PHILADELPHIA _ Ty Kelly popped up in the sixth inning of an 8-2 loss to Colorado on Tuesday night and smashed his bat into pieces before returning to the Phillies dugout.
It was the perfect symbolism for the team's current dreadful stretch. The Phillies have lost 16 of their 20 games this month, allowing eight runs or more in seven of those defeats. The season has dragged so much that it's hard to believe that it is only May. Yes, frustration _ like that displayed by Kelly _ is setting in.
But the team that is riding out the worst stretch of Phillies baseball in the last five years will hardly resemble the unit that seems primed to bring competitiveness back to South Philadelphia. Kelly and his shattered bat will not be here. Nor will Michael Saunders, who was benched on Tuesday night. Maybe not even Maikel Franco _ who joined Saunders on the bench _ or Odubel Herrera, who extinguished a rally on Tuesday with a head-scratcher of a swing.
The season has turned ugly and the Phillies are flirting with being unwatchable. Yet, in a strange paradox, the organization seems closer now to winning than it ever has in the last five seasons. Free agents will be signed in the coming winters and top prospects will arrive. The next four months will be to determine what members of this team will be able to stick around once the next era begins.
Zach Eflin gave up three homers, and the lone Phillies run before the ninth inning scored on a bases-loaded walk. It was that kind of night in a month full of them.
Eflin gave up eight runs in six innings. His night fell apart in a five-run fourth inning as the first four hitters reached base. Charlie Blackmon then capped the rally with a towering homer to right, his second of the night. It was Blackmon's third career multi-homer game at Citizens Bank Park, one more than the entire Phillies roster combined.
Odubel Herrera went 2 for 4, but it was his at-bat in the third inning that was most crucial. Rockies starter German Marquez hit Tommy Joseph and then walked Andres Blanco with the bases loaded. Herrera swung at the first pitch Marquez offered, a pitch well outside the strike zone, and grounded into a double play. It was a chance for the Phillies to break the game open. But Herrera let Marquez off the hook instead of making him work.
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin left Franco and Saunders out of the lineup and did not commit to how long their benchings would last. Even that proved to provide little spark to his lifeless lineup. Mackanin said before the game that Herrera could be the next one to find himself on the bench. At-bats like the one in the third inning could move Herrera there.
Aaron Altherr went 2 for 4 and Tommy Joseph reached base twice. Mark Leiter Jr. provided two scoreless innings of relief. Andrew Knapp homered in the ninth to cut Colorado's lead to six runs.
It was just a month ago that the Phillies were in the midst of a six-game winning streak, providing a tease that this season would be different. The tease proved to be just that. And now, a month later, the season has turned ugly.
