WASHINGTON — Just about the only thing that could cool off this red-hot Phillies lineup was a 92-minute rain delay.
And, as it turns out, a solid left-handed starter.
The Phillies have masked their struggles against southpaw starters lately.
The only lefties they have scored three or more runs against this season are Kyle Freeland (7.36 ERA), Nick Lodolo (6.12 ERA), Anthony Kay (4.61 ERA), Patrick Corbin (4.73 ERA), Shane Drohan, who has made only five starts, Sean Manaea (4.64 ERA) and David Peterson (6.09 ERA).
Not exactly a list of pitchers thriving this season.
In their other 18 games against left-handed starters, the Phillies have scored just 15 earned runs in 101 innings, good for a 1.25 ERA. They’ve registered a poor .466 OPS in those contests.
One of those outings came against one lefty who carved them up earlier this year, Foster Griffin.
On March 30, he held the Phillies down over five innings while the Nationals pounced on Taijuan Walker in a 13-2 Washington win.
Almost three months later, the Nationals left-hander had everything working again in the Phillies’ 4-1 loss to Washington. He attacked the Phillies all evening, starting 20 of the 26 batters he faced with a first-pitch strike.
That is a difficult formula for hitters to use against Griffin, who developed a seven-pitch repertoire over three seasons in Japan.
He is not overpowering. He does not need to be.
Griffin threw 71 percent strikes, kept the Phillies off balance and worked 7 1/3 innings of four-hit, one-run ball. He walked nobody and struck out nine.
“He was executing pitches,” Brandon Marsh said. “He was burying a sweeper, a curveball. He had his stuff today. You’ve got to tip your cap.”
Mattingly pointed to the variety Griffin showed against a lineup that never settled in.
“A lot of just the mix and match for us,” Mattingly said. “We didn’t seem to do enough with him. He got ahead in counts, threw strikes, a variety of basically breaking balls for the lefties, kept the righties off balance for the most part.”
The Phillies finally broke through in the seventh on a Brandon Marsh solo homer. Marsh continues to give the offense quality at-bats against lefties, and his shot cut Washington’s lead to 2-1.
Before that at-bat, Bryce Harper came over for a quick word.
Marsh said Harper saw him overthinking.
“He just put his arm around me and told me, ‘Stop thinking so much and go be you,’” Marsh said. “He definitely brought me back, got me out of my own head and got me back on track a little bit.”
It also gave the Phillies some hope as they prepared to face one of baseball’s shakier bullpens.
That hope did not last long.
Brandon Marsh was 0-for-14 against LHP over the last few games, so Bryce Harper pulled him aside, gave him a pep talk and it seemingly worked. Marsh’s 10th homer of the year makes it a one-run game!
With James Wood leading off the bottom of the seventh and two right-handed hitters set to follow, Mattingly turned to right-hander Seth Johnson rather than lefty Kyle Backhus.
Wood singled. Then former Phillies farmhand Curtis Mead hit a two-run homer.
The Nationals’ lead grew to 4-1, and that was the final.
Mattingly said Johnson gave the Phillies their best available matchup in that pocket of the order.
“Just out of the guys that we have available, we felt like he was the best guy for that spot,” Mattingly said.
For the Phillies, it was a tough finish because they got nearly everything they could have asked for from Alan Rangel.
The club recalled Rangel from Triple-A Lehigh Valley earlier in the day, then used Tim Mayza as an opener before handing the ball to the 27-year-old right-hander.
Rangel was not dominant, but he delivered one of the more encouraging outings the Phillies have gotten from this spot in the rotation in about a month.
He allowed one run over five walk-less innings and gave the Phillies a chance.
Rangel brings a new look to the staff with a funky, hide-the-ball delivery from a steep over-the-top slot. His 69-degree arm angle would be the most vertical in Major League Baseball among qualified pitchers, even steeper than Blue Jays right-hander Trey Yesavage at 66 degrees.
“It’s one of those things you don’t see as much,” Mattingly said. “In today’s game, it’s a little bit more on the side. But he’s a guy that’s over the top. Those are the guys that are usually pitching north-south.”
The Phillies’ right-handed starters behind Zack Wheeler have struggled this season. Rangel’s first outing offered a possible sign that the club has another internal option worth exploring.
He filled the zone in his outing. Rangel threw first-pitch strikes 62 percent of the time, landed 71 percent of his pitches for strikes, and generated a 41 percent chase rate.
Mattingly liked how little the traffic seemed to affect him.
“He had a little bit of traffic, but he worked out of it,” Mattingly said. “It didn’t rattle him at all. He kept throwing strikes. We like that.”
Hear what the Phillies manager had to say after a 4-1 loss to the Nationals on Monday night
Rangel said that is the foundation of what he wants to bring to the role.
“I think it’s consistency in attacking the hitters early,” Rangel said. “The mix that I have, I can throw my fastball off and then come with my changeup.”
Several Nationals hitters swung through or fouled off changeups above the zone. They also chased fastballs out of the zone.
Rangel said he tries to make those pitches look alike out of his hand.
“I want to show the pitch with the same eye level for the hitter,” he said. “With the difference in the pitch shape and the way it moves, I think that creates a little bit of a difference.”
Mattingly also likes the profile.
“Obviously, the changeup is good,” Mattingly said. “He can go up and down, up with the fastball, down with the change, breaking balls up and down… Basically, [he was] coming after guys, attacking the strike zone.”
Rangel’s next chance to start, or work in bulk behind an opener, will likely come Saturday in Queens against the Mets.
That lineup could have Francisco Lindor back by then.
Monday’s result did not go the Phillies’ way.
But the right-hander gave Mattingly something to carry into the next turn.