Not Even Close: Pirates 3, Phillies 2

The Phillies were bad again, guys. So I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

David Buchanan had a rough first inning, giving up two runs on a home run from Andrew McCutchen. According to Scott Franzke, the Phillies collective first inning ERA is 5.28. That is *terrible*. That is really, really, really bad. The Pirates' third run came just an inning later, after pitcher Edinson Volquez brought Jordy Mercer home with a groundout. Three runs is not an unreasonable number of runs for a fifth starter to give up, especially over six innings. Plus, the bullpen did its job. Ken Giles continued to hammer the strike zone, throwing 14 pitches over four outs, 10 of which were strikes. His ERA is now 0.87. And Bastardo got the final two outs in fine fashion.

The only real chance the Phillies had to score against Edinson Volquez was in the first inning. He looked like the wild Volquez that I remember, walking Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley back-to-back with one out in the inning. A forceout and a flyout ended that scoring chance cold. Volquez would walk two more in his seven innings, but they didn't amount to anything. The Phillies' two runs came via the home run. Both led off innings -- Cody Asche's in the fourth, and Marlon Byrd's in the ninth. Byrd's homer gave the illusion that the Phillies just needed a good rally to get back in it, but there was no chance that was happening. At least they had more hits than yesterday. Five. Two of which were homers.

Since their 5-game winning streak, the Phillies are 3-12.

Sigh.

OK, that's a little dark. Here's a video of dogs and babies being best friends. Hopefully that lightens the mood.