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Pirates 5 Phill...

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The Pirates bullpen also gave the offense issues. Jose Hernandez was able to get Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner out before a double from Bryce Harper. Luis Ortiz then came in for Realmuto.

He returned for the seventh to get Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh then a single from Castellanos. Josh Fleming then came in for Bryson Stott and got a ground out to first.

Fleming also wrapped around for the eighth inning to get Merrifield out before a walk and single from Schwarber and Turner.

In the top of the eighth, Ricardo Pinto came in for mop-up duty and the bottom of the Pirates’ order pounced again. Triolo reached safely on an infield hit followed by a Henry Davis double down the left field line to make it 4-1.

Reynolds then singled to center field with two outs to make it 5-1.

Aroldis Chapman, yes that Aroldis Chapman, came in to face the middle of the order. Bryce Harper got a little unlucky when Reynolds made a diving catch in right field. After a walk from Realmuto to load the bases, Chapman was able to settle down and followed that up with a walk to Bohm to make it 5-2.

Rob Thomson let Marsh face the tough lefty in Chapman but Marsh struggled. He struck out on a slider right down the middle after getting two 101 mph fastballs.

David Bednar retired the Phillies to record his second save of the young season.

Here are some other notes I didn’t get to:

Sánchez’s command has had some issues in the beginning of games this year whether it was tonight with too many pitches out of the zone or too many pitches in it against the Reds and Nationals.

I liked how he responded afterward however as he was able to find the whiffs that he couldn’t get in Washington.

The walks weren’t great but his changeup showed plenty of bite and he didn’t allow a lot of hard contact. He turned a difficult start into a strong six-inning, one-earned-run performance.

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Whit Merrifield is hitting .120 with a .317 OPS after tonight’s performance. He dropped a ball in left and hasn’t hit the ball hard at all to begin this season.

It was odd to see Johan Rojas not in the lineup for a second straight day since Merrifield has struggled and Rojas was coming off his best series of the season against the Cardinals.

Thomson said it was because he wanted a ‘soft reset’ for Rojas.

They gave Merrifield eight million so he’s not going to be subjected to a Josh Harrison-like role at the end of their bench but it’s hard to justify keeping Rojas on the bench if Merrifield isn’t going to hit.

This loss may go down as the worst loss in the Phillies' Rob Thomson era, maybe the Dave Dombrowski era, and what some may say is the worst loss in franchise history.

They lost the Bailey Falter revenge game on the debut night for their horrific City Connect uniforms.

The terrible two-tone jerseys aren’t the only thing that made fans’ eyes bleed tonight, their defense played an equal part.

With two outs and a runner on first in the second, Cristopher Sánchez couldn’t handle a soft comebacker from Michael A. Taylor that resulted in an error. His command then got all over the place with a walk to Jared Triolo to load the bases and then a walk from Henry Davis to force in a run.

In the fourth, Taylor singled right back up the middle with one out then Triolo dropped one right in front of Nick Castellanos to put runners on first and third.

After a strikeout from Davis, Trea Turner slipped on a ground ball in the hole from Connor Joe.

Former Phillie Bailey Falter had the lineup in a blender for five innings. They struggled to pick up his extension-driven fastball that wasn’t even sitting at ideal velocity.

It wasn’t necessarily from a swing-and-miss standpoint but they didn’t make a ton of hard contact against his fastball. They had an average exit velocity of 78.3 mph on that pitch.

It took until the fifth to even force Falter to break a sweat. Brandon Marsh continues his hot start offensively with a double off a hanging slider in the left-center field gap. After a Nick Castellanos groundout, Bryson Stott was able to beat out a swinging bunt to make it 2-1.

In the seventh, Whit Merrifield dropped a sinking flyball that was ruled a single for Davis. Joe then followed up with a single to put runners on first and second.

Yunior Marté was able to get a Bryan Reynolds force out and then a strikeout from Ke’Bryan Hayes, the latter of which hurt JT Realmuto’s hand after a cross-up with Marté. Davis was able to score to make it 3-1.