Game Recap:
Aaron Nola made his first start in a month, and pitched seven outstanding innings. However, a hit batter in the bottom of the sixth gave Pittsburgh their only run of the game, and the Phillies could do nothing at the plate all day as they lost to the Pirates 1-0.
What went right?
Well, this won't take long.
Aaron Nola made his first Major League start in a month, and while he ended up with the loss, he pitched very well. Nola allowed just a single run in seven innings of work while giving up four hits, walking two and striking out five.
Told you that wouldn't take long.
What went wrong?
Cesar Hernandez was 0-4.
Aaron Altherr went 0-4 with three strikeouts.
Michael Saunders continued to exist in a Phillies uniform and went 0-4 at the plate with a strikeout.
Brock Stassi walked once, but also went 0-2 in official at-bats.
Andrew Knapp was 0-3 at the plate and struck out twice.
Odubel Herrera was 1-4, but he did strike out once, and in four at-bats, he saw a total of 12 pitches.
The Phillies didn't get a hit until the fifth inning.
Game Analysis:
The sooner the month of May ends for the Phillies, the better life is going to be. After starting the year with an 11-9 record, the Phillies have entered one of the worst tailspins in team history, going just 4-17 in their past 21 games. While other results have been painful, yesterday's 1-0 loss might have been the worst of them all.
Quite simply, it didn't look like the Phillies cared at all on offense yesterday. They faced off against Pittsburgh starter Chad Kuhl, who came into the game with a 1-4 record and an ERA around 6.00. So of course, Kuhl shut down the Phillies in five innings of work. Aaron Nola was the first Phillie to reach base, and that came thanks to a walk in the third inning, and Maikel Franco recorded the first hit for the Phillies with one out in the top of the fifth inning. When your starting pitcher is the first player to reach base for your offense, and it takes four and a third innings to pick up your first hit against a mediocre at best starter, something has to be done to shake the offense up, and at this point, it doesn't look like anyone knows what that is.
On the mound, it was nice to see Aaron Nola back from his DL stint, and he pitched his best game in almost a calendar year. In a shocking turn of events, the Phillies had a starting pitcher last longer than six innings, as Nola pitched seven very good innings against the Pirates. He gave up just four hits and walked two, but his luck ran out in the bottom of the sixth when he hit David Freese with the bases loaded. The forced in run would turn out to be the only run either team would score yesterday, and it seemed almost fitting that the best effort by a Phillies pitcher all season would end in a 1-0 loss thanks to a hit batter.
Regardless of the outcome, it was a refreshing sight to see Aaron Nola pitching the way that people expect him to. After a below average and injury filled 2016 season, the Phillies need Nola to be that rock of the pitching staff, and if he keeps pitching like he did yesterday while staying healthy, he certainly has a very good chance of being that key building block for the Phils. It was only one start, but it was a clear step in the right direction.
As for the rest of the team, unfortunately, the road map on fixing them doesn't seem nearly as neat. The starting pitching seems to struggle to get past six innings on a good night, and five innings on a bad one. Vince Velasquez is lost on the mound at the moment, and might to miss a start or two just to get his head back on straight. While it looks like Jeremy Hellickson is going to be able to make his next start, the Phillies dodged a very large bullet with him avoiding a potential oblique injury. The same kind of injury already knocked out former Phillie Cole Hamels for at least two months this season, and it's unlikely the Phils would be able to recover as well as the Rangers have. Zach Eflin and Jerad Eickhoff have both been inconsistent on the mound this season, and in the games where they have pitched well, the offense or bullpen has let them down more often than not.
You know that an offense is doing poorly when a team has two of the hottest hitters in the National League at the moment, and they're still struggling to score runs. Both Tommy Joseph and Aaron Altherr have had excellent months of May, but the rest of the offense is struggling, and that's being nice about the situation some of these batters are in right now. Let's look at some numbers for the May.
Odubel Herrera: .208 batting average, .228 on base percentage, 21 strikeouts, 1 walk.
Michael Saunders: .217 batting average, .277 on base percentage, 14 strikeouts, 5 walks.
Freddy Galvis: .234 batting average, .301 on base percentage, eight strikeouts.
Maikel Franco: .242 batting average, .304 on base percentage, nine strikeouts.
That's four of your eight starting position players hitting under .250 for the month of May, and the scariest part of this whole thing is that Maikel Franco is currently on an eight game hitting streak, and his May is better than his April was. For the season, Franco is batting .225. Yes, he's young, but Pete Mackanin and Matt Stairs need to keep working with him to reduce his bad swings and build up his patience at the plate. If those two things don't improve, Franco isn't going to get much better, and that's just the truth.
Moving past the starters, the bench players aren't much better, and in a few cases, they're worse. Brock Stassi, Andrew Knapp and Andres Blanco are all hitting under .220 in May, and at this point, the Phillies have to start looking down at their Triple-A team, because there are a few replacements down there that could easily take these wasted spots on the roster. First up are two players that had a cup of coffee up with the Phillies last season. Both Jorge Alfaro and Roman Quinn both could benefit from a Major League call up, and if they spent the majority of the season with the Phillies this year instead of just being September call ups, they might be better suited to become full time starters if not by the late summer of this season, then certainly by the start of the 2018 season. The next name that needs to be looked at is currently destroying Triple-A pitching, and that's Rhys Hoskins. The 24 year old is hitting .315 with Lehigh Valley, and has 12 home runs and 36 RBI. Yes, he plays first base, and Tommy Joseph is finally starting to hit well this season, but Hoskins is playing out of his mind right now, and a trip to Philadelphia certainly wouldn't hurt his confidence. Brock Stassi was a nice story at the start of April, but facts are facts,and right now, the Phillies are on pace to lose 100 games for the first time since the 1961 season. Changes need to be made.
Tonight, the road doesn't get any easier, as the Phillies take on the National League West leading Colorado Rockies. Jerad Eickhoff (0-4, 4.53 ERA) continues his quest for his first win of the season while taking on Jeff Hoffman (1-0, 5.40 ERA).
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