Phillies lose heartbreaker to Yankees in 12 innings
Yong Kim/The Philadelphia Inquirer
The team with the best record in baseball has found another way to lose and has dropped their fifth straight series.
The Phillies lost a heartbreaker Tuesday night to the Yankees, 7-6, in 12 innings in front of 44,502 at Citizens Bank Park. The game lasted three hours and 51 minutes, the longest this season in Major League Baseball.
But, they led for a good portion of the ballgame. Through five innings, the Phillies were ahead 4-1, including a three-run home run by Austin Hays, his first as a Phillie.
Aaron Nola started for the Phils and was only at 73 pitches through five innings, so he started the sixth, and it did not get off to a great start. Jazz Chisholm Jr., who homered twice on Monday, led off the sixth with another homer to make it 4-2. It was his third in the last two games.
But it was not even his biggest home run of the night.
Matt Strahm pitched the seventh for the Phillies and walked Juan Soto and Aaron Judge to start. After striking out Austin Wells, Chisholm crushed a go-ahead, three-run home run down the line in right. Strahm left one up, and Chisholm did not miss it. It was his fourth homer in his first three games as a Bronx Bomber. No Yankee had ever done that before.
The Phillies have given up five three-run leads since returning from the All-Star break. It has happened in four games, including Tuesday night. They have lost all of them.
Entering the ninth down 5-4, the Phillies’ bats were silent. They had not recorded a hit since the fourth, and the top three in the lineup had seemingly vanished. But, they got some luck. With Johan Rojas pinch-running at third, Clay Holmes spiked a sinker that rolled away from Austin Wells. Rojas sped home, beat the tag, and the game was tied at five.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Bryce Harper grounded out on a hard liner that deflected off first baseman DJ LeMahieu to end the ninth and send the game to extras.
Jeff Hoffman entered in the 10th and did not allow any runs. The Phillies then in their half of the inning had the bases loaded again, but Bryson Stott popped out to center to end the inning. They once again were unable to capitalize.
Hoffman stayed in for the 11th where Alex Verdugo hit a sacrifice fly to center. The Phils were able to respond and tie the game in the bottom of the frame, via an RBI single from Hays.
In the 12th, Orion Kerkering suffered a run, and the offense was not able to respond.
The Phillies are 3-8 since the All-Star Break, and 10-13 in July. They have lost 10 of their last 14. Harper and Turner are a combined 14-for-95 with six walks and 22 strikeouts since the All-Star break. Harper, Turner, Bohm, and Brandon Marsh combined to go 2-for-23 on Tuesday. The Phillies were 5-for-18 with runners in scoring position Tuesday with 13 runners left on base.
Are you sensing a theme here?
The offense, especially the top half of the lineup, has been completely unable to produce during this stretch. Turner has one hit this series, a cheapy dribbler in the infield, and Harper is hitless these first two games. It does not matter if Dave Dombrowski traded for a big bat or not, the stars are not doing their job. And they need to figure it out if this team has any hope of a parade in November.
The Phillies look to avoid a sweep Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is at 12:35 p.m. ET. Maybe they will remember how to hit.
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