It was hard to determine Tuesday night who was being booed as a 2-1 Phillies loss to the Red Sox began to unravel.
Perhaps the jeers were for Tommy Hunter, who served up a go-ahead home run to a hitter who had hammered just one in the last 17 weeks. Maybe they were for the Phillies' offense, which continues to scuffle. Or were the boos an attempt to drown out the voracious Boston fans, who were likely as surprised by Brock Holt's homer as they were when a quarterback caught a touchdown pass against their favorite football team?
Regardless, the boos marked yet another dismal night for the Phils as they lost for the fifth time in seven games. Gabe Kapler shuffled his lineup but the deck still flopped. They struck out 13 times, had just two hits, and never had a runner in scoring position. The Phils have scored two runs or fewer in four of their last five losses.
The offense gave Hunter little room for error and his first-pitch cutter to Holt was a big mistake. The pitch hung over the plate and Holt clobbered it off the scoreboard in right field.
When the Phillies arrived to Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday afternoon after limping through a West Coast road trip with an offense that mustered just eight runs in six games, they pored over a lineup that received quite a shake-up from Kapler.
Rhys Hoskins moved from second to fourth. Nick Williams jumped to second. Carlos Santana was no longer batting clean-up and Odubel Herrera hit seventh. This was different.
"I don't know if I would call it a lineup shake-up as much as trying something new we think might spark the offense a little bit," Kapler said before the game.
Anything new would be good, Hoskins said before the game. For him, it was. Hoskins homered to start the fifth inning and give the Phillies their first hit against Rick Porcello. But that was about all the Phillies could do. Herrera struck out on a pitch that hit his foot. Five Phillies struck out twice and they did not work their first walk until Justin Bour walked to start the ninth. That rally never came. The Phillies had a new lineup, but the results were the same.
They wasted a strong night from Nick Pivetta, who limited baseball's highest-scoring offense to just one run in six innings. He struck out six, walked one, and allowed just three hits. His powerful fastball was paired with an effective curveball and slider as Pivetta displayed the ability to effectively use all three pitches. In three starts this month, Pivetta has allowed just three runs in 18 innings.
The Phillies' problem has not been their starting pitching. It has been nights like Tuesday when the lineup wastes strong nights from their starters.
Pat Neshek handled the seventh as Kapler employed the right-hander to tackle the heart of Boston's order. Neshek did that and handed the baton to Hunter, who was asked to retire the bottom of the lineup. He erased his first batter and then Holt came off the bench to pinch-hit. The boos were not far behind.
