Phillies falter in series finale vs Oakland

After two joyful games to start the season with plenty of hits, runs, and dingers the Phillies’ offense was non-existent in the series finale. The pitching was good enough to win holding Oakland to four runs while giving up nine hits. Zach Eflin started the game on the bump and was effective through four innings, allowing only two hits and striking out three.

The star-studded Phillies lineup could not seem to get anything going against A’s starter Daulton Jefferies. It took the 26-year-old righty only 48 pitches to carve through the Phillies in five scoreless innings.

Bailey Falter was the first arm out of the bullpen for the Phillies who was unable to keep the shutout intact as he gave up the first run of the game in the top of the sixth on an RBI single by Seth Brown. Then in the seventh, Billy McKinney made it 2-0 after hitting a solo homer off of Falter.

It is a little concerning that Falter was unable to have success against two lefties in the A’s lineup, but even last season he had more success against righties than lefties. Those reverse splits will be something to keep an eye on throughout the year.

Fast forward to the top of the ninth, when rookie Damon Jones hit a batter followed by giving up a double and single to make the game 4-0. At that point, the game was all but over with how bad the Phillies were swinging it today.

Alas, we had some excitement in the bottom of the ninth when Jean Segura led off the inning by launching a solo home run out to right-center field.

But, that would be all of the offensive elation for this game. The Phillies lose 4-1 and only collect three hits all day.

I do not know if it was the cold weather or what but the Phillies’ offense made every one of these A’s pitchers look like Cy Young. We all came for the dingers and left with weak contact and sad faces.

Hopefully, we can chalk this game up as an anomaly and we will not see many three-hit games from the Phillies this year. Let’s shake this one off and get ready for a big early-season series against the New York Mets with first-pitch scheduled for 6:45 tomorrow at CBP.