Phillies lose 10th straight, fall 10 1/2 back of Braves as bullpen decision looms large

ATLANTA — Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for these Phillies during a 10-game losing streak, and that is why when Michael Harris II was announced Friday night as a pinch hitter, Kyle Backhus had made maybe two warm-up tosses in the bullpen. Harris was supposed to start for the Atlanta Braves in center field, but was scratched before the game with left quad tightness. A far better hitter against righties than lefties, he stepped to the plate in the game’s most critical moment.

The Phillies had used a mound visit on the previous batter. So Garrett Stubbs, the catcher, stood in front of home plate. He stalled. He tiptoed to the mound to talk to Andrew Painter.

But Backhus said he had been told to be ready for Drake Baldwin, Atlanta’s No. 2 batter, and Harris was batting in the nine spot. Even with 2 1/2 minutes between pitches by Painter, there was not enough time for Backhus. Harris took two balls from Painter, then smashed a well-located fastball to the left-field wall for a two-run double. The Braves had the lead and would not relinquish it in a 5-3 win.

These are tenuous times for the Phillies (8-18).

“Yeah, it’s not great,” Bryce Harper said. “Obviously, not in the spot where we want to be. I’ve said it multiple times. It’s like beating a dead horse, man. I mean, we can all say the same thing every single day. Nobody wants to hear it. So we just got to win. Plain and simple.”

The season is not over, but the Phillies are treading in dangerous territory. They are a staggering 10 1/2 games back of the Braves in the National League East with almost a week to go in April. They have not trailed a division leader by double-digit games in April since 2000.

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who routinely travels with the club, summoned three of his trusted scouts to Truist Park for this weekend’s series to watch the Phillies play. That is rare, especially in April, and it is notable. Everything is on the table for the Phillies as they endure one of their worst stretches of baseball during the 21st century.

“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “We just have to keep going.”

The 10th consecutive loss was like many before it. The Phillies scored only three runs. They had defensive lapses. The sixth inning was not the only failure, but it was a new type of issue. There appeared to be a breakdown in communication somewhere on the Phillies bench.

When asked if the Phillies thought Harris would be unavailable, Thomson said, “Not necessarily.” The Phillies had Chase Shugart, a righty, throwing for most of the sixth inning.

They have four lefties in the bullpen, and all of them were available to pitch Friday. Even if the Phillies wanted to save Backhus for Baldwin and Matt Olson after him, they could have had Tim Mayza or Tanner Banks preparing in case Harris emerged from the dugout.

Painter had already pitched 5 2/3 innings, the most he’s thrown in a major-league game. This felt like a natural end to his night. Except the Phillies did not have a lefty ready.

“He was at 85 pitches,” Thomson said. “To me, he was still throwing the ball well. That’s his (batter). I mean, he has to learn to get through that. And he will. Yeah, I thought he was still throwing the ball.”

It’s one thing to see how a rookie responds to a challenge in April. It’s another to do it in a tense moment with a nine-game losing streak hanging over everyone. Harris entered the game with an OPS 325 points higher against righties than lefties this season. He struggled against lefties last season and lost playing time because of it.

This situation often calls for a lefty reliever. Thomson did not disagree.

“I understand,” Thomson said. “No, I understand.”

Was not having Backhus ready a mistake?

“Well, I still thought he was throwing the ball well,” Thomson said of Painter.

Even if there was a remote chance Harris would appear, the Phillies knew it would be for the No. 9 hitter, Eli White. Braves manager Walt Weiss essentially dared Thomson to open his bullpen by deploying Harris there.

Someone should have been ready.

Michael Harris II hits a two-run double off Andrew Painter to give the Braves a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. (Matthew Grimes Jr. / Atlanta Braves / Getty Images)

There is something about the visiting bullpen at Truist Park. This is the place where a Phillies manager (Gabe Kapler) once summoned a reliever (Hoby Milner) who had yet to throw a warm-up pitch. It’s where former manager Joe Girardi refused to call for his closer, Corey Knebel, for the third time in three days and instead Nick Nelson suffered a stinging defeat. Ten days later, the Phillies fired Girardi.

These Phillies have lost 10 in a row for the first time since September 1999. It is their fifth losing streak of at least 10 games in the last 50 years.

This loss fell to Painter, who was one pitch from a huge outing. With one out, Dominic Smith hit a slow roller to the right side, which led to an awkward play; shortstop Trea Turner should have fielded it instead of second baseman Bryson Stott. Smith had an infield single. Painter walked the next batter on five pitches. He induced a soft flyout for the second out, then Atlanta summoned a pinch hitter.

Painter badly wanted that third out.

“For sure,” he said. “The whole clubhouse feels that. We wanted to go out there and we wanted to snap that streak, so I felt confident going into that at-bat. And that was the biggest thing, throwing everything with conviction. I just didn’t execute.”

After the Harris double, the Phillies were committed to Painter. They couldn’t call for Shugart and risk him facing Baldwin and Olson if Ronald Acuña Jr. reached base. Painter fired a wild pitch to the backstop that forced home the fifth run.

Backhus entered. He retired Baldwin to end the inning, then Olson and Ozzie Albies in the seventh. It was too late.

So, the pain deepens.

Zack Wheeler will make his season debut Saturday night, and there will be a boost that comes from that. No one knows how Wheeler, whose fastball is compromised as he returns from thoracic outlet syndrome, will fare. But he is Zack Wheeler. That is something.

“I don’t think a lot of people thought Wheels was ever going to throw a pitch again,” Harper said. “For us to be able to get him back and just for him to be on the mound, personally, is a great accomplishment. Freak accident. Freak procedure. … I’m excited on a personal level for him to get back and throw a pitch on the mound again.”

Maybe that’ll end this nightmare.