ATLANTA – Little has come easily for the Phillies this season, but diagnosing their 92nd loss was simple Friday night: they failed repeatedly in the clutch.
After leaving 12 runners on base, including the bases loaded to end the sixth inning and to end the game, the Phillies fell 2-1 to the Braves at Turner Field, chiefly because they were hitless in 11 chances with runners in scoring position (see Instant Replay).
Given that this was the Phillies' third go-around against Atlanta rookie starter Williams Perez (6-6, 5.16 ERA), those numbers made “Zombie Night” at Turner Field more galling.
“We know what kind of stuff he’s got. I didn’t see anybody make adjustments,” interim manager Pete Mackanin said. “He throws a lot of soft stuff to us, and I don’t see a lot of adjustments to soft stuff.
“Little by little, you try to explain to the young hitters, ‘You’ve got to start thinking, change your approach ... that’s what being a hitter is all about.’”
Atlanta (58-90) would have fallen into a tie with the Phillies (56-92) for the worst record in the majors had the visitors not lost their fourth straight game. The Braves were somewhat gracious hosts.
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They bungled a few things badly, but the Phillies were left to lament opportunities earned and burned.
With the bases loaded in the ninth, after Odubel Herrera reached base after swinging and missing for what would have been a game-ending strikeout only to have the pitch bounce in the dirt and all the way into the stands, Darin Ruf smoked a ball — right at Atlanta second baseman Daniel Castro.
That wild pitch wasn’t the only mistake made by reliever Arodys Vizcaino. He began the inning by walking Jeff Francoeur — just the 13th free pass taken in 313 plate appearances this season by the free-swinging Atlanta native.
Francoeur, in fact, swung freely to leave the bags jammed in the sixth.
He entered as a pinch-hitter for Brian Bogusevic after Ruf singled, and then Cody Asche and Cameron Rupp walked with two outs. Frenchy entered the game leading the majors with a .440 average and 11 RBIs as a pinch-hitter.
He fell behind 0-2, fouled off three pitches from left-hander Andrew McKirahan, and then missed.
“Someone, you would like to think, would get a hit,” Francoeur said of the Phillies’ many opportunities. “Another thing I’d say we didn’t do a good job of is we forced ourselves to get a big hit with two outs. I’m not saying you can’t do that, but it would have been nice to have some opportunities with one out.”
Rupp’s second-inning home run tied the score, and the Phillies had many more chances to at least tie the game, especially with the Braves playing a sloppy game.
Rookie leftfielder Adonis Garcia doubled in Nick Markakis in the first, but was caught sleeping while walking back to second base after a big turn. Ruf snuck toward second, took the relay throw from the outfield at the bag to catch Garcia by surprise and tag him out to end the inning.
In the third, Atlanta catcher Christian Bethancourt was caught stealing when he broke for third as Phillies rookie starter Adam Morgan (5-7, 4.48) whirled and threw to shortstop Freddy Galvis at second. Galvis easily threw him out at third.
Morgan was fine, allowing two earned runs on six hits in six innings with three strikeouts on 70 pitches. But he didn’t get much help at the plate.
Five Atlanta relievers combined to walk four batters over the final 3 1/3 innings, but to no avail for the Phillies.
When rookie Chase d’Arnaud pinch hit for Morgan to start the seventh, he beat out an infield hit — thanks to a call reversed by replay, and moved to third with one out.
After Aaron Altherr walked, Herrera bunted left of the mound, and d’Arnaud took off for home. After the game, Mackanin said, “It was not a squeeze play. He was bunting for a hit. If it were a straight squeeze, he would have scored because [d’Arnaud] would have been going [earlier].”
Arnaud, called up from Triple A Lehigh Valley Monday, made a quick decision. It’d be hard to say he was wrong.
“[McKirahan] made a heck of a play,” Mackanin said after the pitcher careened off the mound toward the third-base line, fielded the ball with his glove and flipped it to Bethancourt in one motion to nail d'Arnaud.
“Usually, when guys flip the ball like that, it catches some air but it was a good flip,” d'Arnaud said. “I had an idea that he might bunt, so I made sure to get a good lead, and ... the ball beat me.”
Rupp grounded into a double play to end the eighth, as the Phillies threatened in the final four innings only to come up empty.
The Phillies now have to go 7-7 to avoid becoming the first Phillies squad since 1961 to lose 100 games.
“The play at the plate was a huge,” Francoeur said. “You feel like that kind of changed the momentum, and then, the passed ball in the ninth, Ruf drills it right at him. If that gets past [Castro], we would have been up 3-2.
“It’s frustrating. We have 14 games left and I think guys are looking at how many losses we have and not wanting to get to 100. Guys can press, and ... it would be nice to get a couple big hits early [Saturday] and relax.”