Phillies Waste Another Strong Outing by Eickhoff in Loss to Mets
The Phillies began tonight’s home game against the New York Mets in the best way possible. In the bottom of the first, the MLB’s most exciting first-inning club plated 2 runs against all-star pitcher Jacob DeGrom. That was all the run support that Phillies’ starter Jerad Eickhoff would be given in his second start of the year. In Mr. Consistent’s first start of the season againt Cincinnati, the offense was shutout. A lack of run support is not unfamiliar to Jerad, who sported an 11-14 record last season despite posting a team-best 3.65 ERA.
The contest became a pitcher’s duel until the 4th inning, when notorious Phillie-killer (career .327 batting average, 17 home runs, and 47 runs batted in versus the club) Jay Bruce went deep to right center field. His first home run of the season made the score 2-1, with the good guys still on top.
Philadelphia had a grand total of one hit from the time Bruce went yard in the 4th inning until Neil Walker’s sacrifice fly tied the game up in the 7th. Eickhoff’s final line for the night was 3 hits, 2 earned runs, 4 walks, and 7 strikeouts in 7 innings of work. He struggled with control early, but managed to put together his second straight impressive outing of this young season.
Right-hander Edubray Ramos entered the game for the 8th inning and walked one batter while retiring two more. Ramos walked Mets shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera. The at-bat began with a 96-mph fastball over Cabrera’s head. This signal was considered retaliation for Asdrubal’s celebration after he hit a walk-off home run off Ramos in September 2016. The Met started for the mound, looking to begin a brawl, before Phillies catcher Cameron Rupp stopped the impending disaster. Phillies manager Pete Mackanin was ejected during the altercation after both teams were warned.
Left-handed pitcher Joely Rodriguez went in for Ramos to face left-handed batter Jay Bruce. With Cabrera on first base and the game tied, Bruce hit his second home run of the game to right field. The Mets took a lead that they would never relinquish.
In the bottom of the 9th inning, Brock Stassi’s first career hit, a home run to right-center field, gave fans hope that the team would be able to pull off some more magic–the initial miracle being Cesar Hernandez’s walk-off hit on Sunday night. However, the rally effort came up short, and the Phillies suffered their 4th loss of the season and dropped under .500 to 3-4.
Jerad Eickhoff’s successful outing was easily the most positive takeaway from tonight’s game, but he will need much more run support to actually begin winning games as the season progresses.
Photo by Bryan Green (via Flickr)
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Categorized:Phillies