Turns out, one run wasn’t good enough: Astros 2, Phillies 1

The scoring drought ended, but it didn’t matter

The Phillies offense finally managed to score a run in the eighth inning to end their 26-inning scoreless drought, but it still wasn’t enough as the Astros immediately retook the lead in the bottom half of the inning and held on for a 2-1 win and series sweep. Cristopher Sánchez suffered the same fate as Ranger Suárez and Zack Wheeler in this series, as he turned in a brilliant start that went to waste due to the anemic Phillies bats.

Wasted effort

Sánchez struck out 11 Astros hitters, one off from his career high, across 6+ innings of work. His only blemish came in the second inning when he allowed a one-out, two-strike single up the middle to Yainer Diaz after a hit by pitch to Cam Smith put a runner in scoring position.

But Sánchez quickly recovered to pick up his second and third strikeouts of the inning to end the threat right there. He allowed only two further hits before the seventh, both singles, as he proceeded to cruise through the next four innings. Sánchez had both his changeup and his slider working, as he registered 17 combined whiffs on 56 pitches. He struck out the side in the sixth and then went back out for the seventh at 94 pitches.

But he would face only one batter, as he allowed a double to Christian Walker before being removed for Max Lazar. To Lazar’s credit, he stranded that runner on third by inducing a groundout, a lineout, and a flyout to end the inning. Lazar’s effort closed the book on Sánchez who officially finished 6 innings with one run allowed on five hits, no walks, and 11 punchouts on 99 pitches.

A run? In this economy?

The Phillies bats were helpless against Houston’s Hunter Brown through the first seven innings. Brown allowed only three hits, all singles, while walking none and striking out nine on 95 pitches. A Phillies runner did not reach second base against Brown, as each single was quickly erased.

But something strange happened in the eighth. With Brown out of the game, left-hander Bryan King came on to face the bottom of the Phillies order. Otto Kemp struck out to start, but then Bryson Stott walked to put just the fourth baserunner of the day for the Phillies on first base. But Rafael Marchán followed with a grinding nine-pitch at-bat where he battled after falling behind 0-2 to work the count full. On that ninth pitch, Marchán singled to right field and Stott, who was running on the pitch, advanced to third with one out. It was the Phillies best chance of the day to finally end their scoreless streak at 26 innings.

And that’s exactly what they did, as Brandon Marsh lifted a fly ball to deep right field after falling behind 0-2 to the lefty King that allowed Stott to score and finally put the Phillies on the board and tie the game.

That would be all they would get out of that inning however, as Trea Turner registered the Phillies 11th strikeout of the day, this time against Bryan Abreu, to send the game tied into the bottom of the eighth.

Fun while it lasted

That tie wouldn’t last long, as Orion Kerkering entered the game and allowed the go-ahead run on a two-out, two-strike single to Smith just over the leaping Turner at shortstop after allowing another single and a hit by pitch earlier in the inning. It appeared Max Kepler in left field had an opportunity to throw out the slow running Isaac Parades at home, but he couldn’t come up clean with the ball and never got a throw off.

The Phillies didn’t offer much resistance in the ninth, as Abreu made quick work of Kyle Schwarber, Alec Bohm, and Nick Castellanos. The righty picked up where he left off in the eighth and struck out the side, punching out all four Phillies hitters he faced. That brought the final tally of the day to 14 strikeouts by Phillies hitters.

Tomorrow’s matchup

The Phillies will once again look to score some runs as they head to Atlanta to take on the Braves at 7:15 pm. Mick Abel (2-1, 3.47) will make the start for the Phillies, while the Braves have not yet announced a starter as of this writing.