Phillies give up three more home runs in sweeping loss to Nationals as free fall continues

WASHINGTON — Nick Pivetta stood frozen in his follow-through, bent slightly at the waist, arms hanging at his side. By the time he straightened up, the ball had landed in the left-field seats and Anthony Rendon was trotting around the bases, having hit a first-pitch fastball for the go-ahead home run.

When will the Phillies straighten up? And what will the National League East look like when they finally do?

Those questions hung over the Phillies here Thursday night like the rain clouds above the nation’s capital all week. After yet another loss, 7-4 to the Nationals, they packed their things and limped home after a three-game sweep. They have dropped seven of nine games — and 13 of 19 — and slipped to 4½ games out of first place.

“Pretty simply put, we stunk,” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said, summing up the 1-5 road trip to Atlanta and Washington. “It’s going to happen. Hurt us a little more that it’s in the division, but by no means is I think anybody in this room panicking at all. I don’t even know how far down we are, but I know it’s not that far.”

The free fall has been precipitous, actually. In 23 days, the Phillies have lost eight games in the standings to the division-leading Braves and sunk back to only three games over .500.

Maybe the lowly Miami Marlins, who will lug their league-worst record into Citizens Bank Park on Friday night, will be the Phillies’ elixir. At this point, their presence is as good a solution as anything.

“I see the talent in the room,” Hoskins said, stating his reason for why he believes the Phillies can recover. “The coaching staff has been incredible the whole time I’ve been here. We just haven’t clicked at the same time all year. To be in that position we’re in without that happening is pretty good. When it all does click, I think it’s going to be pretty scary.”

Manager Gabe Kapler awoke here Thursday and tossed the batting order like a salad in an attempt to spark a slumbering offense. He moved Bryce Harper to the top of the order, put Hoskins in the No. 2 hole, and dropped Jean Segura to the No. 5 spot.

The changes generated nine hits and four runs, one more than the Phillies had scored in their previous three games combined. And they might have put a more lopsided number on the scoreboard if they hadn’t had two runners thrown out at the plate — Scott Kingery in the second inning and Harper in the fourth, marking the second consecutive game that he got cut down at home.

Overaggressive baserunning?

“I think we’re all feeling a little pressure to be especially aggressive,” said Kapler, asked if he agreed with third-base coach Dusty Wathan’s decision to wave the runners. “Just having a little difficulty putting runs on the board. I’ll leave it at that.”

The Phillies tied the game in the fifth inning on Segura’s solo homer. But Pivetta threw a first-pitch fastball to fastball-mashing Rendon and gave up a leadoff homer in the sixth inning. Five batters later, reliever Edubray Ramos hung an offspeed pitch to Victor Robles, who crushed a three-run shot — the league-leading 124th homer allowed by the Phillies this season — to break open the game.

“If you look at baseball as a whole, there’s an influx of home runs in general,” Pivetta said. “I don’t think it’s just us that is struggling with it. I think it just comes down to we’ve got to execute pitches better. Like with me tonight, I just need to execute those pitches better, and when you do that, damage is limited.”

In shuffling the batting order, Kapler tried to get the Phillies to see more pitches early in the game. Hoskins entered having seen a league-leading 4.54 pitches per plate appearance. Harper was close behind at 4.17. And neither Cesar Hernandez (4-for-32) nor Segura (2-for-20) produced in the leadoff spot since Andrew McCutchen suffered his season-ending knee injury.

It took four innings for the Phillies to score against Nationals starter Erick Fedde, but they made him work hard. He threw 84 pitches by the time they knocked him from the game in the fourth.

By then, though, Pivetta had left the Phillies in a 3-0 hole. He gave up a run on back-to-back doubles by Rendon and Juan Soto in the first inning and a two-run home run to Phillies-killing Kurt Suzuki in the second. Five of Suzuki’s eight homers this season have come against the Phillies.

The Phillies rallied, but the pitching couldn’t hold the fort. And after playing through more raindrops for the last half of the game, the Phillies returned home all wet.

“The players in our lineup have a long track record of success,” Kapler said. “I think all the talent necessary is here.”