Ryne Sandberg had to go deep into his bullpen Monday night because he made the decision to gas Jerome Williams after five innings and 85 pitches.
Sandberg had seen enough of Williams and it was difficult to blame him. Walks are driving the manager crazy and Williams issued a couple of killer free passes as the dreadful Phillies sucked up another loss, this one by the count of 4-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates (see Instant Replay).
The Phillies walked three batters in the game to raise their season total to 125, the most in the majors.
Williams walked two of those batters in the third inning, one of them with two outs. He then got ahead of Starling Marte 0-2 before giving up a three-run homer on a hanging 1-2 curveball.
The home run gave Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead. That’s kind of difficult to come back from when you’re the only team in the majors averaging less than three runs per game.
It’s also a sizeable deficit when you’re facing Pirates right-hander Gerrit Cole, who struck out six in seven innings to run his record to 5-1.
The Phils did pull to within a run in the sixth, but the Pirates made it a two-run game with an unearned run in the seventh after a bizarre error by catcher Carlos Ruiz.
There was one out and man on first. Reliever Jake Diekman went to a full count against Neil Walker. Diekman’s pitch to Walker appeared to be a strike. At least Ruiz thought it was. With the runner on first on the move, Ruiz fired to an uncovered second base. The ball went into center field and the runner, Gregory Polanco, went to third on the error. As it turned out, the pitch to Walker was called a ball by C.B. Bucknor, so Ruiz’s errant throw was unnecessary. Polanco eventually scored on a sacrifice fly to put the Pirates ahead, 4-2.
“It looked like a very borderline pitch, a pitch he was calling all night,” Sandberg said. “(Ruiz) got it and continued with the play like you’re supposed to. The throw was a little wide.”
The Phillies tried to rally in the ninth, but came up a run short after Odubel Herrera’s first big-league home run.
The loss dropped the Phillies to 11-22. A loss Tuesday night would equal their worst start since 1971.
Nobody expected this team to contend. Pat Gillick made that pretty clear when he announced a rebuild in November and nothing was done over the winter to upgrade the offense.
But now that the losses are piling up, is it a concern that losing could become habit?
General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. was asked that question before the game.
“Obviously we don’t want to cultivate a culture of losing,” he said. “We obviously want the very opposite. For me it’s about having guys understand what it takes to win, and trying to play winning baseball.
“We might be a little challenged as far as overall talent at the major league level right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t play a winning-type of baseball. That’s what we’re focused on. That and watching guys develop. Our focus right now is watching the improvement and watching the development of players."
Leading the majors in walks is not exactly playing winning-type baseball.
Amaro gave Sandberg a thumbs-up before the game, saying the skipper was executing a mission of development.
“I’m happy with the way Ryno has gone about it,” he said. “He’s on the same page as we are. It’s about giving young players opportunities and teaching them how to win. And that’s what we’re looking for from him, and that’s all we can ask of him. Do whatever he can with his staff to put these players in a position to improve. And that’s what he’s been doing.”
After the game, one of the young players, Cody Asche was sent to the minors to learn to play left field (see story). The move paves the way for another young player, Maikel Franco, to join the big club and take over at third base later this week (see story).