But mostly just too late. The Phillies offense came alive, relatively speaking, but was tied down in the late innings, as the Padres "cruised" to a 5-4 win.
A.J. Burnett pitched five strong innings, after a Kendrickian first, but was unable to turn away the Priests in the sixth, and was ultimately tied with his seventeenth loss of the season.
Burnett, incidentally, now leads the National League in losses, for what that's worth.
In any event, Burnett started off in the Kendrick style, allowing a leadoff triple to Cory Spangenberg, an RBI single to WIll Venable and a fielder's choice RBI to Yasmani Grandal. Also, who the fuck is Cory Spangenberg?
Burnett was solid, though, for the next five innings, limiting the Catholic Church to a few scattered hits, and keeping them off the booooooooooooard...... YES! YEHAW! /HawkHarrelson. In the sixth, though... after two quick outs, he walked Jake Goebbert, and allowed a two-run homerun to Alexi Amarista. Welp; 4-3 Padres. Two quick singles later, and Burnett's night was done. Unfortunately, Cesar Jiminez allowed an RBI single to Jedd Gyorko, for an insurance run. Also, did you know Gyorko's name is pronounced Jerko? Like a dimunitive of Jerkoff or something?
The Padres would score no more, but no more would be needed, for the Phils managed only four. One run came in the second, on a solo homerun by Domonic Brown. This homerun, by the way, was called by Franzke thusly: "Swung on and blasted to deep right field, and you can forget about that one." It was, in other words, a no-doubter. Narrativists might describe this as payback for yesterday's kerfluffle over his bunt.
The Phils would get two more in the top of the fifth, when, with Cameron Rupp on first, Freddy Galvis drove one into the right field seats for a two-run home run. His third of the year, in 32 games, if anyone's counting. That would be it, though, even with two more walks in the inning, as Tony Gwynn Jr. struck out and Chase Utley lined out to end the inning.
Speaking of Gwynn, I want to talk about him for a second. Here is a guy who's been released and managed to re-sign a minor league contract not long before the end of the season, a season which saw the death of his father, no less. He's not got a lot, baseball-wise to look forward too, and certainly isn't expecting to be playing in San Diego, his hometown, and the home field of his Hall-of-Fame father, any time soon.
Welcome home, kid.
The Phillies would rally late, scoring a run in the ninth on an RBI single by Darin Ruf, but the Padres' bullpen held the line at that point, forcing the 5-4 final.
One other thing worth mentioning: Luis Garcia, who has been... bad... this year, pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout, and Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, the enigma personified, pitched a clean inning around a weak hit and a walk, with another strikeout. And was hitting 98 mph on the gun. Ninety Eight Miles Per Hour. That's actually good.
For reference:
Boom. If he can keep this up... and we've got "100 Mile Giles" and "100 Mile Lefty Dieky," that's one hell of a bullpen. I don't care who you are, facing a quartet of high-90s relievers is not gonna be fun.
In any case, the bullpen doesn't usually score runs, and certainly didn't tonight, as the Phils fell 5-4.
Fangraph of Silver Linings:
Source: FanGraphs
With the loss, the Phillies are at 69-82 (nice), and mathematically eliminated from a .500 finish. Which isn't, like, a surprise, but whatever. Game three of this four-game series is tomorrow night (or later this evening, depending on your timezone), as the Phils send Cole Hamels to the mound against the Pads' Eric Stults. Who the hell is Eric Stults? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
Postscript: A Phillies' recap posted on 9-16-14 would be remiss if it didn't mention the fine work done on twitter by noted Coal Hammels hater @FanSince09, who went way out of his way to expose and identify the homophobic assbaskets who attacked a gay couple in Center City recently. Props to you, my friend. You did good.