Another holiday ruined: Padres 11, Phillies 1

Let’s start things off by watching Bill Pullman’s famous speech from the movie Independence Day:

That was inspirational. Makes you feel all fired up, right? Well, today’s Phillies game was pretty much the opposite of that. Vince Velasquez and Manny Machado teamed up to put the Phillies in an early hole, and the offense did little besides hit into double plays. The result was an 11-1 loss to the Padres.

If anyone chose to attend today’s game, I can understand. There are worse places to spend Independence Day than at the old ballpark, even if the team has not exactly put their best foot forward on holidays this year.

But I also understand if you began to regret that decision soon after the game began. Velasquez has had some success against the Padres in the past, but thanks to two Machado home runs in the first three innings, the team found itself facing a 5-0 deficit.

To his credit, Velasquez steadied after that, and actually lasted six innings. Had the offense shown any signs of life, he might have gotten credit for keeping them in the game. Instead, just about every time the Phillies got a runner aboard, that runner was shortly erased via double play.

In terms of highlights for the Phillies, there wasn’t much besides a solo home run by J.T. Realmuto, and this fantastic play by Ronald Torreyes:

There was also this play which has sparked a bit of debate regarding rules interpretation. I’ll let you all voice your opinion in the comments:

The Phillies were still within four runs entering the ninth, but between the rain, Hector Neris, and the home plate umpire, anyone who tried to stick it out was likely sorry they did. Neris was so bad that eventually backup catcher Andrew Knapp was called upon to record the final out.

The good news is, the Phillies will have to wait almost two months to ruin another holiday. And unless the Phillies start playing a lot better, there’s a good chance that they’ll be out of playoff contention by the time Labor Day rolls around.