They held a three-run lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning Wednesday but Orion Kerkering faltered for the second time in three appearances and the Phillies were eventually walked off by the Twins, 5-4.
Kerkering struck out the leadoff batter in the home seventh before walking the next two and hitting a batter to load the bases. Matt Strahm relieved him and induced a run-scoring groundout, but Brandon Marsh was unable to corral Carlos Santana's deep flyball with two outs and it resulted in a two-run double rather than an inning-ending flyout. It was hit hard and far, but Marsh simply misread it and whiffed trying to catch it on the warning track.
Gregory Soto hit the first batter he faced in the ninth, advanced him to scoring position with a wild pitch and allowed the game-winning single Max Kepler.
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The Phillies (64-38) went 2-4 on their road trip to Pittsburgh and Minnesota and have lost three consecutive series dating back to the final weekend of the first half. This is the first time all season they've lost six of nine games.
Wednesday was shaping up to be a good win that would have ended a .500 trip. Aaron Nola painted corners en route to six innings of one-run ball, and after the Phillies began the day 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, Kyle Schwarber finally came through with a two-out, two-run single up the middle in the sixth to untie the game.
The Phils scored again in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Nick Castellanos, who went 3-for-4 and ended the day with his highest batting average (.242) and OPS (.711) since the opening weekend of the season.
Nola exited after throwing 98 pitches and Kerkering failed to locate. Prior to this last week, Kerkering had made 45 major-league appearances and had never allowed multiple runs. But he gave up two runs on three hits Friday in Pittsburgh, and after retiring two of the three Twins he faced on Monday, the walks haunted him Wednesday. Kerkering's ERA has risen from 1.26 to 2.39 over his last three appearances.
Philadelphia Phillies
Suddenly, bullpen looks like as big a need as right-handed outfield bat. Kerkering is going through a rough patch and Jose Alvarado was moved to a lower-leverage role after his own struggles continued out of the All-Star break. There have been times this season the Phillies could trust as many as five relievers in Alvarado, Jeff Hoffman, Strahm, Kerkering and Gregory Soto. Right now, they're down to two in Hoffman and Strahm, though Alvarado's stuff is still as overpowering as usual if he can get back to throwing strike one.
In that regard, it's better for these performances and games to be happening in the week leading up to the trade deadline than the week after it. The Phillies went scoreless in 35 of 40 innings from Friday night until their ninth-inning rally Tuesday and have lost two of their six games in the second half after bullpen implosions. It's hard to believe they'll emerge from the July 30 trade deadline without at least one meaningful addition, not as a response to a slump or even because it's required in the regular season, but because holes need to be shored up ahead of the playoffs.
Again, despite the defeat, little ground was lost because the Braves dropped the first half of their doubleheader for their fourth straight loss. The Phillies will end the day with a lead of either 8½ or 9 games. They're just 19-19 since their final day in London but the division lead hasn't budged.
Still, the Phillies realize they haven't been putting complete games together for a little over a week and will be focused on righting the ship this weekend at home. AL Central-leading Cleveland is in town Friday to begin a six-game homestand against two of the three best teams in the American League, the Guardians and Yankees.
The Phils have Cristopher Sanchez, Tyler Phillips and Ranger Suarez starting after the off day. They're set to face two of their former farmhands the first two games, right-handers Ben Lively and Carlos Carrasco.