Final Score: Yankees 8, Phillies 1
NEW YORK — The Phillies did not put an end to their ugly start to the season.
It somehow got worse.
They dropped their fourth straight game 8-1 to the New York Yankees on Monday night in the Bronx. Four games is still way too early to be in panic mode, but the frustration is there and nothing was more evident of that when around 400 Phillies fans seated in left field let out an “E-A-G-L-E-S” chant with the Phillies down by seven in the top of the sixth.
It only took four games and the Phillies haven’t even played a single game at home.
“Everybody’s frustrated, but they keep working. They keep preparing,” Rob Thomson said after the game. “It’s a resilient group. It’s the same group as last year for the most part, so I expect them to come out here tomorrow and prepare and come out and compete.”
They played from behind almost immediately again. Taijuan Walker finished the first inning with three walks, two runs across and his pitch count over 30, but he rebounded and gave up only two hits for the remainder of his outing.
That treacherous bottom half of the first started when Yankees leadoff man DJ LeMahieu hit a scorcher straight up the middle. It was going to be tough for Brandon Marsh to record an out, but he at least had to get in front of the ball. He tried to make an underhanded snare and failed. The ball traveled all the way to the center field wall where Nick Castellanos was there to prevent LeMahieu from reaching home. The play was originally scored a single and a two-base error, but was later changed to a triple.
“Trying to be aggressive and realize that I’m not going to get there and just try to trust myself with the short hop and it went under my glove,” Marsh said. “It’s unacceptable. Things like that can’t happen, especially against teams like this.”
But it wasn’t as if Marsh had a terrible day at the plate. He had two hits, including a double against the left hander Nestor Cortes in the fifth inning. It came at a time when the Phillies were down by just two with the lineup turning over a second time against the Yankees starter.
Two batters later, J.T. Realmuto singled to right field. A quick throw from the right fielder Franchy Cordero kept Marsh from scoring, but he took a big turn around third and the pitcher Cortes caught Marsh and tagged him out at third for the final out.
Speaking of bad days, Thomson called on Yunior Marte to pitch to the middle of the Yankees order in a key spot. Walker was taken out after 87 pitches and a runner on first.
Anthony Rizzo was his first hitter. As we learned with Marte in his first outing on Opening Day in Texas, the stuff is there, but the execution is not. He threw a 2-1 fastball in the middle of the plate and crushed it into right field for a two-run home run that made it 5-1.
Marte faced seven batters and recorded only one out. With Matt Strahm starting tomorrow and the bullpen shouldering a heavy workload to begin the year, Andrew Vasquez pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings of mop-up duty.
Shibe Vintage Sports Notes
- Thomson said after the game that the Phillies are not sure how Josh Harrison hurt his right ankle. He came in today and it was sore with some swelling. He is day-to-day and the Phillies will check to see how he feels tomorrow.
- The Phillies have started the season 0-4 for the first time since 2016. The silver lining here is that the 2016 Phillies finally cracked the win column in their fifth attempt.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Tuesday, April 4 vs. New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium
- 7:05 p.m. ET
- TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia+; TBS
- Radio: Sportsradio 94 WIP
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