Well, this was ugly. The Phillies fell behind by 11 runs early in Friday night's game. They gave up a half-bushel of home runs and ended up losing 17-7 to the Washington Nationals (see first take).
As ugly as the Phillies' loss was, with Nick Pivetta giving up three home runs and failing to get out of the second inning, and Hector Neris surrendering three home runs in a tough-to-watch ninth inning, the moment begs for a little perspective.
The Phillies on Saturday will reach the end of a June schedule that matched them against some of the best teams in baseball, a month that many figured would break the club and leave it by the wayside entering July. Instead, the Phillies are 12-14 in the month with a chance to finish a game under .500. Not great. But not bad.
The Phillies will also reach the mathematical halfway point of the season on Saturday when they play the Nationals in Game 81. The Phils take a 43-37 record into that game and they stand just 2½ games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East standings.
Coming out of spring training, a .500 season would have been real progress for a team that went 66-96 last year. So being six games over .500 and in the thick of contention in the division as the halfway point in the season arrives …
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That's progress – even if what happened on the field Friday night made you want to hold your nose.
"We've played some really good teams this month," team leader Rhys Hoskins said. "If we can kind of survive this month – obviously our goal was to excel and win as many games as we can, but with the good teams, the good pitching that we've seen especially this last week at home, I think we're feeling pretty good going into July. Obviously, we'll try to finish the month strong tomorrow but I like where we're at."
There were some major reasons for concern in June. The bullpen was one. The Phils will soon get Pat Neshek back. He should help. And a July trade to augment the ‘pen is possible. The starting rotation was also a bit of a concern. Jake Arrieta had an ERA of 6.66 in the month. Pivetta, tagged for seven runs in 1 2/3 innings Friday night, had an ERA of 7.71 in the month.
Performances like these made it reasonable to ask manager Gabe Kapler if he believed the team needed to add to its rotation during the July trade season. The always-positive rookie skipper basically said no.
"I see us as having one of the better rotations in baseball right now," he said. "The numbers suggest it's one of the better rotations in baseball. Now, it's still developing. Nick and Vince (Velasquez) and Zach Eflin, these guys are still developing and they're going to take some bumps and bruises along the way.
"We have all the talent we need in our rotation right now."
Phillies starters entered Friday night's game ranked eighth in the majors with a 3.71 ERA. It rose to 3.84 after a difficult night in which Pivetta could not locate his pitches against a thunderous Washington lineup that, despite being shut out seven times in June, is waking up. After hitting just 12 homers run in 23 games this month, the Nats hit seven home runs in this game.
"Obviously, Nick didn't come out with his best stuff or his best command tonight," Kapler said. "That lineup is really good and even though they haven't been performing perfectly over the last few weeks, it's a giant of a lineup. They're going to make you pay for mistakes."
The Phillies hit three home runs on the night, including one of the best of the season by Hoskins, who has homered three games in a row, giving him eight since coming off the disabled list 19 games ago.
Hoskins hit a two-run homer against Washington starter Erick Fedde on the 14th pitch of an at-bat in the fifth inning. He hit a full-count splitter on a line over the wall in center. Before the homer, he fouled off seven straight pitches.
"One of the better at-bats I've ever seen," Kapler said.
Hoskins was winded after the at-bat.
"It was draining," he said. "More mentally than anything because I needed to stay stubborn to the approach I was trying to work.
"It's funny, maybe you're a little tired so you're trying to do less and you hit the ball harder. That's kind of how it seems to work."
On a night bereft of Phillies' highlights, Hoskins' homer stood alone.
The halfway point of the season arrives Saturday.
