The Phillies Fail To Make It To 2nd Base In Shutout Vs. Mets
Yes, queue up the prom night jokes. Tuesday night, in their series opener against the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies professional baseball team failed to have a runner reach 2nd base at any point in the game. It was the 1st time since 2016 (also against the Mets) that the Phillies “accomplished” this feat, and it wasn’t a fun feat to replicate. Naturally, the Phillies lost the game, 2-0, which almost makes it worse considering how much of an opportunity they got thanks to a wonderful start from Ranger Suarez, but any loss with that little offense already makes for a lot of upset fans. It was a combination of approach, a good opposing pitcher, and a sprinkle of bad baserunning on top that all combined for one of the more boring losses the Phillies will provide all season. So, are there any upsides?
Well, the biggest pro from the game is what we saw from Ranger Suarez on the mound. It was just his 4th start of the year, and it was certainly his best to this point. Suarez still has a 7.13 ERA due to some bad early starts, but dazzled against a strong Mets lineup on Tuesday posting 6.2 innings of 5 hit, 2 run ball. That’s a great sign for Suarez, who of course is still trying to stretch his arm out following a late start to his season due to injury, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to get his first win of the year. That being said, he could’ve thrown a perfect 9 innings and it probably wouldn’t have been enough to get the win with the way the Phillies were swinging it.
Kodai Senga deserves a lot of credit for that, to be fair. Senga, who came over from Japan this offseason, has been really good for the Mets this season. He throws an absolutely crippling “ghost forkball” that was working like crazy on Tuesday night, dumbfounding the Phillies’ hitters. Senga went 7 innings and allowed only 1 baserunner (Kody Clemens on a bloop single in the 3rd) while striking out 9. I understand that sometimes when you see that type of a performance from a pitcher you have to just tip your cap, but I refuse to accept the argument that Senga was just unhittable. Every pitcher at the Major League level has at least one plus pitch. It’s super hard to hit anything at the top professional level on the planet, but that’s the job. Find a way to get on base, to get some contact, to get something going. The Phillies’ offense just didn’t do their job last night.
On top of the offensive struggles, they also squandered the few opportunities they were able to create. Clemens’ single in the 3rd led to nothing, and the Phillies wouldn’t get another baserunner until the 8th inning when JT Realmuto walked. Then, with Alec Bohm at the plate, Realmuto took off for 2nd and was promptly thrown out, killing momentum. I understand some of the reasoning for sending Realmuto there considering you couldn’t create offense, but you were down 2 runs!! Realmuto stealing 2nd did not have a big enough reward for the risk. If you need a frame of reference for how bad this offensive showing was for the Phillies, consider this: in World Series Game 4, in which the Phils were no-hit by the Astros, 2 runners reached 2nd base for Philly. 2 runners WITHOUT A HIT. Not a single runner accomplished that feat on Tuesday. These are the types of games that drive you crazy as a fan; let’s just hope there aren’t many more of them to come this year.
