Phillies blown out by Seattle to open West Coast trip as skid reaches five straight
Phillies rookie Tyler Phillips gave up three home runs and didn’t survive the second inning against the Mariners.
SEATTLE — Before every series, the Phillies meet to go over the scouting report on a new opponent. And manager Rob Thomson usually adjourns the session by making brief remarks to the team.
His message Friday was different.
As the Phillies opened a 10-game, three-city West Coast trip amid their first protracted slump of the season, Thomson reminded them that they endured a 10-19 stretch last year and made the playoffs. In 2022, they survived 10-18 and 10-14 spells and went to the World Series.
“We’ve been in this position before,” he told the players.
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But instead of exhaling and letting the stress roll off their shoulders, the Phillies looked tight as a drum again. They traveled as far as they could to “turn the page,” as Bryce Harper put it, on a rough July. But their problems followed them into August and all the way to Seattle.
And somehow, it got worse.
The Phillies were trounced, 10-2, by the Mariners, and it was even more lopsided than it seemed. Make it five consecutive losses, 10 in 13 games since the All-Star break, and 12 of 16 overall, their worst 16-game skid since May 15-31, 2022, when Joe Girardi was still the manager.
Don’t look now — no, seriously, hide your eyes — but the Phillies’ lead in the National League East is down to five games over the Braves, who defeated the post-trade-deadline remnants of the last-place Marlins to win their fourth game in a row. It’s their smallest lead since May 28.
Among the lowlights:
Rookie righty Tyler Phillips, who entered the game with a 15-inning scoreless streak, gave up three homers, two of which touched down in the upper deck, and didn’t survive the second inning. He allowed eight runs, tied for the most by a Phillies starter this season.
For the third time in 20 days, backup catcher Garrett Stubbs pitched.
Harper struck out with a runner on base in the first inning, the start of an 0-for-4, three-strikeout game that deepened his career-worst slump to 1-for-34.
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Thomson offered to take Harper out of the game in the late innings, but Harper said, “No, I need to keep hitting.” Seriously, though, could he use a night off to clear his head?
“No,” Harper said flatly. “I just want to play. What are you going to do?”
That’s the question, isn’t it? What are the Phillies going to do to stop the slide?
Kyle Schwarber is usually a voice of reason on these things. What say he?
“Obviously we want this to change,” the slugging DH said. “And we know the room that we have, it’s going to change. If we knew when, that would be great. But that’s the beautiful thing about baseball. You can be on this great high, and then all of a sudden, it can kick you right in the butt. Everyone can get frustrated. Everyone can get [ticked] off. At the end of the day, the emotional rollercoaster of riding highs and lows, you’ve got to balance that.
“We have an expectation for ourselves. It’s not just, ‘La-dee-dah, go get ‘em tomorrow.’ There’s expectations. But also there’s a reality of, you have to be able to move past that and come in tomorrow and be ready to win a game.”
Harper could have set a tone in the first inning. With Schwarber on first base and one out, he took two pitches out of the strike zone from Mariners starter Bryan Woo. But Harper swung and missed the next three pitches (all balls) to stop the rally before it started.
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Phillips, a South Jersey native and lifelong Phillies fan, has been a revelation since he got called up from triple A last month. He came into the game with a 1.80 ERA in three starts, including a four-hit shutout last Saturday against the Guardians at Citizens Bank Park.
But Phillips gave up a homer to Victor Robles into the upper deck in left field on his first pitch of the game. He struggled to throw strikes in a seven-run second inning, and when he did, the Mariners teed off, including a three-run homer by Luke Raley and Justin Turner’s grand slam.
“I think because of the complete game, the stuff was down, command was down,” Thomson said. “That’s what I chalk it up to. He’ll get another start.”
Phillips didn’t make excuses.
“The thing that bothers me the most is the fact that I let the team down,” Phillips said. “I’ve got an entire fan base relying on me to go out there and do my job. I’ve got my family relying on me. It doesn’t feel very good.”
It shouldn’t. But Thomson wants to make sure it doesn’t linger. That’s what his pregame speech was about.
“The message was looking at the whole perspective of it,” Schwarber said. “Obviously we just had a bad stretch. At the end of the day, we’re in first place. If you would’ve told us that we would go through it and still be in this position, would you take that in spring training? Absolutely. It’s a good way to frame it.”
What other choice do the Phillies have?