Losing With House Money: Pirates 4, Phillies 1

This was seen as a “house money” game. The Phillies had already won the series against the Pittsburgh Pirates (not to mention six games in a row), and thanks to Monday’s scheduled double header, they needed to use a spot starter. Unfortunately, the Phillies play largely reflected that “house money” mentality as they showed little life in a 4-1 loss.

The aforementioned spot starter was Drew Anderson who was making his first major league start. The handsome rookie was passable, allowing four runs in five innings. He didn’t appear to be over-matched at the major league level as all of the runs he allowed might have been partially due to his inexperience.

In the second, one run scored in part due to Anderson committing a throwing error. But the real damage was done with two outs in the fourth when he surrendered a two-run double to opposing pitcher Nick Kingham. Kingham then went on to score a run on an RBI single by Josh Bell.

Four runs certainly isn’t an insurmountable total, but the Phillies’ offense looked largely disinterested. Nick Williams’ solo home run was the only blemish against Kingham in his six innings of work.

Aside from that, the only threat they mustered was in the sixth when they got their first two runners aboard. But a Carlos Santana foul out, a Williams strikeout, and a Scott Kingery strikeout quickly put an end to that. Three Pirates relievers combined to hold the Phillies without a hit over the final three innings.

While it would be great if the Phillies could win every game, every so often, a team is going to be faced with a game that is not a “must win,” and they aren’t going to win it. The good news is that with the Mets and Marlins ahead on the schedule, the Phillies should have plenty of good opportunities for more wins in the near future.