Phillies FALL FLAT in Kansas City

The Phillies took to the road to finish the first half of the season, and they started the trip on a sour note, losing two of three to the Royals. The rubber match saw Cristopher Sanchez have his worst start of the year. Hear from Don Mattingly and Sanchez after the finale. #RIngTheBell #PhiladelphiaPhillies #MLBonX

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:24

What's going on, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome into another episode of the 610 Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Holohan. We're going to be getting his head here soon for Phillies and Reds coming up in just a couple hours here on this Tuesday afternoon or early evening, depending upon when you're listening to this. We're going to be talking first, though, before we get into said Red Series, as the Phillies surprisingly lose two of three on the road to the Kansas City Royals. The Kansas City Royals, who were among one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball heading into that series. I mean, surprisingly enough, now if I told you that they're 17 games under 500, you'd say, wow. They are only eight and a half games out. Now that's a lot of games, but you would think 17 games under, you'd be looking at around uh a double digit number there and not eight and a half. Uh obviously the Royals season has gone sideways compared to where everyone had it. I mean, I think I had the Royals finishing, to be honest with you, I'm it's gonna sound ridiculous now, but quite literally, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, I had them finishing second in that division. The Tigers finishing first, and the Tigers who are forty and fifty right now, and the Royals 37 and 54. The American League Central, one of the wackiest divisions you will ever find, one of the most fascinating divisions in all of Major League Baseball, and it would definitely uh be interesting, you know, when we hit this labor stoppage, and hopefully we come out of the labor stoppage pretty quickly, and hopefully with some sort of a resolution, hopefully with some sort of maybe not a hard cap, maybe not to the point to where all you're looking at is well teams have to agree to a floor, or if they do agree to a floor, it makes it even more interesting for an AL Central, which, you know, I mean, the payroll in the AL Central compared to the Dodgers is it's night and day. I mean, it's unbelievable, you know, considering the differences, the vast differences within those two payrolls. Now, how does this obviously how does this series loss to the Royals make Phillies fans, or how should Phillies fans feel? And to be honest with you, I mean, there are a lot of people who are pretty darn upset with with the way that happened. I get that. I I mean I can agree. You know, it's disappointing when you lose two of three to a team that you certainly should not lose two of three to. It's even more disappointing than when you have an opportunity to win the series with your ace on the mound. Uh, you can't do it. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, I mean, when you look at the division, though, the Braves did lose to the Mets, so you know, you got a little help from there from your neighbors to the north. Uh, but when you all things considered, I mean, the Phillies had an opportunity to obviously move. You know, they could be 51 and 40 right now against the Braves, and be two and a half, potentially two and a half games back, and that wasn't the case. Now, the weekend got off to a good start. It was we weird three-game series. I mean, obviously with the bullpen usage, it was nice to have a day off on Friday, but when do you ever see a series start on a Saturday if it's not a two-game series? And now with the fact that since twenty twenty three and you have a season in which you play every single team at least once, very rarely do you ever get a two-game series. You'll still see your four-game series, obviously. Of course, you know, the traditional three, but you never see two anymore. You know, it's kind of weird. That's just gone completely by the wayside. But regardless, it's a weird way to kind of start it off, but it's on the 4th of July, and obviously, you know, you want to be playing on the fourth, and the Phillies, they got the win. Jesus Lazardo was masterful, went six innings, gave up a run on four hits with nine strikeouts. Phillies get three outs without needing Johan Duran to come into the game and and you know, get I mean, not that he would have needed to come in for a save situation, but you didn't need him to shut the door. J.T. Romuto Homered, Alec Boehm Homered, Gabriel Rinconis Jr. Homered, and it was a Ho-Hums, you know, win on Saturday. And you kind of thought, well, maybe that could be the this series. It could just be a ho-hum, you know, nothing really goes on. The following day, then Aaronola takes the mound, and Aaronola probably pitched maybe the second best game of the year, aside from the Rockies game, goes seven innings, gave up three runs on seven hits, no walks, seven strike strikeouts, but the offense let them down. They could only put together two runs on only five hits and were over four with runners in scoring position. Now, the game was three to two heading into the bottom of the eighth. And unfortunately, the Phillies' bullpen imploded. I mean, absolutely imploded. You know, Nola gave up two runs in the first, only gave up one run after that in the fifth, hadn't given anything up, you know, for in the sixth and the seventh. So when you go to the eighth, you know, they turn to Seth Johnson and Kyle Backus. And to be brutally honest with you, those are two names that you should never see come into a game from the seventh inning on. You want to bring them in in the sixth, fine. Seth Johnson, I I I don't I don't think he has a home in Major League Baseball at this point. I really just don't. I mean, unless and when I say that I mean in a high leverage situation. He uh just totally implodes when you put him in later on in the game. I just don't think he can handle it. You know, they wanted him, I mean, pitched in the minor leagues as a starter, now they're trying to work him into the bullpen. They'd like him to be a high leverage guy, you know. Uh definitely that would be obviously the I guess appropriate scenario uh going from being a starter now as a reliever, but boy, he looked brutal on Sunday. And the Phillies lose that game by a final score of five to two. But obviously, Aaronola was a story, and here was Don Mattingley after the game. Oh, it was good.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, it was good to see that. Um, you know, after the first, obviously he was kind of had him off balance all day long. Curveball's good today, chain up was good today. Uh yeah, he was good. It was really good to see that uh him to get through seven like that. Just the way he was pitching and his pitch count was still good. Um, you know, we're still in a little you know down game where you know you're not you're not going to your main guys out there. So I felt like he was throwing the ball as good as anybody. And you know, in that part of the order, he had been fairly successful without outside of Collins, a couple of the ABS challenges, and he gets hits. But for the most part, he kind of handled Mys, you know, handled Jackson at the top, you know, handled Rojas. That's where we were at. I felt like he'd handled those guys pretty well.

SPEAKER_04 8:17

I could certainly see this being the version, the best version of Aranola that you get throughout the majority of his like in terms of I'm not saying this is going to be him all the time, but like when he has starts like this, people are gonna say, Man, that was a good start from him, because that's just what you expect. Now, is that ultimately what you want? No. You'd rather the guy go seven innings, give up no runs or one run. You know, that's the kind of money you're paying him for. But with where he is in his career, this is just kind of from the looks of it, what you should expect out of Aaron Ola. And this is him at his best. Um, if he can give you this, as I mentioned, give up, you know, max three runs um across five, six innings. Obviously he goes seven. Um, granted, it's against a Royals lineup that or a Royals team that isn't that big of a surprise, but uh again, there was expectations heading into the year, but that team just hasn't hit and hasn't hit and hasn't played consistent from a team perspective at all. Now, as we flip the page to Monday, it was kind of like, well, bad loss, but you know what? You've got or I shouldn't say a bad loss, but it's a loss, and you've got your ace on the mound the next day. They should come through and get the win and win this series. You know, they're going up against a starting pitcher that hopefully they'll be able to get to. Well, early on, they got to Cameron. Bohm, RBI double. I mean, unfortunately, though, you have Harper at third and Bohm at second with one away, and and you know, they the the guys behind them, Marsh and Sosa, can't bring either of them in. But you say, alright, we're up early. Now let's see what Sanchi can do. Well, from the get-go, Christopher Sanchez, you know, ran into a little ran into a little trouble. Uh walks Lane Thomas early, Witt grounds out to Trey, they're able to get the lead runner at second, but Salvi Perez singles, that allows Bobby Witt Jr. to get to second, and then it gets to Jack Caglione, who grounds out into a would-be double play ball. Soc goes to Trey Turner, they get the out at second, but then on the throwing error from Turner, they can't get the out at first, and then continues. An RBI single follows. A couple RBI singles actually follow after that. I believe it was three straight, Loften, Marte, and Tolbert, and then Male hits a three-run blast off of Christopher Sanchez on a 1-1 pitch and off his changeup to make it 6-1 Royals, and Kansas City was off and running. Now on the Trey Turner error, here was Don Mattingley and Christopher Sanchez, courtesy of the Phillies translator, of course, Diego Daniello.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Well, obviously we got a chance to get out of that pair with nothing. So I obviously that could change it a little bit. I don't think I know you can't assume a double play, but sure Trey would think it's double, you know, gotta make that throw, I would think. Um but after that we didn't really stop them either. And we had some chances first couple innings, get the bases loaded twice. We don't score, we leave like we end up leaving 15, 10 hits, seven walks. I think they you only get one run, so we left a lot of guys out there. So we had chances to kind of creep back in it. Uh we just we just weren't able to get that hit.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

No, no, no. So simplemente fue algo beta. No, I mean, uh, those are just things that happen during the game. Nobody wants to miss, nobody wants to make an error or fail. So uh those are just things are gonna happen in the game.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

No, no two other ways to put it. I know that the you know Christopher Sanchez obviously did not put blame on the shortstop, but let's face it, that can't happen. I mean, either A, you eat it if you can't turn two in time, or B, you gotta make that play. I mean, this is Major League Baseball. You are making the money you are making, you have to make that play at first. And Trey Turner, who has got the back going a little bit, he was three for four yesterday and scored that run. He's now up to two forty-two, which is fine, but he has been really brutal at shortstop this year. I mean, really br almost damn near at times unplayable. And obviously it leads to the six to one Royals outburst, and they would go on to cream the Phillies 15-1, 22 hits by Kansas City. You know, 12 of them awarded a Christopher Sanchez, whose ERA has now ballooned up to 2.62. So right now you're looking at a Phillies team whose ace is currently uh definitely counting down the days, I would say, until the All-Star break. Now, after the game, here was Don Mattingley and Christopher Sanchez on the ace's performance.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

You know, home run to right center. They tried to stay in the middle with him. Salvi's a guy that you know understands what to do with a guy like that, same with Marte. Just weren't able to really put anybody away or get the ground ball right at somebody, you know, after that first inning. I think you're always kind of looking at everything, you know, seeing it's been the road has not been as doesn't seem to be as sharp as at home. Yeah, I I don't know how to really explain it. Um but obviously you know he's he's gonna be as long as he's healthy, he's gonna be fine. Um today's you know hopefully one of those you don't see very often.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I don't I don't really know. And maybe it wasn't doing as it always does in uh moving ways. You gotta give credit to them. They got me today. Um you know, they made me pay and we just have to keep going. It's it's really tough to see uh you know, they hit the homework of me with my pitch. So uh it happened, so we just gotta turn the page over and feel great. Uh that's why, you know, it's a lot of surprise to have such an open today because I feel physically feels really good. I don't really know. I mean uh mentally I know that it's something that's gonna you know happen on the road and uh maybe not being so familiar with the stadiums, but it's it's something that we have to improve as we do and learn from the good things that we have on the field and good things when we perform well, I mean the same thing when we don't or when I don't perform, I just learn from it. Everyone wants us to do well, but it's at least this is something that it's good, you know, when you miss or when you don't perform, it's some it's more about that than when you actually do. So it's just learn from the keep the head up and just learn from this.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

The talk heading into the weekend as we are a week away from the all-star game is who's gonna be the starting pitcher for the National League? Is it gonna be Jacob Mizarowski or is it gonna be Christopher Sanchez? Listen, at this point, I could care less if it's in Philly. Christopher Sanchez, compared between the two of them, doesn't deserve to be the man going out there on the mount. He just doesn't. He's had now three out of his last four outings have been pretty brutal. I mean, going back to that start against Milwaukee where he wasn't great, and then on the road in Washington where he struggled, and then, you know, he pitched well against Pittsburgh last week, pitched very well against Pittsburgh. It's great to see a bounce back, but let's just call it like we see it. He has not been sharp. And to be honest with you, it's nothing against, you know, his I mean his first half of the season, you know, you take those three starts out, he's been amazing. He's been terrific. But to sit here and say he deserves to start in the All-Star game over Mizarowski, I don't think he can right now. I just don't. And it's not me saying, you know, anything against Christopher Sanchez. It's not saying that I don't value how great of a season he's been having. Facts are the facts. He has not looked good in these last three out of four outings, and Mizarowski has been awesome. You know, he's been what Jacob Mizorowski has looked, and you know, why he is ultimately, and you talk about Cy Young. He got nine and four with a one-four-seven ERA there, Mizorowski. Now, Cy Young, I mean, he's gonna if if he just keeps this up, he's gonna win that award on on roller skates. I mean, honestly. Now, let's get into because it was announced Friday, whom the All-Stars were from the National League. Friday or Saturday. And the Phillies, they're gonna be sending Brandon Marsh, who's gonna be starting the All-Star game. They'll send Bryce Harper, they'll send Kyle Schwerber as well, both of them as reserves. You'll see Johan Duran and Christopher Sanchez. Now, who you're not gonna be seeing, obviously, is Zach Wheeler, and it's a shame because naturally Zach Wheeler deserves the all-star nod. Um I mean, every team has to get at least one All-Star in there. Uh Paul Skeens has been elected, you know, as the Pirates representative, Logan Webb for the Giants, Eduardo Rodriguez for the Diamondbacks. So those three players, well, actually, the Diamondbacks do have Corbin Carroll, so they don't even need to send Eduardo Rodriguez, but obviously, uh, well, and the Giants have Luis Arise. So Zach Wheeler legitimately could make the All-Star game. I mean, Logan Webb, though, has been fine this year, but he's got a 366 ERA. Uh Wheeler's at a 2. Wheeler's at a 2.46. And naturally should be, without a doubt, you know, baseball's b biggest comeback story this year. Eduardo Rodriguez has been very solid for the Diamondbacks. Um so take nothing away there. But I think Zach Wheeler for sure should be pitching in the All-Star game this year, or should be named to the All-Star team, obviously, depend upon whether or not he pitches uh Alex to go out there and start. I mean, he should be making his fourth All-Star game. It's and it's really amazing. He's only made three All-Star teams uh out of now six years, because twenty twenty when he was with the first year at the Phillies was COVID. But you know, from twenty-one to twenty-six, he's only made the All-Star game three times. And to be honest with you, I mean he's probably deserved it for sure this year. I mean, maybe, you know, and and twenty-two, uh, I would say, you know, he was pretty darn up there, but if memory serves me correctly, his uh numbers throughout the majority of the regular season weren't great. In twenty-three, he was, I think, struggling a little bit with adjusting to the pitch clock. So his ERA, if you look at it, was like 3-6-1, which is a rarity for Wheeler, as we know. But regardless, sticking to the topic on hand, Wheeler should be an all-star this season. Uh Schwerber, who's not going to be starting, obviously be the uh reserve DH. Now we'll see about the home run derby. Uh, you know, honestly, does it really matter, in my opinion, about it? Not necessarily. I mean, the the players confirmed are junior commonero, Ben Rice from the Yankees, uh possibly well, not possibly, but Schwerber, I would suspect, will be in the home run derby for the Phillies. Honestly, Harper said he's not sure if he will. To be honest, I I wouldn't. Because sometimes at home run derby conventional baseball wisdom tells you if you if you do appear in it, it's not a lot of the time it can mess with the player's swing. You know, you saw it with Alec Boehm in 2024. Saw it with Bobby Abreu in 05. I don't think you saw it as much with Howard in 06, which is why I'm saying Schwarber is not, you know, Schwarber's up there looking to hit a home run. That's not gonna affect Schwarber. That's not gonna affect Schwarber as much as it would potentially Bryce Harper. I would rather Harper, you know, save save those home run swings uh for for when you know obviously the the the time is there for the Phillies and not look to screw himself up when we come. But I would suspect Schwerber to be there. Um it'll be interesting to see who whom else will also elect to appear in the home run derby as well. Uh could we see you know Shohei Otani giving another go? Could we see you know potentially a Matt Olson appear as well? I mean, that that obviously would be obviously interesting uh to note as well, but you know, it should be fun, especially at Citizens Bank Park, and and naturally we'll uh have some more stuff all-star break-wise coming up for that. But regardless, the Phillies begin a three-game series on the road in Cincinnati this evening. Now, the Phillies, if if memory serves me correctly, at Great American Ballpark, you know, this squad specifically, you know, when you think about dating back to uh to 22, i the the Phillies seven and seven. And it kind of goes one of two ways for them, it feels like. Usually they just scrape together runs, but you know, they don't pitch a majority of the time. Great American Ballpark is a bit of a bandbox, to be honest with you. It's uh you know, it's a Cracker Jack stadium. Home runs come, I mean, yeah, if if Schwarber wants to get ready for the home run derby, especially in his hometown, you know, have at it in Cincinnati potentially. But regardless, the f now, when you look at the Cincinnati Reds, if there was ever a year for the Phillies to leave Great American Ballpark with a plus five hundred record there, this should be the time. And to hopefully, you know, finish off the or head into the final series before the all-star break, you know, back where they were after the four-game series this past week against the Pirates, that should be the case here in Cincinnati. You know, the the Reds have had a porous season. You want to talk about also being wrong about a central team? I mean, I thought the Cincinnati Reds potentially were gonna be, you know, up there among the class of the field in the Central. I had them finishing second behind the Cubs. Um I figured it would be a pretty darn competitive NL Central between the Cubs, Reds, Pirates, and Brewers. I mean, I didn't eat I didn't think the Brewers would be as good as they are this year, and I certainly didn't think the Cardinals would be anywhere near as solid as they've been this season, from what everyone was saying. But when you look at the Reds, though, 41 and 48 heading into this series, I mean, they are very much left for dead in the National League wild cards standings. They are uh twelfth in the National League. They're seven games back of a wild card spot and fifteen back of the Central. And if there was an opportunity, no doubt, to try and keep things you know, stable in Cincinnati, that would be the goal, especially after you know the season they had last year in which they were able to make the postseason, although I think a lot more of that was the Mets really uh turning in what was a horrific collapse, I mean, similar to that of 07 that helped out another team that dawns red and white, only with a big P in the middle of the hat instead of a C in the Phillies, as we know. But this series against the Reds, as we turn to the starting pitching preview, is gonna be interesting on different counts. Because game one tonight is pretty standard. Andrew Abbott takes him out for Cincinnati. He's 5-4 this year with a 3-8-8 ERA. Pitched against the Phillies back in late May when the Reds came to town. He went five and a third innings, gave up a run on three hits with three walks and three K's, but the Reds bested the Phillies that evening 9-4. He was 2-2 with a 4-he is 2-2, I should say, with a 4-7-5 ERA at home this year. So hopefully the Phillies take advantage of that. Now Zach Wheeler, 8-1 with a 2-4-6 ERA this year, 2-1 with the 2-3-7 ERA versus the Reds since 2023, and he's 2-0 with a 1-0 eight ERA on the road in Cincinnati in four starts. I saw someone the other day say they thought Wheeler typically in Cincinnati struggles. I don't know what numbers they were looking at, but that's what came up for me. Um but, anyways, game two, we'll see. Wednesday, Hunter Green take the mound, who allowed eight runs on seven hits and then three and the third innings in his first start of the year, the former number two overall pickback in 2017 for the Reds. Uh, that was this past weekend against the O's. He started the year off on the aisle after experiencing stiffness in his right end uh in his right elbow. He then underwent orthoscopic removal of bone spurs and loose bodies in his arm. So he's obviously expected to come back and give the Reds a lift in their rotation, and hopefully that won't be done Wednesday night. But for the Phillies, it's listed as TBD. Now they optioned Alan Ron Hell uh after his Thursday start against the Pirates. So right now it's listed as TBD. Now when I look at the triple A starting rotation, and I don't see any type of a move yet that the Phillies have called anyone up, but when I so as I kind of try and predict this, the Phillies currently they called up Max Lazar, but if you look at and they optioned Kyle Backis down to triple A actually, which which you know is a corresponding move there, but when you look at who would be starting on regular rest, it would be Colby Allard. And Colby Allard, whom is 0-2 with a 7-8-0 ARA for the Phillies in three starts this year. Now I I really don't know I mean you would it wouldn't make sense to say, well, let's go ahead because he he's looked better of late, Andrew Painter has in AAA, but he started July 4th, and that would be on just four days' rest, so that wouldn't make sense. Now, Colby Allard has only pitched once against the Reds on the road, uh which was back in which was last year with when he was in Cleveland, where he allowed no runs on a hit and two innings. Um I don't really assume that's the reason why. I think it's just, hey, he's pitched on no rest. Now, he's allowed no runs on four hits and four innings in his career, which was two s two appearances against the Reds last season. So maybe there's that, and that's why they want to throw Colby Allard out there. I I just I don't fully see why it would be Colby, but uh other than the fact that again, he's pitched on regular rest, unless they're looking to bring someone in, someone else in, that would make more sense to give them a shot on the road. But Colby Allard, you know, that's kind of your depth veteran guy down there in the minor leagues until they potentially could add anyone at the trade deadline. Now, game three for the Phillies. So Thursday, which hopefully, by the grace of God, could see the Phillies maybe go for a series sweep if we're so fortunate enough to have that opportunity. Brady Singer starts for the Reds. He's 3-8 with a 5-0 three ERA. He's 1-1 with a 4-0 nine ERA and two starts in his career versus the Phillies. He allowed no runs on three hits, however, with six strikeouts in Cincinnati last year against the Phillies, and he's 3-3 with a 3-2-9 ERA at home this year. Jesus Lazardo, who's 7-4 with a 3-7-5 ERA, allowed two runs on five hits and six innings in a four-one Reds win when the Reds came to town last uh earlier this year in May. He is five-0 with a 1-5-4 ERA on the road this year in 10 starts. Lazardo's splits between home and on the road are definitely kind of surprising, I mean, to say the least, but hopefully he'll turn in another good start on the road in Cincinnati. Now, I would assume the ball is going to be carrying like a son of a gun in Cincinnati. Uh hopefully that won't affect Wheeler, but for Colby and Lazardo, it could play an effect, and hopefully for the Phillies, that could also affect the Reds, because after losing two of three to the Royals, I would expect this Phillies team to be pretty irked with themselves. Because you've you know, the first half of the year, you know, the n uh overcoming that nine and nineteen start, to play as well as you did, you know, you finish up your home schedule for the first half and you split with the pirates. Alright, you know, you split you split a four-game series, whatever. You come out of that to take on the Royals, you got the Braves whom could have given you ground if you swept the Royals, or at least you took two out of three, again, you'd be two and a half games back. Instead, the Phillies are where they are, three games back of the Braves, not bad, but at the same time, at the same time, you don't want to end that, you know, that that's a crappy way to end the regular season. That's a crappy way to start a road trip to end the regular season to end the first half of the regular season. Naturally, I would assume the Phillies would be pretty damn pissed off, and I'm sure Don Mattingley. Now, would he give it to them? I don't know. I mean, it sounded like in that interview about when he answered that question about Trey's error, he was kind of definitely giving you a little bit more than what Rob Thompson would have maybe have given you uh in terms of sounding like he was giving his opinion a little bit to the media. Now let's see what they do in Cincinnati. But when you're looking at the trade deadline, one final thing, as I feel like every single series now we have to update the biggest need of the Phillies. Well, what's not going to be talked about is filling out the starting rotation because of how well Nola pitched, even though don't be a fool, they need to add an arm at the deadline. I mean, in one way, shape, or another, they have to add someone. Now, they may or may not, because they may look at Andrew Painter in triple A and say, hey, let's give him a chance. I would not just bank on that. The bullpen, I think, is what we've identified as potentially the biggest area of concern. Brad Keller made a rehab appearance in AAA the other night. Didn't do all that great. I don't know how much of a lift he's gonna give you. They need to add a high leverage lefty, and you'd like to get at least one other guy, in my opinion, for middle relief. Now that right-handed bat, I would still think that's gonna be a priority. Right now, I'd put bullpen one, right-handed bat two, starting final starting pitcher to at least go out there and get 15 outs and keep it within reason would be number three for me. Alright, everyone, thanks for tuning in to this episode. We will be back on throughout the week. Not going to be anywhere, so we will be back on throughout the week as well. So thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.