DETROIT \u2014 The Phillies got another strong showing from Aaron Nola.<\/p>\n
Same result as last week, though.<\/p>\n
Three of his last four starts have gone at least five innings, and he has allowed three or fewer runs. After giving the Phillies seven innings in Kansas City, the longest-tenured Phillie gave them five frames of two-run ball Friday, with the lone damage coming on a homer by Delco native Kevin McGonigle. Nola struck out eight.<\/p>\n
Very solid.<\/p>\n
This time, Don Mattingly had a shorter leash with Nola, pulling him at 84 pitches with the heart of the Tigers\u2019 lineup coming up for the third time.<\/p>\n
Two of the three hitters due up were lefties, so the Phillies\u2019 interim skipper went with Tim Mayza in the sixth inning. That disastrous frame was all the Tigers needed in their 10-2 defeat of the Phillies.<\/p>\n
To lead off the inning, Mayza faced All-Star left fielder Riley Greene and got into a full-blown battle. A back-and-forth affair. Balls for strikes. Strikes for balls. On 3-2, Greene fouled off four pitches in a row.<\/p>\n
Then Mayza floated a slider, which seemingly nicked the top of the zone, but was ruled ball four. J.T. Realmuto tapped his helmet, sending it to ABS, which showed the pitch missed by a tenth of an inch.<\/p>\n
If that.<\/p>\n
In a sense, that won Detroit the ballgame. Mayza got Spencer Torkelson to fly out next, then lost the plate entirely to pinch-hitter Matt Vierling for a walk. He then hung a slider to Eduardo Valencia, playing in his second career game, for his second big knock in two games after homering in his debut. Valencia\u2019s go-ahead single gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n
Then Zach McKinstry laid down a peach of a bunt. Mayza had a play at the plate, but stumbled on the wet grass and couldn\u2019t corral it in time to flip home. He spun around, threw to first and sailed the throw into right field, extending Detroit\u2019s lead to two.<\/p>\n
James Outman, left on left, smoked a first-pitch slider for a two-run triple. With the following batter up, Mayza listened in for the sign, shook off the pitch call, but was engaged with the rubber. He shook his leg, and first base umpire Vic Carapazza called a balk. Outman scored.<\/p>\n
7-2 Tigers.<\/p>\n
It was yet another night where Philadelphia looked sluggish. The Phillies\u2019 only three hits came from former Tiger first-rounder Derek Hill, who clubbed a second-inning homer, lined an RBI single in the fourth and added another hit later.<\/p>\n
Hill wasn\u2019t even supposed to be in Friday\u2019s lineup. Justin Crawford was scratched with knee soreness, and Hill, who primarily plays against lefties, got the start against Jack Flaherty.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s mashed with the Phillies. .364\/.391\/.614. Five extra-base hits in 44 at-bats. He\u2019s been unbelievably clutch and a strong addition defensively and on the base paths.<\/p>\n
But his night went to waste. Their largest roster blemish bit the Phillies again. Their left-handed relievers have been unusable lately. Mayza surrendered four runs Friday, and Tanner Banks, now on the IL, and Jos\u00e9 Alvarado allowed four the other night.<\/p>\n
How much longer can the Phillies survive without a true fifth starter and viable left-handed options out of the bullpen?<\/p>\n
It would not be surprising to see moves made before the August 3 trading deadline.<\/p>\n
More coming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 The Phillies got another strong showing from Aaron Nola. Same result as last week, though. Three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,11350,17086],"class_list":["post-240710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-phillies-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}