Blanked in the ‘Land: Guardians 6, Phillies 0

Ah, the time-honored letdown game.

After a comeback victory last night to secure the sweep in Tampa Bay, the Philadelphia Phillies (22-16) put in a sluggish day’s work against the Cleveland Guardians (23-15) to the tune of a 6-0 loss, their fourth shutout of the year.

Despite collecting a combined 12 hits and walks compared to 11 by the Guardians, they hit into a double play, had another strike ‘em out throw ‘em out double play, left nine men on base and eight in scoring position.

Aaron Nola was aided by his defense early on. After hitting Carlos Santana with a 1-2 curveball to lead off the bottom of the second, Kyle Manzardo grounded a single through the gap in right that was scooped up by Nick Castellanos whose throw beat Santana to third for a clutch assist.

Trea Turner snagged a sharply hit grounder by Gabriel Arias for a fielder’s choice to end the second inning and Max Kepler ran down a hard fly out by Daniel Schneemann to end the third.

The Guardians struck first blood against Nola with a two-out solo shot by Manzardo in the bottom of the fourth.

Control issues burned Nola in the bottom of the fifth inning. Two batters after a lead-off walk to Arias, Nola got behind Angel Martinez in a 3-1 count before leaving a changeup over the middle that Martinez sent over the wall in right field.

Nola would load the bases on three straight singles, two of which were the infield variety, and another run would score on a fielder’s choice to extend the home lead to four. He finally ended the threat and his outing with a full-count strikeout looking against Manzardo.

Kyle Schwarber extended his on base streak to 44 games with a lead-off walk in the sixth inning.

Tanner Banks pitched a scoreless bottom of the sixth before Joe Ross gave up two more runs in the seventh after a leadoff double, ground-out RBI and a solo shot by Jose Ramirez.

Ranger Suarez, scheduled to make his second start of the season, will face right-hander, Tanner Bibee, in the middle game of the series tomorrow night.