Unfabrewlous: Brewers 4, Phillies 3

Three hours and twenty-nine minutes.

That’s how long it took the Phillies to collect their 68th loss of the 2021 season.

Bryce Harper put the Phils on the board early after belting a solo home run off of Brewers’ starter Freddy Peralta in the first. It was the NL MVP frontrunner’s 29th of the season, and considering the amount of time he missed due to injuries, that’s pretty impressive.

Phils’ starter Kyle Gibson struggled, allowing a single, double, and three walks in the bottom half of the first. The Brew Crew quickly reclaimed the lead, 2-1.

Gibson continued to struggle in the second, surrendering a single to the opposing pitcher, a double to Kolten Wong, and a Christian Yelich RBI single to extend their lead 3-1.

The Phils got something brewing (haha, get it?) in the third with a Travis Jankowski leadoff single. With Gibson reaching on a fielder’s choice and an Odúbel Herrera single, Harper walked Jankowski in to bring the Phils within one.

J.T. Realmuto then grounded into a force out to score Gibson to tie the game, 3-3.

And it was still only the third inning. Ha.

Gibson calmed down a bit after this and considering the incredibly shaky start he had, it was a miracle to get nearly five innings out of him. He allowed three runs on seven hits and struck out five through 4.2 IP.

Connor Brogdon came on in relief and allowed a two-out solo home run to Eduardo Escobar in the sixth to put the Brewers ahead, 4-3.

The Brewers’ bullpen kept the Phils scoreless following the third inning, and the offense didn’t get much of anything going until the eighth when they had two runners on with two outs. But 2020 NL Rookie of the Year Devin Williams got Realmuto swinging to end the inning.

Outside of Brogdon allowing the winning blast, the Phillies’ bullpen was fairly solid. Jose Alvarado pitched a scoreless seventh with a K, and Sam Coonrod struck out the side in the eighth.

Despite Brewers’ closer Josh Hader walking two in the inning, he was able to collect his 30th save, declare a Brewers’ series victory, and put them 31 games over .500.

The Phillies, on the other hand, sit at just three games over .500. Since shutting out the Brewers 12-0 on Monday, the offense has gone quiet. They’ve scored just three runs in their last 18 innings, and tonight were 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

Next up for the Phils is a four-game series at home with the Colorado Rockies. Which, if we know our Phillies like we think we do, we know that they’ll likely play down to their competition. But we shall see.