And, so, the champagne remains on ice, at least for another day.<\/p>\n
The Phillies arrived at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday with a chance to wrap up a postseason berth. All they needed was a win over the Milwaukee Brewers and a loss from either Arizona or San Diego.<\/p>\n
Even before the verdicts came in from out West, the Phils were unable to take care of their own business. They fell behind the Milwaukee Brewers early and never caught up in a 4-1 loss at Citizens Bank Park. Aaron Nola was tagged four two-out runs in six innings of work and the bats went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base.<\/p>\n
Maybe the clinch will come Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we want to lock this thing down as soon as we can,\u201d Kyle Schwarber said after the loss. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t our night tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to focus on a day at a time. We\u2019ve been in positions like this before. We know what to do. That\u2019s the important thing. You don\u2019t want to ride that roller coaster of emotion. Yes, obviously, we\u2019re all frustrated. We wanted to go out and lock this thing up tonight. But we\u2019ve got to move on. We\u2019ve got a game tomorrow. There\u2019s an opportunity for us tomorrow and we\u2019ve got to go out and find a way to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brewers won their majors-best 99th game on the strength of a pair of homers against Nola and a solid outing from their own starter, right-hander Logan Henderson. He pitched five innings and allowed just a run.<\/p>\n
Nola gave up two two-out homers in the first two innings of the game. Brice Turang got him in the first and Christian Yelich in the second. Turang hit a 1-2 sinker that was up in the zone. Yelich turned on a 0-1 cutter that was up and in and skied it into the right-field seats. The Brewers pushed across two more runs in the third on a softly hit two-out ground-ball single by William Contreras that just got past diving third baseman Bryson Stott.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kind of placed it in the right spot to get those two runs,\u201d Nola said. \u201cTwo out runs are tough. They really are. You get one more batter out \u2026 especially on a ground ball there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nola gave up just four hits over six innings. While his inability to put away the Brewers with two outs proved costly, so, too, did the Phils\u2019 lack of offense behind him.<\/p>\n
The top four hitters \u2013 Schwarber, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and Luis Arraez \u2013 were a combined 1 for 15 with an infield hit and two walks.<\/p>\n
And that 0-fer with runners in scoring position was killer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always want to get the job done at the plate,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cWe have faith that when we have guys in scoring position, we\u2019ll get the job done. Sure, there will be nights when you walk away frustrated that you didn\u2019t get the job done. But I\u2019m going to take our chances more than not with this group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manager Don Mattingly sensed hitters were trying to do too much with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept giving ourselves chances,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just weren\u2019t able to cash in.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody always wants to get a hit in those spots. The ones that are frustrating are when you get guys up there with less than two outs. You don\u2019t necessarily need a hit to get a run. You can just get one here, one there. Those are more frustrating than not getting a hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
With just four games remaining, Nola will not pitch again in the regular season. His role in the postseason is still up in the air. It\u2019s conceivable he could start the second or third game of the first round. That could change if Jes\u00fas Luzardo makes a rapid recovery from the shoulder inflammation that landed him on the injured list last week.<\/p>\n
Luzardo, who is eligible to return Sunday, continues to play catch on flat ground without any problems. His next step would be to throw off a bullpen mound, possibly as early as Thursday. There was some chatter Wednesday that he could pitch a simulated game over the weekend as team officials gauge his readiness for the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
If Luzardo is deemed ready for the first round, he could work out of the bullpen, an area that could use an upgrade. Andrew Painter could also work in relief during the postseason. He will make his final regular season start in Thursday night\u2019s series finale against Milwaukee. Cristopher Sanchez will make his start Friday night, which will put him on target to start Game 2 of the postseason next week behind Zack Wheeler.<\/p>\n
Nola, who had a 6.04 ERA after his first 17 starts, finished the regular season 7-10 with a 4.54 ERA in 32 starts. Over his last 11 starts, he had a 2.45 ERA while averaging six innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been huge in the second half,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cYou feel like he\u2019s going to give you a good game every time out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nola was encouraged by his second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I found a groove,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything was sharper, my delivery, my body, my pitches. I was mixing better. I stayed healthy all year. I did my best to keep guys in games as long as I could. I knew I was capable of being better than I was in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n
With his regular-season work complete, Nola will now sit back and watch as the Phillies look to lock down a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019ll happen Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Mattingly offered this bit of advice:<\/p>\n
\u201cI always feel like games are hard to win down the stretch,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me, it always rolls around to: Keep it simple, win a game tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And, so, the champagne remains on ice, at least for another day. The Phillies arrived at Citizens Bank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,11350],"class_list":["post-292779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillies-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292779","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=292779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}