Offense struggles again with Suarez on mound, Phillies drop Game 1 in San Diego originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
SAN DIEGO – If the Phillies were going to get to the Padres Friday night at Petco Park, they had best planned to do it early. Padres starter Ryan Bergert hadn’t gone into the sixth inning yet this season and hadn’t started a game since June 24. Add to that the fact that before the game it was announced Padres reliever Adrian Morejon had been added to the All-Star roster to replace the Phillies Zack Wheeler.
What does that mean?
It means the Padres became the first team to have three relievers in an All-Star game. It means the back end of their bullpen is pretty darn good. It means it best behooves you to score on them as early as possible. The Phillies didn’t, however, in what turned into a 4-2 loss. They have now lost three of four on this six-game road trip and will have Wheeler on the mound for them Saturday.
If you play sloppy baseball in the field, as the Phillies did in the second inning, that makes the task even harder.
Trailing by a run in the seventh, the Phillies saw those three All-Stars in Adrian Morejon, Jason Adam and closer Robert Suarez.
Ranger Suarez pitched strong once again, with 6.2 innings of work on six hits and allowed three runs. Only one of his runs was earned and it was his own doing. Phillies nemesis Xander Bogaerts began the second with a single to shallow left. Jackson Merrill then laid a beautiful bunt down the first base line which Suarez fielded but threw too much into the runner and the ball eluded first baseman Bryce Harper, allowing Bogaerts to go to third. A Jose Iglesias double, a run-scoring groundout by Elias Diaz and a single by Fernando Tatis, Jr. single gave the Padres a 3-1 lead. Kyle Schwarber tied it in the top of the third with his 30th home run of the season.
After the game, Ranger Suarez admitted that he was contacted in San Francisco by MLB about being an All-Star. He declined, much for the same reasons as Wheeler. The league announced that Milwaukee Brewers rookie, Jacob Misiorowski, was named an All-Star replacement after just five starts,.
“In the end you think that the league is going to do whatever they want to do with that,” said Suarez. “You can’t control. I did receive a call but we decided to remain at home resting and decided against going there. But I’m happy that he (Misiorowski) made it. He’s a rookie and only made a few starts. I’m excited for him.
“Obviously it’s what you want, you want to go to the All-Star game. But I’d rather have some rest right now. I think it’s what’s best for us, for the team and it’s a long second half that we’re going to have. So I want to remain as healthy and as fresh as I can.”
Morejon, Adam and Robert Suarez epitomize the catch phrase of good morning, good afternoon and good night, though the Phillies made things dicey in the eighth, loading the bases off Adam with a Trea Turner walk and singles by Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm. Adam coaxed Nick Castellanos into a dribbler in front of home that Adam scooped to catcher Elias Diaz for a force. Max Kepler ended the threat with a flyout to center.
A home run by Manny Machado off Max Lazar accounted for the game’s final score.
“I thought Nick battled in his at-bat. He laid off some tough pitches,” said Rob Thomson. “Just unfortunately hit the ball off the end of the bat and the pitcher made a nice play. You know (the back of the bullpen) is coming. But you got to have runners on base, too, to do some things. We hit a couple of balls out of the ballpark, which is good. We put some pitches on the starter (Bergert) which is good. They’ve used quite a bit of their bullpen lately. I don’t know what they’re going to do tomorrow.”
After taking a 1-0 lead in the second on a dead-center home run by Nick Castellanos, the Phillies watched the Padres have their big inning before Schwarber’s bomb cut the lead to one.
It takes more than that against that Padres bullpen but the Phillies just didn’t have it. After scoring 13 runs Wednesday against the Giants, the thought was things were on the cusp of getting better offensively. Not so much Friday as they only had three other hits besides the two solo home runs.
Schwarber becomes just the second Phillies player to have 30 home runs by the All-Star break. He joins some pretty good company in Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt.
“I feel like if we keep doing those things and having those at-bats we’re going to have a lot more success to follow,” said Schwarber, speaking of some good but unrewarded at-bats the Phillies have had. “We’re not taking (good starting pitching) for granted. Those guys in our rotation are doing such a great job throughout the course of this year so far and they’re gonna keep doing great.
“I feel like making different adjustments, not feel like I’m waiting around too long on things and feeling like not being nit-picky and being aware and making sure that checking your at-bats, checking your swings, checking what you’re feeling (has helped). And just competing and not overthinking during the game. It’s great company. Schmitty is one of the best to ever do it. A lot of the cool things that happen through the course of your career will be fun to look back on when it’s said and done with.”
“Is that right,” Thomson asked when told of Schwarber joining Schmidt in that elite home run company. “He’s had a great first half. He’s a great hitter. He’s changed his approach. He’s trying to stay close, he’s not thinking pull as much. He’s staying on the ball so that gives him a chance against left-handed pitchers.”
In what seems to be happening far too often of late, the starting pitching was outstanding but the offense just couldn’t get enough to make it stand.
“It’s just one of those things we’re going through,” Thomson said. “We scored 13 the other day, come back and we had a couple of chances, but not a whole lot. Once they went to the bullpen it was pretty tough.”
When word spread around the locker room that Misiorowski was named, there were quite a few players who were disgusted that their teammates in Christopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez were left out.
Perhaps that is a little ambition the team may need to start hitting the ball regularly. We shall see.
