One and done: Cardinals 6, Phillies 1

The Phillies’ pitching staff dominated the first two games of the series against the St. Louis Cardinals, holding them to a grand total of zero runs. Unfortunately, in the last two games of the series, the Cardinals bats woke up while the Phillies’ offense mostly went quiet. In the series finale on Monday night, the Phillies scored just a single run in losing by a 6-1 score.

Two batters in, things were looking good for the Phillies.

Unfortunately, that was it as far as scoring went for the Phillies. Actually, that was it as far as extra base hits went for them as well. Alec Bohm tried to stretch a single into a double in the second inning, but he was thrown out, and may have broken his hand on the play. It remains to be seen if he’ll trust what the X-rays show, or if he’ll do his own research regarding whether or not there’s a break.

For the rest of the game, the Phillies tallied just six more singles and no walks. And two of those singles were erased via double play.

In the early going, it looked like Aaron Nola might make that one-run lead hold up. The only base runner he allowed through four innings came via bunt single. But in the fifth, he had one of those 2021-style innings where the Cardinals bunched a few hits together and took a 3-1 lead.

A two-run deficit shouldn’t be too much to overcome, but two batters into the seventh, Corey Dickerson essentially ended the competitive portion of the game.

A split on the road against a good team like the Cardinals seems like an acceptable outcome on paper. But after winning the first two games, it feels like a disappointment. With a couple of tough road stops left on this trip - one of which was made tougher due to personal choices by some of the players - the Phillies might soon wish they had found a way to win one of these last two.