MIAMI \u2013 All over baseball Tuesday night, pitchers who could be on the move before next week\u2019s trade deadline were on the mound, showing their wares for potential suitors.<\/p>\n
Shane Bieber pitched for Toronto, Seth Lugo for Kansas City, Luis Castillo for Seattle, Michael King for San Diego and Reid Detmers for the Los Angeles Angels.<\/p>\n
And, right there in front of the Phillies\u2019 eyes, Sandy Alcantara got the assignment for the Miami Marlins.<\/p>\n
The 2022 National League Cy Young award winner proved to be a handful for the Phils. He pitched seven shutout innings as the Marlins beat the Phillies, 1-0, under the Big Top in Little Havana. It was the Marlins\u2019 second win in as many nights over the Phillies. Miami entered the series having lost 12 in a row.<\/p>\n
The Phillies, meanwhile, have lost eight of 11 since coming back from the All-Star break. They have been shut out twice in that span and held to one run four times. They\u2019ve played four series since the break and have now lost ’em all. With two months to go, they are still in control of a wild-card playoff spot. But they\u2019ve gone from 11 games over .500 and two games back in the NL East to six games over .500 and six back. They had just four\u00a0hits Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Pete Fairbanks, another Miami trade candidate, got the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.<\/p>\n
Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies\u2019 president of baseball operations, is looking to make a deal before the trade deadline. The offense\u2019s recent struggles suggest strongly that he needs to acquire a hitter. But the Phils need pitching, as well, as they are just 5-21 in the fifth spot in their rotation. Someone like Alcantara would provide the Phils with a huge lift, but the price will be high for the right-hander, who is eligible for free agency after the season. Whether it\u2019s a top arm like Alcantara or a lesser available talent, the Phils are expected to add a pitcher before the deadline.<\/p>\n
If they don\u2019t, Bryce Harper will be disappointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need some help,\u201d he said after the loss. \u201cI think we\u2019ve proved (ourselves) pretty much all year. We\u2019ve done a pretty good job. But any time you can get some help in here, some reinforcements, I think it helps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper was asked if he thought the Phillies needed a bat or an arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think both,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, everybody knows what we need. I\u2019ve said it over the last few days. We need both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper was asked if he was confident the Phils would get both.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see. That\u2019s a Dave question. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dombrowski is traveling with the team, but has not been available to take reporters\u2019 questions about the trade deadline. He will rendezvous with his top scouts this weekend in Baltimore before Monday\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n
Pitching was not the issue Tuesday night as Aaron Nola held the Marlins to just one run over 5 2\/3 innings. He allowed a solo homer to Kyle Stowers on a hanging breaking\u00a0ball in the first inning for the game\u2019s only run.<\/p>\n
The Phillies\u2019 lineup was not full force. Kyle Schwarber, the NL\u2019s home run leader with 33, was supposed to start at first base with Harper getting the DH assignment. But Schwarber came down with the stomach bug that has recently plagued the clubhouse and did not play. Catcher J.T. Realmuto, hitting .387 (12 for 31) since the All-Star break, got a night off as Garrett Stubbs came off the IL. Schwarber is iffy for Wednesday\u2019s series finale.<\/p>\n
Without Schwarber, Alec Bohm started at first base and Edmundo Sosa at third. Right-handed hitting Bryan De La Cruz got the start in right field over lefty-hitting Gabriel Rincones Jr.<\/p>\n
The Phils had a couple of good scoring chances against Alcantara, but both times were thwarted by the veteran pitcher. They had runners at second and third with no outs in the second, but came away empty when Edmundo Sosa struck out, Justin Crawford grounded out and De La Cruz popped out.<\/p>\n
In the sixth, Harper and Bohm both singled with two outs before Alcantara struck out Brandon Marsh looking. Marsh was leading the majors in hitting at .338 on June 8. An 11-for-78 (.141) July has him down .280.<\/p>\n
Long after the final out Tuesday night, Marsh was hitting balls in the batting cage adjacent to the clubhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust keep grinding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Phils did hit some balls hard against Alcantara. Among them, Harper lined out to the wall in center in the fourth and Sosa hit a scorching liner to third in the seventh.<\/p>\n
Harper thought he had homered on his ball to the wall in fourth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I got it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hit some balls hard tonight. Obviously, Sandy was on point and pitched well. We could have won with the swings we took and the way Nola pitched.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2013 All over baseball Tuesday night, pitchers who could be on the move before next week\u2019s trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,259266,82],"class_list":["post-833067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}