appearances for the wild José Alvarado to show up.

With one on, one out, and Nola at 84 pitches in the sixth inning, Girardi trusted Alvarado to keep the deficit at 1-0. Instead, the big lefty uncorked two wild pitches, the second of which went through Realmuto’s legs and enabled C.J. Cron to score from third base.

Alvarado had neither issued a walk nor thrown a wild pitch in a total of three innings over his first three outings. Still, he will never be confused with a control artist. Girardi chose to bring him in rather than let Nola face lefty-hitting Ryan McMahon. Nola threw 76 pitches in each of his first two starts.

“I wanted to get a ground ball, and I thought Alvarado is as tough on lefties as anyone,” Girardi said. “He did get the ground ball. Unfortunately he threw the wild pitch before that.”

The Rockies stretched the lead to 4-0 in the seventh inning against reliever James Norwood. Randal Grichuk lined a two-run double over Castellanos’ outstretched glove in right field.

Rhys Hoskins worked a two-out walk in the fourth inning, then got caught leaning at first base and was picked off by Rockies catcher Elias Díaz. Given how precious baserunners were against Kuhl, it qualified as a costly mistake.

In the fifth inning, Hoskins was poised to field Sam Hilliard’s slow roller to first base. But the ball hit the bag and bounced for a hit.

How’s that for a play that typified the Phillies’ first 11 games?