CINCINNATI — Despite scoring just two runs in each of their first two games, the Phillies very easily could have a 2-0 record.
Wouldn’t that have been a nice way to come out of the gate?
Instead, the Phils are 0-2 in this new season because their bullpen has fumbled a pair of late leads.
It happened on opening day when David Hernandez couldn’t protect a one-run lead in the eighth inning. And it happened again Wednesday night when Dalier Hinojosa couldn’t lock down a one-run lead in a bid for his first major-league save.
The Cincinnati Reds sent five men to the plate against Hinojosa and four of them got hits, as they rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to hang a 3-2 walk-off loss on the Phillies at Great American Ball Park (see Instant Replay).
“We wasted two good starting pitching performances,” manager Pete Mackanin said afterward.
Sure did.
Jeremy Hellickson allowed just one unearned run over six innings in Monday’s loss (see story).
Aaron Nola was brilliant Wednesday night. He went seven innings and gave up just one run on a solo homer in the first inning. Nola did not walk a batter and matched a career high with eight strikeouts.
Maikel Franco’s two-run homer in the first accounted for all the Phillies’ scoring and Nola was able to exit with a 2-1 lead after his seven innings of work.
By design, Mackanin went right back to Hernandez in the identical situation that the right-hander failed in on Monday. Hernandez walked two batters on Monday and they both scored. This time, he came out firing. He hit 94 mph on the radar gun and had a 1-2-3 inning.
“I wanted to make sure I ran him out there again,” Mackanin said of Hernandez. “I’m sure this did wonders for his confidence.”
It did.
“It’s a coincidence that it was a 2-1 game, same situation,” Hernandez said. “Amazing things happen when you throw strikes and make them swing the bat.”
Hinojosa threw enough strikes in the ninth inning, but several of them were elevated and the Reds’ hitters feasted. Eugenio Suarez opened the bottom of the ninth with a hard-hit single. Devin Mesoraco followed with a nubber up the third-base line that went for an infield hit. Jay Bruce then grounded a hit to left and lefty-hitting Scott Schebler ended the game with a ringing double to left-center, scoring two runs.
Mesoraco’s infield hit was pivotal.
“Those things happen,” Hinojosa said through a translator.
The Phillies traded two closers, Jonathan Papelbon and Ken Giles, in the last year and are still looking for a replacement.
“Hinojosa has the stuff to do it,” Mackanin said. “He just needs to make quality pitches. It looked like he was overthrowing a little.”
Hinojosa believes he can do the job.
“I’m very confident in my ability to close games,” he said. “I just have to make the right adjustments to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Mackanin was asked if he would use Hinojosa to close if the Phillies had the lead in the ninth in Thursday’s series finale.
“That’s a good question,” he said. “Let me think about that.”
The manager’s indecision illustrates the uncomfortable situation he’s in with this bullpen. The unit could be in flux all season with bodies coming and going.
“It’s going to be a process that we’re going to have to work through,” Mackanin said. “We don’t have that defined ninth-inning guy. We knew coming in we might lose some games not having that guy. I’m confident we’ll find that guy on this team, but as of now we haven’t. We have to figure it out.”
Of course, the relievers would benefit from a little breathing room. The Phillies have scored runs in just two of their first 18 innings. All four of their runs have come on a pair of two-run homers. Freddy Galvis belted one in the second inning Monday and Franco smacked his in the first inning Wednesday. That’s been it for the offense. Feeble production like that makes life rough on the bullpen and leads to wasted gems by the starting staff.
“Hopefully every game is not going to be like this,” Mackanin said. “We need to score some runs. I’d like to see us come out swinging and score a ton of runs [Thursday afternoon]. We need to swing the bats better. We need to score some runs to make it easy on these guys.”