Embarrassing: Orioles 11, Phillies 4

This game began with much anticipation, as it marked the MLB debut of top prospect Alec Bohm. He’d bat sixth in the order in his first start, playing third base as Jean Segura moves to second base.

The game began quietly with Jake Arrieta looking sharp once again, and then in the bottom of the second inning, in his first major league at bat, Bohm welcomed himself to the big leagues. A scorching double down the left field line with an exit velo of 103 mph gave the rook his first hit, and some much needed positivity with this team.

After a scoreless fourth inning, the Phillies’ stars got them on the board as they typically have this season. Bryce Harper smoked a double into the left-center field gap, and then J.T Realmuto hammered a two run shot into the right-center field stands. It’s J.T’s sixth dinger of the season as he continues to make Matt Klentak sweat in how much money he’s going to demand this offseason. Just pay the man, Matt, this truly isn’t that difficult.

It looked like maybe we’d be on our way to a solid victory to avoid the sweep ... and then the top of the fifth inning happened. Arrieta who had looked strong up to this point began to struggle locating his sinker, and it was all downhill from there. After Segura made a fantastic play at second to get Arrieta to two outs in the fifth, Anthony Santander hit a three-run double and just like that the Orioles lead 4-2. Arrieta’s final line would look like this:

4 ²⁄₃ IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO

The Orioles tacked on seven more runs, and that would be it. A three game sweep at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles, a team you probably only knew three players max of before this series began. It started with an embarrassing loss that should have been a win multiple times, and two disheartening efforts to finish it out. J.T would hit another home run, driving in all four runs the Phillies would score.

There’s still a good chunk of the season to go, but if the Phillies have any chance of making the playoffs, things are going to need to turn around in a hurry. Up next, the New York Mets who just lost two out of three to the Washington Nationals. If they’re going to right the ship, it has to start vs. New York.