Phillies lose second-straight series in one-run performance in St. Louis

In a game the Phillies needed to win to stay in the playoff picture, the three phases of the game that have been troublesome all season once again came back to bite them in a 7-1 loss to the Cardinals, their second straight series loss.

Interim manager Don Mattingly turned to his other ace, Zack Wheeler, a day after Cristopher Sanchez‘s start, hoping to get him back on track after a couple of less-than-stellar outings. He was also hoping for his more standard lineup to get the offense back to manufacturing runs.

The scoring got started in the bottom of the second when Nathan Church doubled home Jordan Walker for the game’s first run. The Phils tied the game in the fourth when Luis Arraez hit a ground rule double, scoring Bryce Harper. The Cardinals erupted for four runs in the fifth inning on the strength of back-to-back doubles off the bats of the Cards’ potent RBI combo of Walker and Alec Burleson, to take a 5-1 lead. In the seventh inning, the Cardinals tacked on a couple of runs to make the game 7-1.

If the playoffs started right now, the Phillies would be on the outside looking in, as they trail the Padres by a half-game for the final Wild Card spot.

Wheeler Wasn’t a Dealer

Wheeler came into this game with back-to-back bad starts, needing to pull it back together for the playoff push. Ultimately, this would not be the case, but he did pitch well for the first 4-2/3 innings, and at that point his pitches started getting more hittable. He was in total command until Ivan Herrera hit a hard single that scored Cesar Prieto. After this, Burleson hit a hard double, scoring two and opening the door for his running mate Walker to sting a ball into the left field corner, and in the blink of an eye the Cards blew the game wide open.

It appeared that after the hard single from Herrera, Wheeler ran out of gas. The pitches had less zip on them and caught way too much plate, which is not very Wheeler-like. This is something that needs to be watched moving forward, and perhaps skipping him once in the rotation might be helpful to return him to where he was and where he was and needs to be for this stretch when the Phils need him most.

Harper’s Knee is a Concern

Bryce Harper said before the game that his left knee is “bothering him a little bit,” but he also made it pretty clear that he doesn’t believe he’s dealing with anything serious. He elaborated that the soreness is more noticeable when he has to stop or brake in the outfield, while he feels fine running and hitting. He even said, “When I hit, I feel fine.”

Perhaps he feels fine, or he’s ignoring pain, but watching him hit Wednesday made the situation more worrisome. Harper looked fine defensively and moved around the outfield without any obvious problem, including a running catch in the seventh which saved a larger inning, but his stance at the plate is noticeably different. He’s standing almost straight up, and he’s not getting nearly as deep into his load, which may be him subconsciously protecting that knee.

Not saying Harper is seriously hurt, because he clearly isn’t, but when your stance changes as much as it has in this series, you have to at least wonder how much that knee is affecting him.

Offense Sputters Again in Loss

The offense has been spotty at best since the calendar flipped to July, but one thing has been a recurring theme all season, and that clutch hitting is not the Phillies’ strength again this season. The Phils were 1-8 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday, but only left five runners on base. After the fifth inning, they were held hitless.

The offensive concerns this team has are starting to compound. When they brought in Arraez and shuffled the lineup to make up for the lack of bringing in a corner outfielder at the deadline, the team looked poised to start scoring runs and manufacturing them, but that has fallen off since that initial bump in productivity. This is the eighth game where the Phils have scored one or fewer runs since the All-Star break, giving them 28 on the season, tying them for the most in baseball.

This offensive futility has to end if the Phillies have any desire to play into October.

Now the Phillies are on to Iowa to find some magic in the cornfield at the Field of Dreams game Thursday night.

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