PHOENIX -- A trip out here this week was supposed to awaken the Phillies’ offense. The Diamondbacks, after all, have given up more runs than any team in the National League. Could there be a more magical elixir for a bunch of snoozing hitters?
Instead, the Phillies went 0-for-Arizona.
That’s “0” as in zero wins. None. Zilch. The Phillies got swept in a three-game series that concluded Thursday with what could be described only as a humiliating 6-2 loss to a team that is on pace for 107 of them.
But it may as well have been “0” as in runs. The Phillies pushed across one in the eighth inning and another in the ninth to avoid being shut out for the eighth time this season. But don’t be fooled. They were flummoxed by faded ace Madison Bumgarner, who held them hitless for a span of 23 plate appearances between Jean Segura’s leadoff double in the first inning and Ronald Torreyes’ in the eighth.
Rather than taking advantage of the worst team in the league and making up ground in the division, the Phillies slid to four games off the pace of the first-place Atlanta Braves, who were idle Thursday after winning six games in a row against non-contending Washington and Miami. It doesn’t get any easier this weekend. While the Phillies play three games in San Diego, the Braves will face the Baltimore Orioles, who only have the worst record in baseball.
Zack Wheeler was solid for six innings before the Diamondbacks got to him for five runs in the seventh. It mattered little. With the way the Phillies have been swinging the bat, Wheeler could have held strong and still been saddled with a loss.
After getting three hits in the series opener Tuesday night, the Phillies had four Wednesday night and seven in the finale, all but one of which came in the final two innings. They went 14-for-94 (.149) with two home runs in the series and led at the end of a grand total of four of 27 innings.
If this wasn’t rock bottom, it’s hard to imagine what that might look like.
It was a continuation of a nearly two-week stretch in which the Phillies’ offense has been muted. A few of the ghastly numbers:
--In the last nine games, the Phillies are batting .181 (51-for-282) with five home runs. They have scored a total of 21 runs.
--The heart of the order -- Bryce Harper (4-for-27), J.T. Realmuto (3-for-25), and Andrew McCutchen (3-for-29) -- is a combined 10-for-81 (.123) in the nine-game stretch.
--Segura, who often bats at the top of the order, is in a 3-for-28 rut.
For the second consecutive game, the Phillies opened with an extra-base hit. But unlike Odúbel Herrera’s leadoff triple Wednesday night, Segura’s double to left field didn’t yield a run. Not after Realmuto popped out, Harper struck out, and McCutchen grounded to third.
The Phillies didn’t get another hit until the eighth inning. Torreyes’ leadoff double snapped an 0-for-21 spell in which the only baserunners came when Didi Gregorius got hit by a pitch and Luke Williams worked a two-out walk, both in the fifth inning.
Wheeler didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning, when David Peralta doubled and scored on Christian Walker’s single that fell in front of Harper in right field. Nick Ahmed and Josh VanMeter keyed Arizona’s big seventh inning with two-run doubles. Bumgarner also chipped in with an RBI single.
