Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
At varying times this season, Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, and Bryce Harper have gone through slumps, but at no point were they ever as unproductive in a singular game as they were on Tuesday night in Atlanta.
The Phillies’ three biggest stars combined to go 0-for-12 and struck out seven times – the first time all three were 0-for-a game since August of 2023, as the Phillies offense was feeble in a 3-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves.
Schwarber struck out all four times he came to the plate. Harper struck out the first three before hitting a hard ground out to first in his final at bat. And while Turner didn’t strike out, he didn’t particularly hit the ball hard in three of the four outs.
When those guys do absolutely nothing, the odds of winning are greatly diminished.
“It makes it difficult,” manager Rob Thomson said. “You know they’re going to hit at some point and it’s just one of those nights, but we got to come back here tomorrow, strap it on and get after it.”
That they do, because losing this game has allowed the Braves to close within six games of the Phillies in the N.L. East. And while that is still a comfortable lead, it can start to get uncomfortable with another loss or two.
However, what’s no longer comfortable is the race for the top spot in the National League. The Phillies have just a half game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers and while the Los Angeles Dodgers game was not over at the time of this writing, the Phillies were either going to be within a game of them or tied heading into Wednesday.
Zack Wheeler (12-6) pitched well for the Phillies. He went six innings and allowed two runs on six hits while striking out eight, but it wasn’t good enough because the Phillies couldn’t come close to hitting Wheeler’s All-Star teammate Reynaldo Lopez.
Lopez, who had missed three weeks with elbow soreness, came back to throw five innings and allowed just one run on five hits and a walk while striking out 10 Phillies – two per inning.
The biggest opportunities missed actually came from the bottom of the order.
Johan Rojas struck out with the bases loaded in the top of the second. In the fourth, Brandon Marsh turned a 3-0 count into a caught looking strikeout and Rojas followed with a ground out that stranded two more runners on base.
And that was the last time the Phillies had anyone on base in the game.
As for Wheeler, an old friend and an old enemy victimized him.
Whit Merrifield, who was waived by the Phillies last month and signed with the Braves, had a triple, a double and a walk. His triple led to the Braves’ first run that knocked in on a single by Michael Harris III.
And then there’s Marcel Ozuna, who is unexpectedly making a run at the N.L. Triple Crown. He drove in the game winning run when he crushed a Wheeler fastball to dead centerfield in the bottom of the sixth.
“I definitely left it over (the plate),” Wheeler said. “I was trying to go away, left it in the middle and paid for it.
“I made a few mistakes tonight – to Whit and Harris (too).”
Things got worse in the eighth inning. The Phillies turned to Jose Alvarado to try and keep the score within one, but he completely lost control and walked four batters in the inning, allowing another run to score.
There was a thought that once he walked the bases loaded with two outs that Thomson would lift him from the game, but instead he chose to keep him in, and it backfired.
“I was trying to get him through it for one, and it was a tough spot to put (Max) Lazar in,” Thomson said. “I’m trying to get as much confidence into Alvy as I possibly can. I don’t know whether… I’m hoping he just makes an out.”
Lazar being the reliever warming up was curious. Jeff Hoffman had warmed up at the same time as Alvarado, but once he sat down, he didn’t get up again – so Lazar was the guy who the Phillies had to turn to instead.
There was no word immediately after the game if this was a strategic decision or if something happened to Hoffman during that warm-up period.
If you are looking for positives, Orion Kerkering looked better after a four-day layoff in his one inning of work. And on the offensive side, Alec Bohm, Nick Castellanos, and J.T. Realmuto all continued hitting.
Bohm extended his on-base streak to 36 games, matching Chase Utley’s in 2006. The franchise record is 56 games, set by Mike Schmidt across the 1981 and 1982 seasons.
Castellanos extended his hitting streak to a modest eight games and Realmuto to seven games. Realmuto is 10-32 (.313) over his last nine games.
But as well as that middle part of the order is going, the top needs to contribute, or else the winning ways won’t return with regularity, and that’s a problem when you are the team that is being hunted.
“This is a big series for us, too,” Harper said. “We come here to win games. It doesn’t matter how far ahead you are or anything like that. Obviously, you guys know what happened in ’07 (the Phillies caught the Mets after trailing by eight games with 17 to play to win the division). So, we just got to keep going and keep doing our thing.”
As long as their “thing” is what they did in the first half of the season and not what they’ve been doing in the second half.
ON DECK
The Phillies send RHP Aaron Nola (11-6, 3.45) to the mound against Braves LHP Max Fried (7-7. 3.62) on Wednesday night.
