MINNEAPOLIS -- This was what you call a team-effort loss. The starting pitcher wasn’t able to go deep enough into the game, the offensive production was weak (again) and the bullpen was bad (again).
The Phillies’ troubling downward spiral continued Wednesday night in an ugly 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. For the second straight night, the Twins rallied against the Phillies’ bullpen in the eighth inning for the win (see Instant Replay).
The Phils led 3-2 entering the inning but lefty Antonio Bastardo could not protect the lead. He allowed back-to-back doubles to a pair of left-handed hitters as the Twins tied the game. Right-hander Justin De Fratus was then brought into a tight situation with runners on the corners and no outs. With one out, he uncorked a wild pitch to send the go-ahead run across the plate.
And so the Phillies have lost a season-high five in a row to fall to 31-35.
It’s as if they’ve fallen and they can’t get up.
Manager Charlie Manuel has no answers.
“I think of things all the time,” he said. “So far I haven’t been able to come up with anything. I try to shuffle the lineup and do different things. Everybody has been getting to play. Everybody has been getting a chance.”
With Manuel out of answers, maybe the front office has something up its sleeve. After the game, the team sent infielder Cesar Hernandez, seldom used in recent days, back to Triple A. The team will make a corresponding roster move on Thursday. Is Darin Ruf coming? Is Carlos Zambrano coming to get a look in the bullpen that sports one of the worst ERAs in the majors at 4.56? We’ll see what Ruben Amaro Jr. can pull out of his bag of tricks.
Before the game, Manuel went on a rant about his team’s inconsistent offense after being asked a question about Ryan Howard (see story).
For a short while it looked as if the Phils were going to have a decent offensive night and ease their manager’s frustrations. They had three singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly in the first inning and scored two runs.
They got just one run the rest of the night. It was knocked in by Ben Revere, who now has seven RBIs, one less than the eight double plays he has hit into.
Starting pitcher Tyler Cloyd was lucky by his own admission to leave with a 3-1 lead after running a high pitch count and giving up a number of hard-hit balls in five innings. He allowed nine base runners but just one run. Though he kept his club in the game, Cloyd’s performance might not have been enough to keep him in the big leagues. John Lannan might be ready to come off the disabled list after a strong outing at Reading on Wednesday night. If he’s not, he probably needs just one more rehab game (see story).
With Cloyd out of the game, Manuel had to go to his bullpen for as many as 12 outs. That turned to nine when seldom-used Joe Savery allowed a run in the sixth and Bastardo and De Fratus failed in the eighth.
Bastardo finished the seventh by getting lefty-hitting Justin Morneau on a fly ball and with two lefties due up in the eighth stayed in the game. Four pitches into the bottom of the eighth, the Twins had tied the game on a pair of hard-hit doubles by Oswaldo Arcia and Clete Thomas.
“We had the game set up pretty good as far as matchups go,” Manuel said. “We couldn’t get them out. The bottom line is we didn’t get the job done. We had it set up perfect for us. We just didn’t close it out.”
Manuel said he might have gone to Jonathan Papelbon for four outs if Bastardo had gotten through the lefties, “But we didn’t get that far. They smoked some balls.”
Bastardo has allowed eight hits, three walks and four runs in 3 2/3 innings over his last five outings.
De Fratus was called on to clean up Bastardo’s mess, but made it worse. He uncorked a wild pitch to bring home the go-ahead run.
Catcher Steve Lerud set up for a sinker away on lefty-hitting Chris Parmelee and De Fratus’ pitch was down and in.
“Lerud had no chance,” De Fratus said. “It was completely on me. One bad miss. That’s the sucky part. It wasn’t even a hit.”
Thursday is another day -- and it will bring another player into this increasingly ugly drama -- but given the way things are going, one has to wonder what new and inventive way to lose a ballgame the Phillies will come up with.