New-look batting order provides little relief for Phillies, who blow a four-run lead in 5-4 loss to Diamondbacks

In search of relief from a 20-inning scoreless drought, the Phillies eyed the composition of their opponent’s bullpen Friday and did something unusual.

They bunched together four left-handed hitters.

It was neither ideal nor a long-term fix, manager Rob Thomson conceded. But because the Diamondbacks lack a lefty reliever, he figured it just might work, at least temporarily. Like maybe for three games.

Try four batters.

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Never mind that the Phillies busted out for four first-inning runs, powered by cleanup hitter du jour Brandon Marsh’s three-run homer. They got four hits the rest of the game, struck out 16 times, and coughed up the four-run lead into a series-opening 5-4 loss.

So, instead of not scoring at all in a span of 20 innings, the Phillies have now tallied runs in exactly one of their last 29 innings.

All together now: Gross.

“It’s early, man,” Marsh said. “You know? We still have a lot of time to be great here in the future.”

True. And maybe they will be great. The Phillies did win 96 games last season and 95 the year before. That’s worth at least a partial benefit of the doubt.

But impermanent as it was, the flip-flopping of Marsh and struggling Alec Bohm in the Nos. 4 and 7 spots revealed a flaw in the construction of the Phillies’ offense. If Bohm and Adolis García aren’t producing, the middle of the order leans almost entirely to the left.

And Bohm definitely isn’t hitting, which doesn’t set him apart from many of the Phillies. After striking out three times in the opener against the D’backs, he’s 8-for-47 (.170) and slugging .255 with two extra-base hits.

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“With Bohmer, he’s just missing,” Thomson said. “I don’t know whether it’s timing or what. Contact point. It could be a number of things.”

Bohm also appeared to get caught in between on Alek Thomas’ bunt in the Diamondbacks’ five-run fifth inning. With runners on first and second, Bohm was playing on the grass but didn’t charge the ball. Jesús Luzardo fielded the ball but couldn’t throw out Thomas, loading the bases.

“We need to get an out right there,” Thomson said. “We have a four-run lead. We need to get the ball, be aggressive, and get the out at first base.”

Instead, it set up Ketel Marte’s two-run single to cut the margin to 4-2. Ildemaro Vargas followed with an RBI single. And two batters after that, James McCann split the gap in right-center for a two-run double to open a 5-4 Arizona lead.

“Obviously very frustrating,” said Luzardo, who didn’t give up a hit until the fifth inning. “We go up 4-0 in the first, and it feels like that should be plenty. Going out and giving up five in one inning is just unacceptable. Our offense did plenty for me. It was my job to hold us to less than that.”

Sure, but the Phillies also stopped hitting after the first inning.

They racked up 23 swings and misses against Arizona starter Mike Soroka and three relievers in that all-righty bullpen. They struck out more than in any game since opening day last year (19 in a 10-inning win in Washington). It was their most in a nine-inning game since Sept. 18, 2024.

After the first inning, the Phillies didn’t get a runner to third base until the ninth, when No. 9-hitting rookie Justin Crawford narrowly missed his first career homer with a two-out triple off the top of the right-field wall.

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But Trea Turner flew out to left field to end the game and send 41,683 paying customers to the exits amid mild boos after the Phillies lost their third consecutive game to slide back under .500 at 6-7.

So, yes, it’s early. Thirteen games in a baseball season is the equivalent of about the second quarter of Week 2 in the NFL.

It’s weeks like these, though, that can wear on a team, no matter if it’s April or August. Are the Phillies pressing at all to kickstart the offense?

“No, no, no,” Marsh said. “Just because we’ve got a lot of ball to play. I think it was just one of those days, you know? It’s baseball. You play every single day, a lot of at-bats, a lot of pitches thrown. They beat us by one today. We’ve got to be a lot better tomorrow.”