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<\/p>\nATLANTA \u2014 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\u2019s most critical moment.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But Backhus said he had been told to be ready for Drake Baldwin, Atlanta\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
These are tenuous times for the Phillies (8-18).<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s not great,\u201d Bryce Harper said. \u201cObviously, not in the spot where we want to be. I\u2019ve said it multiple times. It\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody\u2019s going to feel sorry for us,\u201d Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. \u201cWe just have to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
When asked if the Phillies thought Harris would be unavailable, Thomson said, \u201cNot necessarily.\u201d The Phillies had Chase Shugart, a righty, throwing for most of the sixth inning.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Painter had already pitched 5 2\/3 innings, the most he\u2019s thrown in a major-league game. This felt like a natural end to his night. Except the Phillies did not have a lefty ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was at 85 pitches,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cTo me, he was still throwing the ball well. That\u2019s his (batter). I mean, he has to learn to get through that. And he will. Yeah, I thought he was still throwing the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one thing to see how a rookie responds to a challenge in April. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
This situation often calls for a lefty reliever. Thomson did not disagree.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cNo, I understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was not having Backhus ready a mistake?<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I still thought he was throwing the ball well,\u201d Thomson said of Painter.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Someone should have been ready.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Michael Harris II hits a two-run double off Andrew Painter to give the Braves a lead they wouldn\u2019t relinquish. (Matthew Grimes Jr. \/ Atlanta Braves \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Painter badly wanted that third out.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure,\u201d he said. \u201cThe 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\u2019t execute.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the Harris double, the Phillies were committed to Painter. They couldn\u2019t call for Shugart and risk him facing Baldwin and Olson if Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. reached base. Painter fired a wild pitch to the backstop that forced home the fifth run.<\/p>\n
Backhus entered. He retired Baldwin to end the inning, then Olson and Ozzie Albies in the seventh. It was too late.<\/p>\n
So, the pain deepens.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of people thought Wheels was ever going to throw a pitch again,\u201d Harper said. \u201cFor 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. \u2026 I\u2019m excited on a personal level for him to get back and throw a pitch on the mound again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019ll end this nightmare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for these Phillies during a 10-game losing streak,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2365,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-629838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}