The Phillies had not scored a run in 20 consecutive innings heading into Friday night. They ranked 24th in baseball averaging 3.5 runs per game.<\/p>\n
Rob Thomson flipped Bohm and Marsh to put four lefties in the first five spots against a Diamondbacks team with no left-handers in the bullpen.<\/p>\n
After Bryce Harper hit an RBI double, Brandon Marsh hit an opposite-field 3-run homer in the first inning to give the Phillies a 4-0 lead and it looked like the drought was finally over.<\/p>\n
Then the Phillies had four hits the rest of the game, struck out 16 times, and lost 5-4. They have now scored in only one of the last 29 innings they have played. One.<\/p>\n
Bryce Harper gets Phillies rolling in the 1st inning<\/p>\n
Brandon Marsh 3-Run Homer<\/a><\/p>\n Jesus Luzardo and a miserable 5th inning<\/p>\n The fifth inning was the whole game. Luzardo imploded with the lead and the Diamondbacks scored five runs to take control. The sequence that broke it open started with Alek Thomas dropping a bunt when Bohm was already on the infield grass.<\/p>\n Bohm hesitated, took a step toward third, then moved toward the ball. Too late. Luzardo fielded it but his throw to first was late and the bases loaded with nobody out.<\/p>\n The Phillies never recovered.<\/p>\n Luzardo had eight strikeouts on the night which tells you his stuff was there. The fifth inning was a catastrophic collapse that wiped out everything else.<\/p>\n The Phillies Offense\u2026Yikes<\/p>\n Sixteen strikeouts. The first time the Phillies have struck out 16 or more times in a game since Opening Day 2025 against MacKenzie Gore in the shadows at Nationals Park. Friday night at Citizens Bank Park had no shadows.<\/p>\n It had Michael Soroka, Jonathan Loaisiga, Juan Morillo, and Paul Sewald. Seven hits or fewer in six of the last seven games and nine of thirteen games this season.<\/p>\n Marsh and Bohm each struck out three times as a team-high. Marsh at least has the homer. Bohm went 0-for-4 and is now hitting .170 with a .505 OPS through twelve games. Remarkably similar to where he was at this same point last year when he was hitting .151 with a .336 OPS.<\/p>\n It was so bad that Topper dropped him from fourth to seventh or eighth in the order last year. Surprisingly, that worked as Bohm hit .307 with an .800 OPS over his final 106 games. Who knows if something like that could benefit this lineup again. I do know that it\u2019s frustrating watching the same issues year after year every night. <\/p>\n The Phillies are 6-7 through 13 games. They started 4-9 in 2023, 5-8 in 2022, and 3-10 in 2007 and made the postseason each time.<\/p>\n Slow starts aren\u2019t a death sentence but it causes fans to think that we\u2019re all just along for a very long ride through the summer with a very similar ending in October. Something needs to change and it needs to change soon. The trust just isn\u2019t there anymore. Scoring in one out of 29 innings starts to look like a pattern rather than a slow start. <\/p>\n Join The Chase<\/a><\/p>\n Like this:<\/p>\n Like Loading…<\/p>\n