Mayday! Phillies sink even lower, get swept by Marlins
They capped a horrible month (6-22) with a 10-2 loss. It was their worst May record since 1928.
MIAMI - Aaron Altherr watched strike three zip past, dipped his head, and walked back to the dugout to finish a 10-2 loss to the Marlins on Wednesday at Marlins Park. The Phillies' rotten month was finally over.
The Phillies, baseball's worst team, were dominated for three days by baseball's third-worst team. The margin between two of baseball's bottom feeders felt vast. The Marlins outscored the Phillies, 21-5, in the three-game sweep.
Aaron Nola lasted just three innings as the Phillies bullpen had to log five innings for the second straight game. The Phillies struck out 15 times and scored two runs or fewer for the ninth time in their last 11 games. It was an ugly end to an ugly month. The Phillies are off Thursday before opening a three-game series at home against San Francisco. They have to hope that June is kinder than May.
"I'm glad we're going into June. Put May behind us," manager Pete Mackanin said. "We have to look to win game by game and inch our way back. Like I said, we need a good series. We need to do well at home, go beat up on Atlanta [after the Giants] if we can. Hopefully that will spark us getting back to where we should be."
The Phillies finished the month 6-22, their worst May record since 1928. It was the team's first month with six or fewer wins since June 1997. Their record (17-34) is the franchise's worst start through 51 games since 1945. They were outscored in the month, 163-99. The Phillies have the worst record in baseball and have lost 25 of their last 31 games. They have lost 10 straight series. They have not lost 11 series in a row since 1941. It was just a month ago that they landed in Los Angeles winners of six in a row.
"Everything turned around so quick," Freddy Galvis said. "We can only stop that by playing good baseball. We just have to keep going. We have to turn around everything. We have to play better baseball. We have a pretty young team and everyone is trying to do what they're supposed to do. But I think we have to push a little bit more to play better baseball."
Nola was pulled after just 73 pitches. He gave up four runs on five hits. The righthander struck out four and walked one. It was just the second time in his career that he did not pitch into the fourth inning. Mackanin said he did not want Nola to throw 100 pitches in four innings and end up hurt.
"I was kind of surprised," Nola said. "I was ready to go out for the fourth. I didn't think I would be taken out that early."
It was the second straight day that a Phillies pitcher had a brief start. Vince Velasquez was placed on the disabled list before the game after leaving Tuesday's start with an elbow injury. He threw just 19 pitches Tuesday. The Phillies used four relievers - Ricardo Pinto, Jeanmar Gomez, Pat Neshek, and Joaquin Benoit - to piece together the final five innings.
"They pretty much said I was done," Nola said. "I threw a good amount of pitches through three innings, but I definitely wanted to go out for the fourth. I want to go as long as I can even if I threw a lot of pitches through three innings."
Nola was in trouble from the start. He gave up three runs to the first four batters he faced, punctuated by a two-run homer by Marcell Ozuna. His final run scored in the third after Maikel Franco unsuccessfully tried to backhand a grounder at third base. The play appeared to be an error but was ruled a hit. Nola retired the next two batters, walked back to the dugout, and his day was finished. The Phillies' awful month was nearly done, too. Finally.
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