Phillies have been held scoreless for 20 straight innings after 5-0 loss to Giants
The Phillies, who head home after a 3-3 road trip, drew five walks and mustered four hits, all singles and none harder than 91.8 mph off the bat.
SAN FRANCISCO — On Monday when the Phillies authored a come-from-behind opening victory against the skidding Giants, it seemed like perhaps at last they had dispelled their Oracle Park demons.
But then the offense failed to score a run for 20 consecutive innings. And after Wednesday’s 5-0 loss to San Francisco — their second straight shutout — the Phillies’ first series win in the Bay Area since 2013 remains elusive.
“That’s wild,” Bryce Harper said. “It really is. ... I guess it just happens sometimes. Obviously we want to be able to turn that page and win here, especially if we play in the postseason.”
On Wednesday, the Phillies’ downfall was 10 rollover groundouts. They managed four hits, all singles and none harder than 91.8 mph off the bat.
Kyle Schwarber reached base three times and Harper reached twice, but the Phillies’ fourth and fifth hitters, Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott, went a collective 0-for-8.
“Pull-side ground-ball outs,” manager Rob Thomson said. “You’ve got to use the field.”
They also struggled against Giants starter Tyler Mahle’s splitter, striking out five times on the pitch. In total, the Phillies left nine runners on base and were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. Outside of a 10-1 series-opening win over the Rockies on Friday, the offense has not seemed to click so far this year, now 12 games in.
Inside the clubhouse, there’s still a sense that things will turn around eventually.
“We have to do it,” Harper said. “I don’t have any other answer for you besides that we have to do it. We’ve got to be that team, because if we’re not, then we’re not going to be where we want to be at the end. So, myself and everybody in here, we’ve got to have better at-bats, play better, all the things.”
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Phillies starter Aaron Nola mostly cruised through the first five innings. Twice, he stranded Luis Arráez on third base. In the first inning, Arráez hit a ball off the right-field wall that would have been a homer in 26 other major league ballparks. He settled for a triple, but Nola responded with back-to-back strikeouts.
Arráez then hit a leadoff single in the fourth inning and advanced to third base again with two outs, but a flyout from Jung Hoo Lee left him there.
“I felt pretty good,” said Nola, whose fastball touched 94.5 mph. “Got some early outs and some ground balls and for the most part filled up the zone.”
Trouble started brewing for Nola in the sixth inning when Willy Adames hit a fly ball to shallow right field. Stott, Harper, and Adolis García converged on it, but it dropped in for a leadoff double.
“Bermuda triangle,” Harper said of the play.
Nola walked Arráez, and then battled Matt Chapman to a full count. The payoff pitch was called a ball before catcher Rafael Marchán initiated an automated ball-strike challenge. The call was overturned for a strikeout, but any momentum was short-lived when Rafael Devers sent the very next pitch — a middle-middle fastball — 411 feet to center field for a 3-0 Giants lead.
Thomson had Tanner Banks ready in the bullpen but opted to leave Nola in against the lefty Devers because of his past success against him. Before the three-run homer, Devers was 2-for-13 in his career against Nola. It didn’t work out.
“I thought that was his game right there,” Thomson said.
Again, the offense failed to respond. The Phillies put two runners on in the seventh on a single from Otto Kemp, pinch-hitting for Justin Crawford, and a walk from Trea Turner. But Schwarber struck out and Harper grounded out softly to end the threat.
The Giants scored two more runs in the eighth on José Alvarado. Adames started things off with a single, and Alvarado botched the throw fielding a sacrifice bunt from Arráez, allowing Adames to score. Devers then drove in Arráez with a single.
The Phillies will head back to Philadelphia still searching for answers offensively. Thomson said he might shake up the batting order after Thursday’s off day to see if that might spark something.
“I think you’ve just got to stay the course,” Thomson said. “These guys are going to hit, it’s just a matter of time, and we’re just going through a dry spell. We haven’t really hit all that much the entire season, to be honest. But they’re going to hit at some point.”