Nicked off: Padres 6, Phillies 4

Comeback effort falls short in delayed July opener

In the first leg of Wednesday’s doubleheader, the Philadelphia Phillies (50-36) failed to climb out of a large hole dug by the San Diego Padres (46-39) en route to a 6-4 loss.

Mick Abel’s command of the strike zone was absent as he allowed five walks to the 12 batters he faced, four of which came along with a single and a bases-clearing double in the second inning.

Max Lazar came on to get the final out of the second inning and pitched a scoreless third before conceding two pairs of walks and singles in the fourth.

Our old friend, Nick Pivetta, kept the offense off balance during his six innings of work, though they had a man reach base via a single with one or fewer outs in each of the first five innings and couldn’t capitalize. It didn’t help that Trea Turner was doubled off first and later grounded into a double play.

Kyle Schwarber would get the Phils on the board in the sixth inning with a lead-off home run off Pivetta for his 26th homer of the year.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, a lead-off double by JT Realmuto, a triple by Edmundo Sosa and a wild pitch by Padres’ reliever, Bryan Hoeing, would plate two more runs and halve the deficit.

It looked for moment like a bottom of the ninth rally was in the cards, with singles by Realmuto, Brandon Marsh and Turner scoring another run before Schwarber struck out to end it.

Turner recorded his 300th career stolen base in that would-be rally.

The second game of the doubleheader starts at 6:15pm as Cristopher Sanchez goes up against Dylan Cease.