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Phillies' bullpen struggles after Zack Wheeler leaves the mound as Marlins steal series opener

Alex Coffey, The Philadelphia Inquirer on

Published in Baseball

PHILADELPHIA — It’s hard to recall a more unsavory game in recent Phillies memory. It ended with Bryce Harper running to first base, hitting the bag awkwardly, and limping off the field. Shortly before that, Kyle Schwarber was removed from the game with left groin tightness.

The Phillies should have more information soon, but for a team that is already down J.T. Realmuto’s bat in the lineup, it’s not ideal.

Beyond that, it was an uncharacteristically bad night for the defense and for the bullpen. Starter Zack Wheeler didn’t have his best stuff. He hit one batter and walked two. The Miami Marlins fouled him off quite a bit, and ran his pitch count up to 115 pitches over 6 2/3 innings.

Despite that, Wheeler grinded through his start, and at first, it seemed he would get off unscathed. But Matt Strahm, who entered in relief of Wheeler in the seventh, allowed two runs on two hits in one-third of an inning. The Marlins scored six runs in the seventh and eighth innings combined, sending the Phillies to a 7-4 loss at Citizens Bank Park.

It was an unusual outing for Strahm. The left-handed pitcher has been nothing short of dominant this year, posting a 0.86 ERA over his first 31 1/3 innings pitched. That has since ballooned to 1.42.

NBC Sports Philadelphia’s camera caught Wheeler yelling at home plate umpire Emil Jimenez from the dugout. The Phillies starter seemed to take issue with Jimenez’s missed strike three call, which would’ve ended the seventh inning without any runs scoring.

With the Phillies up 3-0, Wheeler had two outs, with one on, and Ali Sánchez at the plate. He worked Sánchez to a 0-2 count, and threw a four-seam fastball just inside the upper corner of the zone. Jimenez called it a ball, Wheeler threw six more pitches, and Sánchez hit a single to center field.

Strahm came in, hit Jazz Chisholm with a pitch to load the bases, and Bryan De La Cruz doubled to drive all three runners home. Josh Bell doubled to score De La Cruz, giving the Marlins a 4-3 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, Trea Turner doubled, and Alec Bohm hit a sacrifice fly to score him to tie the game at 4-4. But reliever Jeff Hoffman allowed a solo home run to Jake Burger in the eighth to give the lead back to Miami.

 

As was the case with Strahm, it was an unusual outing for Hoffman. He allowed a solo home run to Burger on the first pitch of his first at-bat, allowed a Nick Gordon double, and threw a wild pitch to allow Gordon to advance to third.

Gordon scored on a ground ball to Edmundo Sosa that deflected off of Sosa’s glove. Sosa was charged with a fielding error. Hoffman was charged with one earned run on two hits.

Sosa led off the eighth with a single, but Whit Merrifield, Cristian Pache and Rafael Marchán went down for three consecutive outs. Yunior Marte, who was recalled on Thursday afternoon, pitched the ninth. He struck out De La Cruz, Bell and allowed a single to Dane Myers.

Myers stole second, and Burger singled him home to give the Marlins a 7-4 lead in the ninth. The Phillies went down 1-2-3 in the ninth.

Marchán goes yard

Marchán was called up for his defense, not his power, but he now has two home runs through just nine big league games this year. He hit only eight home runs through 416 minor league games.

The backup catcher hit a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the fourth and it traveled 409 feet.


©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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