Jose Alvarez, the most reliable reliever in the Phillies' unreliable bullpen, was carted off the field on Thursday afternoon to plant the seeds of another late-inning collapse.
Alvarez left the game in the fifth inning of a 3-2 seven-inning doubleheader loss to the Blue Jays in Buffalo after a 105.3-mph line drive by Lourdes Gurriel hit him in the groin. Alvarez fell to the ground after being hit but somehow managed to retrieve the ball and throw it to first base for the final out of the inning.
Gurriel was the lone batter Alvarez faced as he would have remained in the game for the sixth, when the Blue Jays had three left-handers due up. Instead, the Phillies turned to right-hander Tommy Hunter, who allowed a single to left-handed Billy McKinney and a game-tying two-out double to left-handed Cavan Biggio to right field.
An inning later, Delois Guerra allowed three one-out singles before the winning run scored. Baseball's worst bullpen struck again.
The loss drops the Phillies two games below .500. Vince Velasquez starts the second game against Blue Jays right-hander Trent Thornton.
Alvarez has allowed just one run this season in eight appearances, and the unassuming left-hander has been a steady presence since joining the team in a rather anonymous trade before last season. Losing him Thursday may have cost a win, but more importantly the Phillies hope the injury is not as serious as it looked to be.
The Phillies had six hits, just one of which was for extra bases. Bryce Harper homered with two outs in the first, and Andrew McCutchen dropped a bloop single over a pulled-in infield to add a run in the third. Harper has reached base in each of the 20 games this season.
Spencer Howard allowed one run in 4 2/3 innings before he was lifted in the fifth with runners on first and third and two outs. He struck out five batters and generated eight whiffs with his fastball, four more than he combined for in his first two major league starts. Howard did not pitch deep into the game, but he looked more like an elite pitcher than he did in his previous two outings.
