Citizens Bank Park felt like the inside of Jeff Spicoli\u2019s van Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The air was tinged with the drifting smoke of Canadian wildfires as the Phillies and New York Mets got back to work in less than ideal conditions after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
Early in the day, Major League Baseball considered postponing the game because of poor air quality. There was a hitch, though. This was the only game on the schedule as the All-Star break continued for 28 other teams, and ESPN was in the house to broadcast the game nationally.<\/p>\n
Damn the lungs! Play ball!<\/p>\n
The start time was moved up an hour to 6:10 p.m., but that didn\u2019t help the Phillies much as they lost, 4-1, to the Mets.<\/p>\n
The air was a murky gray at first pitch. Conditions worsened as the game went on. Umpires checked with players to see if they were OK throughout the game.<\/p>\n
Phillies left fielder Brandon Marsh said it was tough to see a line drive by Jorge Polanco in the eighth inning. Marsh ended up making the play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conditions played no part in the final result,\u201d he said. \u201cThey played through the same stuff we did. We just have to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
By definition, Aaron Nola turned in a quality start for the Phillies. That\u2019s what you call it when a pitcher goes six innings or more and allows three or fewer earned runs.<\/p>\n
But Nola\u2019s quality start featured a few low-quality pitches. Three of them landed over the wall.<\/p>\n
While Nola did manage to keep his team in the game, the offense did not capitalize. The Phillies, who rank dead last in the majors with\u00a0a .302 on-base percentage, had just four hits and they left runners on the corners in a 1-0 game when Marsh struck out to end the sixth.<\/p>\n
Marsh, who was leading the National League with a .338 batting average on June 7, is hitting .167 in July. He is down to .297 for the season.<\/p>\n
He did line out to left in his final at-bat of the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat last one felt really good,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething I can build off. I felt good after that last one, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mets starter Christian Scott held the Phillies to three hits over 5 2\/3 scoreless innings. He walked none and struck out seven.<\/p>\n
Nola pitched into the seventh inning. He walked four and struck out six. He got some big outs, like when he pitched out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the fifth. He allowed six hits, but three of them were solo homers. One came on a slider, one on a sinker and one on a four-seam fastball.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stuff feels good,\u201d Nola said. \u201cThe solo home runs hurt me.\u00a0I feel like that\u2019s how it\u2019s gone this year and last year. I make a mistake over the plate and they don\u2019t miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nola said the move-up in start time did not affect him. He had been at the ballpark long before the time change was announced.<\/p>\n
But he acknowledged: \u201cIt was really smoky. Not ideal. But it is what it is. It\u2019s an outdoor stadium. You have to get the game in and play through different conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nola was\u00a0at 90 pitches through six innings. Friday night in Detroit, manager Don Mattingly hooked the right-hander after five innings and the bullpen imploded. This time, Mattingly stuck with Nola for the seventh and the right-hander gave up back-to-back homers to Brett Baty and Francisco Alvarez (his second of the game) to put the Mets ahead, 3-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I take him out too early and leave him in too long,\u201d Mattingly said in response to a question about how he\u2019s handled Nola the last two starts. \u201cI take each game for what it is. He was throwing the ball good. If he\u2019d struggled in the sixth, I would have been more proactive. But he threw the ball so well in the sixth, I felt good about him there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillies had just three hits through the first seven innings. Trea Turner clubbed a solo homer in the eighth, but it was too little too late, even before the Mets padded their lead against reliever Seth Johnson in the ninth.<\/p>\n
The air was hazy at the start of the game. Still, a crowd of 40,109 turned out. By mid-game, the air quality worsened. Center City, usually eye-grabbing day or night, was not visible as a low cloud hung over the ballpark. All that was missing was Bela Lugosi. Or Jeff Spicoli\u2019s van. Or some Phillies\u2019 offense.<\/p>\n
More smoke is in the forecast for Friday, but the two teams are off. The series resumes Saturday, when rain is in the forecast.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Citizens Bank Park felt like the inside of Jeff Spicoli\u2019s van Thursday night. The air was tinged with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,227211,85],"class_list":["post-805856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805856","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=805856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}