Giancarlo Stanton's blast helps Marlins sink the Phillies

MIAMI - The Phillies landed here a little after dinnertime on Thursday night, and Pete Mackanin retired to his hotel room. He started a movie on Netflix and fell asleep during it. The Phillies manager, troubled by another poor performance from his challenged offense, slept for 10 hours.

Refreshed, he thought again about his lineup Friday before a 6-4 loss to the Marlins. He moved familiar players up and down. "I've got to do something," he said, and that is because his team lugged the lowest batting average in baseball. Then his lineup lashed 12 hits. The bats erased a four-run deficit.

Still, the Phillies lost.

Mackanin could not account for his best reliever hanging a pitch to the most powerful hitter in baseball, who hit one farther than anyone has in 2016. Giancarlo Stanton obliterated a Hector Neris splitter, a heretofore unhittable pitch, past the psychedelic home-run sculpture in center field at Marlins Park. It traveled an estimated 475 feet, an eighth-inning punctuation mark on what is now a three-game losing streak for these Phillies.

"We rely so much on our pitching that we can't count on that every day," Mackanin said. "Neris is human."

Neris' mistake minimized a revival for Maikel Franco and a telling recovery by Vince Velasquez. The game is unforgiving, and weaknesses cannot hide over a 162-game season. The Phillies have scored four or fewer runs in 11 straight games.

Lineup reinforcements are not apparent. Mackanin said he has not yet had a discussion with his general manager, Matt Klentak, about possible call-ups from the minors. In reality, there are few immediate options at triple-A Lehigh Valley. One or two tinkers to the roster will not cure what ails the lineup.

Know this: The manager has thought about a roster shuffle.

"We'll see," Mackanin said. "As we go along, I'm sure [Klentak will] get to the point where he's ready. Of course every manager - I'd like to have some better players or some better hitters - but that's not my decision in the long run. I can request whoever I want or whatever I want to do but it doesn't mean . . . it's more involved, as everybody knows."

So the roster is what it is. For now. A better Franco, the team's most imposing weapon, would help. He found success Friday in the form of two opposite-field hits. He skied one in the third inning that plopped between three Marlins in right field. It went as a double to score the Phillies' first run, and the slumping Franco took it.

Two innings later, in the fifth, Franco attacked the first pitch Wei-Yin Chen threw him. He launched the 91-mph fastball the other way. It landed just inside the foul pole for Franco's first homer in 13 days.

"If the pitchers are just going away and away, that's what I want to continue to do," Franco said. "I'll hit the ball over there and see what happens."

Velasquez buried the Phillies in the first two innings, when Miami scored four runs. He could not field a swinging bunt by Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto, which led to another Miami run and increased frustration. Velasquez tried to grab it with his bare hand. He fumbled the ball. Velasquez bent over and pounded the grass with his glove.

He trudged from the field and unloaded some anger inside the dugout. That is when his night turned.

"I just had to keep my composure," Velasquez said. "Not let things get out of hand. Let things go."

Velasquez retired 10 batters in a row. He has a 2.17 ERA with 44 strikeouts and 11 walks in 371/3 innings. He has pitched at least six innings in five of his six starts. The 23-year-old righthander has made the strongest of first impressions.

That is what the rebuilding Phillies will cling to while they await a more potent lineup.

mgelb@philly.com

@MattGelb