Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
When a team is struggling, most guys cling to cliches like they are becoming extinct and don’t want to lose them before they are gone forever.
Whether it’s “Flushing a loss” or, “Go get ‘em tomorrow,” or even “We have the right guys in this clubhouse to get through this,” the common refrains often ring hollow for fans.
Fortunately, the Phillies have a philosopher on their team in Nick Castellanos, who always gives you just a little bit of a unique perspective.
It’s not that he didn’t hint at some of the above phraseology following the Phillies 5-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers Monday, the seventh straight series-opening loss for a Philadelphia team that is in a bit of a free fall, having dropped 14-of-19 and are now just ½ a game ahead of Los Angeles for the best record in the National League. He did. But he did it in a way that makes you take a fresh look at things that maybe you might have otherwise.
Because from the outside, it’s easy to see a team losing as often as the Phillies have lost in the last few weeks and see a sinking ship. But it’s not so easy to see what the players actually going through it see, and that’s where the words of Castellanos are most intriguing – and insightful.
“We’re grinding right now,” Castellanos said. “I think we’re just in a funk. I will say our dugout was very good today. You know, all our attention, I think, was more on the field than it was on our iPads, you know? We were more into the competition. It was a good baseball game, right? A couple of things here, a couple of things there and it changes.
“But I feel like they beat us today. We didn’t, you know, beat ourselves. … We played a good baseball game, and we also have to realize that’s a great baseball team over there.”
In other words, the team may have lost a game, but it wasn’t one to hang your head about just because it occurred in the middle of a terrible stretch of games. It wasn’t one where the team seemed distracted, or as Castellanos put it during the last homestand, that it “felt weird.”
Everyone was engaged. Everyone was into the game. The Dodgers just found a way to win. They had been struggling too, but they got the first one, and the Phillies will have their chance to do the same on Tuesday.
“I’m not aware of the standings,” Castellanos said. “I can’t speak on behalf of the team, but the way I go about it is that tomorrow we have another baseball game and if we do the best we can to prepare, that puts us in the best position to win, and if you win tomorrow, that’s a good thing.”
The Phillies had a chance to win on Monday and jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Castellanos tripled and scored on an infield single by Bryson Stott. Stott would later score on a wild pitch by Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow.
But in the third inning, Phillies starter Aaron Nola lost command of his pitches for a few batters and Los Angeles took advantage.
Jason Heyward led off with a double to right and was followed by a double to left by Andy Pages. After an infield single by Nick Ahmed, Shohei Ohtani hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game and then Teoscar Hernandez launched a homer down the left field line to make it 4-2.
Those would be the only runs Nola (11-5) would allow through six innings of work, but it was enough for him to take the loss.
“Doubles hurt me,” Nola said. “They’ve hurt me the last few games. Especially leadoff doubles. I haven’t had many 1-2-3 innings and I think that’s hurting. I feel like my fastball command was off tonight.”
The Phillies would get a run back in the sixth inning on an RBI single by Alec Bohm, but they couldn’t get any closer.
They struck out 12 times in the games, nine of them coming from Glasnow (9-6). Brandon Marsh came to the plate in the top of the eighth with two men on base and appeared to work a walk, but home plate umpire Marvin Hudson called a 3-1 fastball from Anthony Banda that was clearly high a strike, and Marsh ended up chasing a slider away to strikeout and end the inning on the next pitch.
Facing lefty Tanner Banks, Ohtani homered in the bottom of the eighth – the first time he’s ever homered against the Phillies – to give the Dodgers an insurance run.
Castellanos led off the ninth inning with a single off Los Angeles closer Daniel Hudson, but the next three batters – Stott, Austin Hayes, and Garrett Stubbs – all swung at the first pitch, and all three popped out to end the game.
“There’s a lot of weird stuff that is happening that wasn’t happening at the start of the year, and we just got to fight through it,” manager Rib Thomson said.
A NEW ADDITION
The Phillies signed outfielder Ryan McKenna to a minor league contract on Monday. McKenna, 27, originally a fourth-round draft pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 2015, spent parts of three seasons with the Orioles before being DFA’d by the club twice this season. First, on Opening Day, when he was outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk, and a second time in May after a brief stint with the big club where he went 3-for-8 with two solo homers. This time he was claimed by San Francisco but went 0-for-6 in four games before being DFA’d a third time. He was released by the Giants and signed by the Phillies.
He provides outfield depth in the short term, but he might be an interesting choice as an extra man on the roster for the postseason. He has above average sprint speed and is an excellent base stealer. He’s also an excellent defensive outfielder at all three spots and has a career Outs Above Average (OAA) of plus-7.
ON DECK
The Phillies turn to LHP Cristopher Sanchez (7-7, 3.26 ERA) on Tuesday against surefire Hall-of-Famer LHP Clayton Kershaw (0-1, 5.87), who will make just his third start of the season for Los Angeles.
