Phillies Drop Series to Rangers Behind Another Slow Offensive Start

The Phillies didn’t just lose the rubber match Sunday afternoon; the top of the lineup continued to stall at the worst possible moments, digging holes the pitching staff never had a chance to climb out of. Through the first three games, the heart of the order that’s supposed to set the tone went 5-for-37, a stretch that helped hand the Phillies their first home series loss since mid-2025.

With Saturday’s loss, the Phillies had a bit more pressure coming into today’s game to continue the home series-winning streak, which sat at 10. The good news was that the temperature at first pitch was 53 degrees, which split the difference of the first 2 games. Today’s game was a matchup between lefties, Jesus Luzardo for the Phillies and MacKenzie Gore for the Rangers. Gore has quite a bit of history against the Phillies. In his 11 starts, he has a 1-4 record with a 4.26 ERA coming into his start in this rubber match.

When the game started, Gore and Luzardo were both in control early on. In the first two innings, both were missing bats and looking sharp, controlling the lower part of the zone and mixing in off-speed pitches very well. The whole dynamic changed for Luzardo in the top of the third, when Sam Haggerty singled to left, then 2 batters later, old nemesis Brandon Nimmo struck again in Philly when he hit a long home run into the Phillies’ bullpen in right-center, giving the Rangers a 2-0 lead.

In the next inning, things went from bad to worse for Luzardo. Corey Seager walked, Jake Burger pulled a single to left, bringing up another longtime nemesis from the NL East, Andrew McCutchen. On a 2-2 pitch, he hit a line drive home run, which was reminiscent of Burger’s home run on Saturday, making the game 5-0 before the Phillies even had their first base hit. This wouldn’t happen until the 6th inning when Justin Crawford hit an infield single, Trea Turner walked, Kyle Schwarber singled, and two batters later, Alec Bohm took a pitch off his arm to get the first Phillies run home, making it 6-1. Adolis Garcia added a sac fly to bring it to a 6-2 deficit. The Rangers would tack on two more runs, and that stood until the eighth when Bryson Stott singled in Bryce Harper to make the game 8-3. The score would stay there, and the Phillies quietly ended the game, as well as the streak of series wins.

For the second straight game, the Phillies’ starter got roughed up and stung by the long ball. Luzardo’s control was on point for the first two innings, but in the third inning, he wasn’t as sharp, and he seemed to lose touch on his sweeper, which is a sign for him that he’s not finishing off pitches. The single to Haggerty was a pretty good pitch, and you have to tip your cap to him on that one. The pitch to Nimmo was not finished off, which you can see in the pitch RPM. His sweeper averaged 2,350 RPM, which is where the sharp break comes from; the home run to Nimmo was 2,253 RPM and left high, which added to the hang for the pitch. Nimmo doesn’t miss those too often.

The pitch that McCutchen hit was a fastball that was up just a bit in the zone, and at nearly 98 MPH, but with the quick hands of McCutchen, that’s playing right into his strength. He took that pitch and didn’t miss. He deposited it into the camera well just over the left field wall. While it’s true that Texas signed McCutchen late in the spring, he came out of Arizona hitting 8-18 and swinging the best he has in a few seasons. He has looked great this whole series, and leaving a pitch up to him is a recipe for disaster.

Just for some context, Luzardo didn’t give up his second home run until his eighth start of 2025. This season, it happened in four innings. If he can’t live in the bottom of the zone, he can’t be successful. He can’t dominate the bottom of the zone if he doesn’t finish off pitches. So the fix seems to be something that can change.

One thing that has happened over the last two games is that the Phillies’ offense has started slowly; in the first five innings of both games, they have had only one hit over both games. On Opening Day, they scored five runs off of Nathan Evolaldi in the first five innings. This has required the team to try to dig out of massive holes late in the game, when outs start becoming more and more of a premium. Ironically, this is when they start to work on manufacturing runs, which is the opposite of what’s expected.

The reason this is so important early in the season is that it gets into the pitchers’ heads that they need to be perfect to keep the team in games. We saw it on Saturday with Aaron Nola, and it happened again today with Luzardo. Last season, when the Phils’ offense disappeared for long stretches, it was because the team would start swinging for the fences, which directly affects pitch selection and swing decisions. It seems like after the fifth inning, the Phils come up to bat with a two-strike mentality and try to play station-to-station baseball, when they should be trying to score early and allow their pitchers to get in a groove. This seems to be a lesson that is still escaping them early this season as well. To be successful, this is something the Phillies must start doing. With the margin for error being so small in the NL East this season, it’s a must to win these games.

On top of this, Harper has started incredibly slow, 1-11 after today, and has left five runners on base after striking out with the bases loaded when the Phils were putting together a rally. During the at-bat, Citizens Bank Park was at its loudest. When he swung at the slider that darted out of the zone, the boos got progressively louder with every at-bat, but they hit their crescendo after that pitch.

It’s hard to look at a three-game stretch and condemn a whole season, but only time will tell. Right now, we all know that Harper is notoriously a slow starter, and this seems to be another example of that fact.

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