Mishaps a buzz kill for City Connect debut as Phillies fall to Pirates
The Phillies dropped back to .500 following the 5-2 loss to the Pirates.
Scene 1. The Pirates had runners on first and third with two outs in the fourth. Connor Joe hit a sharp grounder to the shortstop hole. Trea Turner was there. But just before he was able to complete the play that would end the inning, he tripped. Or slipped on an invisible banana peel. Or something. Regardless, he went down, the ball went through, Pittsburgh had a gift run.
Scene 2. The Bucs had runners on second and third with one out in the seventh, No. 3 hitter Ke’Bryan Hayes at the plate. Reliever Yunior Marte struck out Hayes on a nasty 97.9 mile an hour sinker that started outside and then tailed back to the plate. The problem was that catcher J.T. Realmuto was expecting something else and was shifting to his right on the delivery. The pitch nailed him on the left wrist. Realmuto crumpled to the ground in pain as catcher Henry Davis easily scored from third.
And that pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the mishaps and missteps and things that went bump in the night Friday in the Phillies 5-2 loss to the Pirates at Citizens Bank Park, an unfortunate series of events that even Lemony Snicket would have found absurd. It was also a real buzz kill to the excitement that had been generated by the ballyhooed introduction of the franchise’s new City Connect uniforms.
The loss dropped the Phillies back to .500 after Thursday’s win put them a game over for the first time this season.
“Any time you play a game like that you’re not going to win, right?” Bryce Harper said. “We battled to the end but when you start a game like that it’s really tough to come back.”
Still haven’t had enough? A glutton for punishment? There’s more.
Harper came into play shouldering an 0-for-18 slump with just two extra base hits since his three-homer game on April 2. He singled his first time up. Flied out to the base of the wall in dead center in the fourth. “April in Philly. It’s tough. But I thought I hit it well enough,” he said with a shrug. Doubled in the sixth. And came up with a chance to do some real damage with two on and one out in the eighth.
