Vince Velasquez’s season is over four weeks early, but the right-hander left a strong impression on the organization with his performance this season.
Advertisement
Ryan Howard slapped an RBI double the opposite way to left to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead in the first.
Instead, they lost to the Atlanta Braves 6-4 in 10 innings, their fifth consecutive loss.
Gomez allowed a season-high four runs tonight while making his 59th appearance of the season.
Unlike his players’ waves of the bat that on Sunday too often connected with nothing but air, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin usually has no trouble connecting the dots when asked why so many of his hitters seem to have so many problems with their approach at the plate.
De La Cruz’s ninth career start ended after five innings on the mound.
Velasquez pitched seven innings for just the third time this season. The rookie right-hander allowed four hits, struck out six and walked four in seven innings. “It’s not the end of the road now”. They are only 6½ games behind the Phillies in the NL East. This game is fun to learn. The Phillies and Braves will close out their weekend series on Sunday afternoon (1:35 p.m., ET) when Atlanta RHP Julio Teheran (4-9, 3.12 ERA) faces RHP Jake Thompson (1-4, 7.86 ERA).
“I had a bullpen session, and that’s what it came down to”, Velasquez said.
Ellis gave Velasquez an assignment to study Greinke and the way he approached hitters when he was with the Dodgers. “We’ve got to improve”.
Which is why the Phillies are shutting him down after 130 innings, which are a career high. “It’s the last month, everybody gets a little bit exhausted, but I don’t see that”.
RHP Jerad Eickhoff (9-13, 3.90) vs. RHP Jake Esch (0-0, 4.15): Esch pitched well enough in his major league debut to merit another start, though there is a shortage of other viable options with three starters on the disabled list.
Endier Inciarte is batting.426 (26-for-61) during a 14-game hitting streak, Freddie Freeman is batting.316 (12-for-38) during a 10-game hitting streak and Matt Kemp is 8-for-19 over his last four games.
Back-to-back walks to Freeman and Kemp loaded the bases with one out and brought pitching coach Bob McClure to the mound. “I really feel the first two guys are setting the table for us offensively. I feel like I’m getting. a lot more fastballs due to the fact of the guys hitting behind me”.
Garcia scored the winning run on a check-swing ground ball by Tyler Flowers. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead on a three-run homer by catcher A.J. Ellis but saw the Braves tie it in the fifth and break it open in the ninth. He threw one scoreless inning and had a strikeout.
The Phillies threatened in the eight against Braves RHP Mauricio Cabrera. The other two hits came from Cesar Hernandez and Cameron Rupp, who combined to drive in the other 3 runs (1 RBI for Hernandez, 2 for Rupp). Howard took the force-out at first, allowing Freeman to score.
Maikel Franco has endured a hard second half for the Philadelphia Phillies, hitting just.216 in 44 games since the All-Star break. Franco dropped Chase d’Arnaud’s foul ball, and d’Arnaud walked and then scored on Garcia’s ground out. I guess this is just the ending point for now. With the 2-0 final, the Phillies achieved a sixth straight loss (all at home) and 10th setback in their last dirty dozen outings.
Velasquez was looking for his ninth win of the season, and first since July 8th, but now has to wait until 2017 to get the next victory.
Advertisement
“I don’t know what to say about that”, Galvis did say. “It was a big workload on my arm. But I understand what they’re doing, I understand their long-term goals”. NOTES: The Braves placed RHP Aaron Blair on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to August 29 with a left knee strain and replaced him with RHP Brandon Cunniff, who was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett. To replace him on the roster, it recalled RHP Brandon Cunniff from Triple-A Gwinnett.
