{"id":674417,"date":"2026-04-12T23:34:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/674417\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T23:34:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:34:53","slug":"bad-baseball-has-the-phillies-stuck-in-an-early-season-rut-phillies-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/674417\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bad baseball\u2019 has the Phillies stuck in an early-season rut \u2013 Phillies Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bryce Harper and the Phillies are 7-8. (Madeline Ressler\/Phillies Nation)<\/p>\n

PHILADELPHIA \u2014 \u201cBad baseball\u201d is how Bryce Harper succinctly described the missed opportunity in the bottom of the eighth.<\/p>\n

The Phillies had a prime chance to retake the lead, but failed to score with runners on first and third with nobody out in a 4-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday afternoon. The Phillies are now 7-8 and have dropped two of the first three home series of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Needing to put the ball in play, Bryson Stott struck out swinging for the first out of the eighth inning. On a 3-1 count with the runner at first Brandon Marsh taking off for second, Adolis Garc\u00eda hit into a popup to the second baseman Ketel Marte, who threw over to first for the inning-ending double play.<\/p>\n

What went wrong on that play?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOn your third step, you should peek,\u201d manager Rob Thomson said. \u201cI haven\u2019t looked at the tape, but (Marsh) lost the ball. 3-1 count, they were giving us second base. They\u2019re also in double play depth, so if the ball is on the ground, we score and tie the game. That\u2019s the way it is.\u201d\u00a0Marsh left the Phillies clubhouse before reporters had a chance to speak with him about that play after the game.<\/p>\n

But the bottom of the eighth, from Stott\u2019s strikeout to the popup to Marsh\u2019s baserunning mistake, wasn\u2019t the only misstep of the game for the Phillies. Another one came from the ultra-aggressive Harper, who ran into an out in the bottom of the fourth. He left the field hearing boos, a reflection of just how often Phillies fans are used to seeing Harper make reckless decisions on the bases.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t describe that decision as \u201cbad baseball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFeel like most that are hit in that spot, I try to get there,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThought it was a good point in the game, hadn\u2019t really had anything going the whole day. Made a good throw and they got me in that situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s aggressive,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cMost of the time, he\u2019s safe.\u201d When asked, Thomson said he doesn\u2019t need to have a conversation about it with the 15-year major league veteran. \u201cHe knows. He knows,\u201d the manager said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More bad baseball came from the struggling Jos\u00e9 Alvarado pitching on back-to-back days. The lefty was charged with two earned runs. He has a 12.60 ERA on the year. While the number is inflated due to one bad outing in a very low leverage spot against the Nationals, he has struggled badly at times with command.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were some positives. Amid an early slump, Trea Turner homered for the first time this season.<\/p>\n

The Phillies shortstop, who entered the game with a .591 OPS through 14 games, tied it up in the sixth inning on a two-run home run that landed in the first row. The call on the field was originally a double, but a video replay review showed the ball just getting over the fence in right field. Harper gave the Phillies the lead two batters later with an RBI double, marking three straight extra-base hits from the top three hitters in the order.<\/p>\n

But in the end, the lineup didn\u2019t do enough. They combined to score 11 runs over three games against the Diamondbacks. All of those runs scored came in a single inning in each game: four in the first inning on Friday, four in the third inning on Saturday and three in the sixth on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got great players up and down,\u201d Turner said. \u201cSometimes, and I\u2019m guilty of this too, you just try too hard. It\u2019s kind of a freebie. All you have to do is hit a fly ball to center field or move a guy over and sometimes it doesn\u2019t happen. It\u2019s really obvious, looking back at the situations that could change the game. We understand them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what we\u2019re trying to do, but it doesn\u2019t always happen. Like I said, I think that\u2019s some of the difference in these wins and losses. We\u2019re pitching pretty well, playing good defense. It\u2019s just the timely hitting, moving guys, sac flies, simple things that could change in a hurry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally scratched from his start with a migraine, Andrew Painter gutted out five solid innings in relief.<\/p>\n

Painter filled up the strike zone. He struck out seven batters and recorded 14 swing-and-misses on the afternoon, tied for the fourth-most by a Phillies starter in a game this season.<\/p>\n

Painter, who has a history of migraines, woke up feeling ill but recovered in time to give the Phillies a solid bulk outing. He is the first Phillies pitcher to throw five innings and strike out seven in relief since Mark Leiter Jr. on Aug. 10, 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who knows how the Phillies would have gotten through nine innings without Painter. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know the extent of how long I was going to go out, how good I was going to feel out there,\u201d Painter said. \u201cI wanted to go out there and at least get a couple innings in to take that off of the relievers.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Phillies will look to rebound on Monday when they open up a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs at home. Cristopher S\u00e1nchez will take the mound for his fourth start of the year.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bryce Harper and the Phillies are 7-8. (Madeline Ressler\/Phillies Nation) PHILADELPHIA \u2014 \u201cBad baseball\u201d is how Bryce Harper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-674417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116394359300409993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}