Pete Mackanin didn’t hold back Friday afternoon when talking about Adam Morgan and what the next month and a half means for the left-handed starting pitcher.
“He has to start doing something,” Mackanin said. “1-7 with a 6 ERA is not good. I think he’s better than that but he has to start showing it. It’s cut and dry.”
Morgan finally showed “it” Friday night, but late-inning heroics from the St. Louis Cardinals cost him his first win since May 10 in a 4-3 Phillies loss in extra innings (see Instant Replay).
“One of the few bright spots about the game tonight was Morgan,” Mackanin said. “He pitched extremely well, used a ton of changeups, located extremely well.
“He looked almost masterful with his changeup.”
After a shaky, 20-pitch first inning, Morgan settled in during the middle frames, got through a fourth inning in which St. Louis hit three very hard outs, and did more than enough to win.
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Morgan, who spent a little more than a month at Lehigh Valley before returning to the rotation Sunday, allowed one run - a Randal Grichuk homer - on five hits, walking a pair while striking out three in six-plus innings of work.
“I felt good,” Morgan said. “The big thing last game was getting the ball down and I thought I did an OK job of doing that tonight. When they sent me down, it was the changeup and the two-seam that needed to be on more times than not. So I feel good about it, but there’s still more to improve.”
With the latest injuries to Aaron Nola and Zach Eflin opening up what would appear to be a permanent spot in the club’s rotation for the remainder of the season, Morgan has an opportunity to showcase himself a little more for the future.
“I don’t really want to look at it that way,” Morgan said. “I just want to take advantage of the opportunity. Once you start looking back, like, ‘Oh gosh I really gotta do good here to stay in the big leagues,’ I feel like your mind wanders. So it’s pretty simple. I’m just trying to take advantage of the opportunity and give the team a chance to win every time I go out. Go deep into games and help this bullpen out.”
Morgan’s night ended when Jedd Gyorko led off the seventh inning with a single on his 91st pitch. The streak is now 21 straight games a Phillies starter has failed to go a full seven innings.
And it was Gyorko who later ruined the Phillies and Morgan’s night.
After Hector Neris threw a 1-2-3 eighth inning, the Cardinals got to Jeanmar Gomez.
With Jhonny Peralta on first base following a fielder’s choice groundout, Gyorko entered the batter’s box for what turned into a long duel with Gomez.
After fouling off four pitches, including one foul ball with home-run distance, Gyorko unloaded on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, a splitter that landed in the seats in left field. The two-run home run tied the game at three. It was Gomez’s first blown save since July 18.
“He hung a split… it was center-cut,” Mackanin said. “He’s been so good for us the whole year… I can’t fault him.”
Grichuk’s RBI double off Frank Herrmann gave the Cardinals the lead for good in the top of the 11th inning.
“The story of the game to me was, I was thrilled about the way Morgan pitched, utilizing so many of his secondary pitches,” Mackanin said. “The other thing was that we didn’t capitalize on run-scoring opportunities. We gotta hit with men on base. That’s how you win games.”
The Phillies, who took a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning when Odubel Herrera and Freddy Galvis hit back-to-back homers off Adam Wainwright, left 10 runners on base and were 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
Herrera and Galvis had an opportunity to extend the Phillies’ lead in the bottom of the seventh. With one out and the bases loaded, St. Louis reliever Zach Duke was able to strike both out to get out of trouble.
Then in the eighth Tommy Joseph, pinch-hitting for Ryan Howard, hit what appeared to be a one-out double to move Maikel Franco to third base. But the Cardinals challenged the play at second base and - after a review of 2:30 - Joseph was ruled out.
The Phillies would have had runners on second and third with one out and a chance to extend their lead. But Carlos Ruiz then struck out to end the inning.
“From what we saw, it looked like he was safe,” Mackanin said. “It looked like his heel touched. But they have different angles in New York and I think it enters into that. I’d like to see it again because he looked safe to me.”
The Phillies threatened in their half of the ninth but Galvis - with two runners on - lined weakly to Matt Carpenter at first base to end the inning.
Then in the 10th, Herrera grounded out to first with two runners on base.
“What a tough loss,” Mackanin said as soon as he sat at the podium.
He said that because of the way Morgan pitched.
