‘A kick in the teeth.’ — Twins 6, Phillies 2

They say that, for every up, there comes a down — and this game was certainly of the latter variety.

The Phillies ran with a bit of a new lineup in this one, as JT Realmuto required a day of rest. He was replaced by backup catcher Andrew Knapp, who bat 7th.

Jake Arrieta started on the bump for the Phils, and worked his way through a quick and clean 1st with no sign of struggle.

In a similar vein, even after a leadoff double from Andrew McCutchen, the Phillies were kept quiet in the first inning, as well.

Then, after a quiet 2nd from both teams, the Twins struck first. Byron Buxton singled to left and proceeded to steal 2nd with blazing speed. He was then driven in on a wild pitch, followed shortly by a home run from Max Kepler, his second in as many games against the Phils.

Former-Phillie, Willians Astudillo, joined in on the fun as well, shooting a big fly to left, making it 3-0 in Minnesota’s favor.

The Phillies managed to stifle the Twins offense in the 4th, and finally put themselves on the board thanks to Rhys Hoskins, who scorched a solo shot to left center — but the Phils still trailed 3-1.

The score would remain the same until the bottom of the 6th inning, where a Jean Segura single would lead into a Bryce Harper double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Odubel Herrera would drive one more in with a sacrifice fly, but that would be the extent of the damage dealt on Philly’s end.

Jake Arrieta finished out the top of the 7th inning, and was pinch hit for by Nick Williams.

Arrieta was very effective overall, but struggled with the long ball for the entirety of his start. His final line:

7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 2 HR.

Pat Neshek tossed another scoreless inning today in relief of Arrieta. Neshek continues to be as potent as ever, with 4.2 scoreless frames thus far in the season.

3-2 was looking to be the final score of this one, that is until the top of the 9th when Seranthony Dominguez stepped on the mound. His spots were off, and, after walking and hitting batters, he gave up a 3-run shot to right, the Phillies’ killing blow, rounding this one off at 6-2.

This was, by far, the worst performance we’ve seen out of this Philadelphia offense thus far. Of the many chances to convert, few were capitalized upon, which is rare in this team’s case. In fact, prior to tonight, the Phils had yet to score fewer than 5 runs in a single game.

Some notable offensive lines:

Bryce Harper: 2-for-4, 2B, 2 SO

Rhys Hoskins: 1-for-2, HR, 2 BB

Cesar Hernandez: 0-for-4, 5 LOB

This, obviously, is not the kind of final score we will see out of this Phillies lineup too often, and therefore should not worry most. However, in a stacked NL East, every win counts.

Oh well, you can’t win them all. Besides, there’s another game coming tomorrow!