MIAMI – You might ask yourself, in this era of interminably long baseball games, in this month of expanded rosters, with an eight-man bench, a 12-man bullpen and a manager eager to deploy every weapon he has at his disposal, how can the Phillies complete a game in a brisk two hours and 24 minutes?
It's actually easy when your offense is terrible.
Easy when you have just four base runners in nine innings.
Easy when you send just three men to the plate in six of nine innings.
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The Phillies suffered a quick, 3-1 loss to the Miami Marlins on Monday afternoon (see first take). At a time in the season when they need to be clicking up and down the roster to catch the first-place Atlanta Braves, the Phils are 0-3 and have scored just three runs in September.
The only thing keeping the Phillies alive in the NL East race is the Braves' inability to run away with it. They lost to Boston on Monday so the Phils remain four games back in the division. But the schedule is dwindling. There have just 25 games to play and the Phils need to string together some wins to ensure that those seven games with Atlanta over the final 11 days of the season mean something.
"I don't think we're running out of time," said Gabe Kapler, Phillies manager and purveyor of positivity. "I don't believe that. I think we have plenty of time to put together a really strong run. We have plenty of time to get hot. If we get hot, we can win games in bunches. If we get hot, and I believe that we can and will, we will rattle off enough wins to be right where we need to be when we start that series with Atlanta.
"It's a balance. We understand every game is important. We put our guys in the best position to win. We look to win every single game. We also don't panic. We also stay composed. We also keep our minds about us. We have a ton of confidence, right? It's not the last day of the season. Twenty-five games is a lot of games. If we get rolling in that time period, there's nothing that can stop us."
A lack of offense stopped the Phillies on Monday. The Phils had scored 11 runs in nine innings the last two times (July 15, Aug. 4) they'd faced Marlins starter Jose Urena, but this time the slender right-hander had all the answers. He allowed a solo homer to Asdrubal Cabrera in the second inning and only three other hits, all singles, over his seven innings.
Vince Velasquez allowed four hits and three runs in the bottom of the second inning and the early lead was gone, never to be seen again. Odubel Herrera and Carlos Santana hit a couple of balls hard, but the Marlins played good defense, particularly right fielder Rafael Ortega. He stole extra bases from Santana in the sixth and saved a run.
Velasquez pitched just five innings as Kapler, looking for offense, went to pinch-hitter Pedro Florimon to open the sixth. Florimon struck out looking.
The trip to Miami puts the Phils face-to-face with the high point of their season. They swept the Marlins at home Aug. 2-5 to rise to 15 games above .500 and 1 ½ up on Atlanta.
Since then, the Phils are 9-17. They have not won a series and have won back-to-back games just twice. The Phils' offense has averaged just 3.5 runs per game over that span and that ranks 27th in the majors. Kapler has shuffled his lineup like a deck of cards, trying to find the best spots for his players to succeed, but nothing has clicked consistently.
"I just don't think the same lineup every day leads to good results," Kapler said. "In a vacuum, at least. Like, sure, if you have guys who you run out there every single day in the same spots and they feel good and everybody produces. Sure. You run them back out there. But, you know, I think in this particular case, it makes sense to give our guys the best chance to succeed."
Rhys Hoskins did not start on Monday because he was 0 for 8 with six strikeouts in his career against Urena. Hoskins flied out to the wall in left as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning. He might not get another day off the rest of the way and the Phils need him to go on a tear. They could also use something from Cesar Hernandez, who is hitting .189 the last 31 games.
As for Maikel Franco, he has sore right wrist and is day to day (see story).
Jake Arrieta looks to stop the losing streak Tuesday night.
