The Phillies hardly ever lose when their thumper of a leadoff man begins a game with a longball, but not even Kyle Schwarber's multi-homer effort was enough Sunday to snap a string of series losses.
The Phils blew an early three-run lead and fell to the Cleveland Guardians, 4-3. It's their fourth consecutive series loss and they've dropped eight of 12 games. It hasn't made any impact in the NL East standings as the Braves continue to lose games and key players, but there's no question this has been the Phillies' coldest stretch of the season.
They're 65-40 ahead of a three-game home series against the Yankees.
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“We’ve got to straighten some things out for sure,” manager Rob Thomson said. “It seems like the days we hit, we don’t pitch. When we pitch, we don’t hit. You’ve got to play clean games on all three sides of the ball and get back to winning series, get back to winning the first game of a series, which is critical.”
Jose Alvarado took the loss Sunday, allowing a missile to right field by Steven Kwan for a game-winning solo home run in the top of the seventh. The Phillies have tried to use Alvarado in lower-leverage situations of late because of his struggles the last six weeks, and he had retired eight of nine hitters across three outings when Kwan came to the plate with two outs.
Alvarado is 1-5 with a 4.25 ERA on the season and has been charged with 12 runs in his last 15 innings. The homer was the first he allowed to a left-handed hitter since Yordan Alvarez in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series.
The Guardians called up a left-hander to face the Phillies, as teams are prone to do against a lineup featuring Bryce Harper and Schwarber, and it took the Phils' leadoff man all of three pitches to welcome debuting Joey Cantillo to the big leagues.
Philadelphia Phillies
Schwarber, on Kyle Schwarber beach towel giveaway day, crushed a center-cut 91 mph fastball over the wall in left-center for a leadoff home run, then hit a two-run shot off Cantillo two innings later on a slider that caught too much plate. The Phillies entered the day 18-4 when he goes deep to lead off a game.
Schwarber went 10 games without a home run — a drought by his standards — from the Oakland series through Saturday night but has hit three in less than 24 hours. He's up to 22 homers on the season and on pace for 37. He hit 46 and 47 in his first two regular seasons as a Phillie but has been more productive this year than either of those two because he's made contact more consistently. Schwarber ended the weekend hitting .248 with a .372 on-base percentage after hitting .207 with a .333 OBP his first two seasons with the Phils.
The lineup was silent after the third inning. Offensive consistency has been an issue since the All-Star break.
“Just hasn’t been good, obviously myself, haven’t been good at all,” Harper said. “Just got to get better, turn the page and try to have a better series against the Yankees.”
The face of the franchise was asked his thoughts on the Phillies’ acquisitions this weekend of outfielder Austin Hays and reliever Carlos Estévez.
“Estevez, he’s been one of the best closers in baseball this season so that’ll be good for us,” Harper said. “Austin Hays coming from a winning organization with the Orioles, he hits lefties really well and has a chance to play every day here. Not really sure if Dave (Dombrowski) is done or not, so we’ll see.”
And what if that was it ahead of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline? Do the Phillies have enough to win it all?
“Superstars got to show up,” Harper said when asked that question directly.
Kolby Allard, in his first start with the Phillies in place of the injured Ranger Suarez, was unable to maintain the three-run lead. He located well to begin his afternoon with three scoreless innings and a helping of soft contact but the middle of the Guardians' order got to him in the top of the fourth. Superstar Jose Ramirez singled, as did David Fry to set up a three-run home run from hulking right-handed-hitting outfielder Jhonkensy Noel.
Allard retired the next three hitters he faced but his afternoon ended after four innings. He is in the Phillies' rotation temporarily as they await the return of Suarez, who was placed on the 15-day IL Saturday with lower back spasms. The Phillies hope to have Suarez for their series in Arizona Aug. 8-11 and won't have Taijuan Walker back by then, so Allard could make two more starts. He had been in rhythm at Triple A with a 2.84 ERA over his last eight starts, but the level of competition is obviously much different. Allard throws his fastball in the upper-80s and low-90s so he needs to rely on pinpoint command and effective use of his secondary pitches.
Next up for the Phillies are the Yankees, who are struggling far worse than they are. The Yankees opened the season 50-22 but had lost 23 of 34 entering Sunday night. The Phillies have Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sanchez going in the series.
“Just got to get back to keeping it simple, using the field and staying on pitches,” Thomson said. “I think at times guys try to do too much and get away from the other side of the field. You’ve got to stay on it, that’s what good hitters do.”