Two former Phillies farmhands came back to haunt their former club Saturday afternoon, with Domingo Santana - traded away for Hunter Pence in 2011 - providing the crushing blow.
Santana turned on a Hector Neris 3-1 fastball and drove it to deep left field for a tie-breaking, go-ahead home run to lead off the top of the eighth inning. Milwaukee would go on to win, 6-3.
The loss is the Phillies' eighth in their last nine games.
Scooter Gennett sent the crowd at Citizens Bank Park to the exits in the ninth, pounding a 3-2 fastball from Andrew Bailey up the middle for a two-run, two-out single to put the game away and reverse the score from Friday night.
Santana and Jonathan Villar - traded for Roy Oswalt - provided a lot of the Milwaukee offense Saturday.
Villar, who reached base for the 12th straight game, went 3 for 5 with two RBI and a stolen base, helping deny the Phillies a chance to get back to .500 on the year.
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Starting pitching report
After needing just 79 pitches to get through seven innings in his last start on Monday, Hellickson threw 87 pitches in four innings. The right-hander’s command wasn’t there but he was effectively wild, working out of trouble when he needed to.
Villar welcomed Hellickson to the mound with a leadoff home run to put the Brew Crew ahead before the game’s first out was recorded. Villar then reached on an infield single in the second, loading the bases for Aaron Hill with two outs. But Hellickson got Hill to line out to center to end the threat.
Villar singled in Santana in the fourth inning and put runners at the corners with one out, prompting a visit from pitching coach Bob McClure. Villar then immediately stole second base. But Hellickson, whose team gave him a 3-1 lead to work with after two innings, worked out of the jam without further trouble, striking out Hill before inducing a groundout off the bat of Ryan Braun.
Jonathan Lucroy, who extended his hitting streak to eight games, tripled and scored on a Chris Carter sacrifice fly to open the fifth inning.
Hellickson was done after five with the score tied 3-3. He threw 108 pitches, 64 for strikes. He walked three and allowed seven hits while striking out four in a no-decision.
Bullpen report
Colton Murray pitched two hitless and scoreless innings in relief of Hellickson before giving way to Neris, who served up the go-ahead home run in the eighth.
Bailey came on in the ninth and struggled. He walked Hill to lead off the inning before allowing a one-out single to Lucroy. Both runners advanced on a Carter flyout, setting up the fateful seven-pitch at-bat with Gennett.
At the plate
Tommy Joseph tied the game at 1-1 with a deep home run to dead centerfield to kick off the second inning. Two batters later, Tyler Goeddel tripled off the wall in center. Cesar Hernandez followed that up with a home run to nearly the same spot as Joseph’s to give the Phillies a 3-1 lead early.
For Hernandez, it was his first home run since May 30, 2015, some 501 at-bats ago.
But from there, the Phillies went down relatively quiet.
Carlos Ruiz snapped an 0-for-21 skid with a single in the bottom of the second inning.
Cody Asche registered his first hit since being activated this week, a double to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning.
Maikel Franco took a Tyler Thornburg offering deep to center to start the eighth inning, but it was tracked down by Kirk Nieuwenhuis for a loud out.
Ryan Howard batted for Bailey in the ninth. With two outs and Hernandez on second, Howard grounded out to closer Jeremy Jeffress to end the game.
Three’s company
According to Elias, Friday was just the third time in the last three seasons the Phillies scored at least three runs in two straight innings of a game. Every other team in MLB has at least four such streaks since 2014.
The Phillies scored all three of their runs in one inning Saturday.
Up next
Milwaukee sends Wily Peralta (3-6, 6.51 ERA) to the mound in the series finale on Sunday to face Phillies righty Aaron Nola (4-4, 2.88), who celebrated his 23rd birthday Saturday.
The Phillies then play six games against two teams they were just swept by. The Chicago Cubs come to town Monday for a three-game series before the Phillies head down to the nation’s capital for three games against the Nationals.