‘They ain’t scared,’ Harper says after Phillies lose another series to D-backs

‘They ain’t scared,’ Harper says after Phillies lose another series to D-backs originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

PHOENIX — Cristopher Sanchez has been a reliable piece of the Phillies‘ puzzle all season and they liked the matchup Sunday with their lefty going up against a Diamondbacks lineup minus Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll and Joc Pederson, but Sanchez was as hittable as he’s ever been in a 12-5 loss.

Staked to a two-run lead in the first inning, Sanchez allowed one in the first, four in the third and two in the fifth, encountering trouble and traffic every step of the way. He missed often over the plate with his sinker and changeup and gave up 12 hits — four more than his previous career-high.

“Left a lot of pitches in the middle of the plate and created a lot of foul balls which created a lot of pitches,” manager Rob Thomson said. “They didn’t really hit his changeup but they did a good job of fouling it off and when they hit it, it found a hole some place.”

Sanchez stranded two runners with nobody out in the second inning, punching out Jake McCarthy on a changeup to end the threat, but the bottom of the third was his undoing. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. started the rally by singling on a 0-2 pitch at his ankles. Josh Bell crushed a single up the middle, Eugenio Suarez hit an RBI double just as hard and the biggest play of the inning was a multi-hop groundball from rookie catcher Adrian Del Castillo that went just past a diving Bryce Harper‘s glove for two more runs.

McCarthy later laced another ball just past Harper for a three-run triple.

“Just felt like all of them were kinda out of my reach,” Harper said. “I don’t know, positioning-wise, what happened this series but I thought all of their hits went through. Sometimes that happens.”

The Phillies lost the four-game series and the seven-game season series to the Diamondbacks. They went 4-6 on their longest road trip of the year, one that Thomson said felt even longer than London-Boston-Baltimore in mid-June. They return home with a 69-49 record.

“Not our best, obviously,” Harper said. “Not playing the way we need to be playing right now. Just gotta get home, flush this road trip, take the good things that we can and get ready for Tuesday.”

There’s a decent chance the Phillies see the Diamondbacks again in October after losing to them in the 2023 NLCS. Arizona occupies the 5-seed in the National League, and since the playoffs do not reseed, the team with the top record is locked into playing the winner of the 4 vs. 5 matchup in the NLDS.

The D-backs are the hottest team in baseball, having won 15 of 18 with an average of 7.2 runs per game.

“They ain’t scared,” Harper said. “They go about it the right way, they play the game hard. They’ve got guys that walk, guys that hit, good pitching, good bullpen. They’re a good team. They’re gonna show up and play the game the right way and they’re gonna win a lot of games because of that.”

The afternoon started well for the Phillies with Trea Turner and Harper reaching base in the top of the first ahead of a two-run double by Alec Bohm, his 43rd. Bohm is on pace for 59 doubles. No player since 1936 has reached 60.

It looked like they had another run when Harper ripped a Merrill Kelly pitch deep to the opposite field in the top of the third. It was to a similar spot where Harper homered earlier in the series but this one drifted toward the deepest part of an angled left field wall and Gurriel leaped like Spiderman to rob him. It would have been a home run in 20 of 30 ballparks.

The Phils left plenty of meat on the bone against Kelly, who was making his first start since April 15 because of a shoulder injury. Kelly faced 20 batters and started seven of them with 2-0 counts but only one resulted in a hit.

The D-backs’ lead had grown to seven by the time the Phils made it a game with three runs on four straight hits in the top of the seventh and immediately responded with three more runs off Jose Alvarado in the bottom half.

The Phillies played well in the middle of their 10-game road trip but started and finished poorly. They were blown out, then blew a lead in a walk-off loss the first two nights in Seattle. They rebounded to win four of five over the Mariners, Dodgers and Diamondbacks and then ended with three consecutive losses.

It’s no one player’s fault. The Phillies’ lineup, starting pitching and bullpen work hasn’t been nearly as consistent since the All-Star break. They’re searching for answers at the moment and made a lineup change Sunday, flip-flopping Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh. Both lefties are mired in slumps, with Stott going 3-for-31 in August and Marsh snapping an 0-for-20 in the seventh inning Sunday.

The steps forward last season from all three of Bohm, Stott and Marsh helped the Phillies level up as a team, but in 2024 only Bohm has continued to ascend.

A portion of the fanbase won’t want to hear it, but Sunday briefly ended a difficult portion of the schedule, perhaps the Phillies’ most challenging of the year. From July 22 through August 11, the Phillies went 6-12 facing the Twins, Guardians, Yankees, Mariners, Dodgers and D-backs — six teams who would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.

The week ahead at home is much lighter with two meetings with the Marlins and four with the Nationals.

“I mean, everything,” Harper said of what the Phillies must improve back home against lesser teams. “It’s still the big leagues so still got to go in and play the game the right way. We’ve just got to be better, both sides of the ball.”