An RBI single by Nick Castellanos added another, and all the bullpen had to do was make that three-run lead hold up over the final three innings.
That didn’t happen. Orion Kerkering began the seventh, and with one out, lost the strike zone. He walked two batters and hit another, prompting the entrance of Matt Strahm.
Strahm gave up an RBI groundout to Max Kepler, and then allowed a long fly ball off the bat of Carlos Santana. Brandon Marsh appeared to have it tracked down, and then seemed to pull up short near the fence, allowing the ball to fall in for a game-tying double.
The Phillies didn’t provide much of an answer, with their next six batters going down in order.
The bullpen utilization in the final innings was a bit curious as Jeff Hoffman faced the bottom of the Twins’ order in the eighth, leaving Gregory Soto to handle the heart of the order in the ninth. Perhaps this was a way to see if Soto can handle higher-leverage spots, and the early return on that was not great.
He promptly hit Trevor Lanach with a pitch, and a wild pitch advanced him to second. The next batter sacrificed Lanach to third, setting up Kepler to deliver a game-winning infield single.
The Phillies will have a day off to stew in the defeat before hosting the Guardians on Friday. Hopefully, they will use the time productively and figure out a way to put an end to the recent frustration.
The Phillies had a chance to put some of their recent frustration behind them on Wednesday afternoon. Their game against the Minnesota Twins should have been their second straight win, as well a series win against a very tough opponent. Instead, they had too many runners left on base early, and they put too many runners on base late. The result was more frustration in the form of a 5-4 walk-off loss.
The Phillies got a lot of runners on base in the early going but had a lot of trouble getting them home. The first two Phillies batters of the game reached base, but with runners on the corners and nobody out, they failed to score. The following inning, they loaded the bases with one out, only to see consecutive strikeouts by Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner end the threat.
As so often happens when a team works that hard to not score a run, they gave up a quick one in the following inning off the bat of Matt Wallner.
That blip aside, Phillies starter Aaron Nola was excellent. He gave the Twins some left on base frustration of their own, as he pitched out of jams in the fourth, fifth, and sixth inning.
Nola’s pitching gave the Phillies’ bats a chance to wake up. Trea Turner got the Phillies on the board with a solo home run in the fifth, and then Kyle Schwarber actually got a hit with runners in scoring position. His two-out double put the team in front 3-1.
Gregory Soto has struggled with his control in his last few outings after showing flashes of coming out of a pitching slump.
Share this article
Link copied!
Related Articles
Get Geared Up
