DENVER – It might have appeared as if the Phillies’ six-game winning streak came to an end when Nick Hundley smacked a tie-breaking solo home run off Justin De Fratus in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night.
Indeed, that was the crushing blow in the Phillies’ 6-5 loss at Coors Field (see Instant Replay).
But there were other missteps.
Third baseman Maikel Franco made a throwing error in the first inning that led to three unearned runs. At the plate, Franco ended up driving in three runs and tying the game twice, so in some regards he made up for the error. But had the error never happened, things might not have been so tight for the bullpen in the late innings.
And on this night, the bullpen, specifically Jake Diekman and Justin De Fratus, did not deliver.
Pitching in a tie game in the seventh, Diekman got the first two outs before allowing a single and a walk in front of dangerous Troy Tulowitzki, who blooped a double down the right-field line to give the Rockies a 5-3 lead.
The Phillies surged back with two runs to tie the game in the top of the eighth. Both runs came home on Franco’s third hit of the night.
Faced with a bullpen management decision, manager Ryne Sandberg chose De Fratus over Ken Giles even though both pitchers had been warming up.
Like Diekman, De Fratus got two quick outs before surrendering a long solo homer to left-center to Hundley.
The go-ahead homer came on a 1-2 slider that De Fratus left up in the zone.
“It was a pitch I was trying to get in the dirt and it went to the one part where it cannot go -– right into his bat path,” De Fratus said afterward. “It was a pitch I’ve thrown hundreds of times. It was just in the one spot it couldn’t be.”
Balls fly in the light air of Denver.
This was not an environment problem, however. It was a pitch problem.
“I don’t think altitude had anything to do with it,” De Fratus said. “He barreled it good.
“The most deflating part is our offense grinded it so hard and kept coming back. I got two outs and one pitch changed everything in the game. It’s tough.”
Sandberg has made it clear in the past that he does not like to use Giles or Jonathan Papelbon unless the Phillies are in the lead. This was another of those cases in the eighth inning.
Sandberg said Giles was warming up in the eighth, but “just easy.” Giles had pitched five of the previous seven games and Sandberg was being cautious with the right-hander.
“We were contemplating (using him) if we had busted it open but only in a plus situation and even that was questionable,” he said.
After trailing 3-0 in the first inning, the Phils put up a crooked number for Aaron Harang in the second inning and tied the game in the third on a base hit by Franco.
Franco also tied the game in the eighth. The Phillies could have done more damage in the inning, but Carlos Ruiz grounded into a double play, his second of the game, and the opportunity went by the board.
The three first-inning runs were all the Rockies got against Harang and they were all unearned after the error by Franco. Sandberg said Franco was playing too deep and had to rush his throw, which led to the error. The coaching staff spoke to Franco between innings and he made an adjustment and had no problems the rest of the night.
Eight of Harang’s nine starts have been quality starts, tying him with Zack Greinke for most in the majors. The right-hander allowed just three hits and only one after the first inning.
“He really settled in after the first inning,” Sandberg said. “It was a hard-fought game. We kept coming back. We’ve done that a lot in the past week.”
But on Tuesday night, the Rockies had one final answer to the Phillies’ comeback and that six-game winning streak is now a one-game losing streak with rookie Severino Gonzalez set for his Coors Field baptism Wednesday.