PHILADELPHIA _ It was one day, 18 innings spread over nine hours, barely an eye-blink in the scope of a hectic stretch of the unrelenting baseball schedule. But it crystallized, once and for all, what the Phillies need most between now and the end of the month.
Hitters wanted.
The Phillies, in splitting a day-night doubleheader with the league-worst San Diego Padres, got a total of two hits with runners in scoring position. They hit three balls hard, all home runs, two by Rhys Hoskins, who clearly has avoided any ill effects from competing in the Home Run Derby. And somehow they scored enough runs to win another series, and really, winning series is the only thing that matters now.
But credit for the Phillies' 5-0 victory in the nightcap, which followed a 10-2 drubbing by the Padres in the matinee opener, was due almost entirely to the pitching of Vince Velasquez. The right-hander didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning, finished seven innings for the first time since July 30, 2017, and lowered his ERA to 2.36 in his last half-dozen starts.
The offense? Mostly an innocent bystander. Through six innings, the Phillies mustered one run against Padres right-hander Luis Perdomo, who entered with a 7.55 ERA. That was after they went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base in the opener.
Manny Machado will walk through Citizens Bank Park's gates on Monday, but his stay will last for only three days. And while the Los Angeles Dodgers' new shortstop was the only true difference-making hitter available before the July 31 trade deadline, there are others _ Kansas City Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas and Minnesota Twins infielder Eduardo Escobar, to name two _ who would lengthen a Phillies lineup that isn't nearly long enough to make any hay in the postseason if it gets there.
By now, that much is as blindly obvious as the sun that got in second baseman Cesar Hernandez's eyes and obscured him from catching a pop-up in the sixth inning of the first game against the Padres.
"The story of the game was our inability to capitalize on run-scoring opportunities _ and we had several of them," manager Gabe Kapler said after the first game. "We had opportunities in many innings and bases-loaded situations, and one big hit changes the outcome of that game and we weren't able to get that. That was clear. It was evident."
It remained evident until Odubel Herrera golfed a solo homer in the fourth inning of the finale to open a 1-0 lead that remained largely frozen until Hoskins' second-deck homer to left field in the seventh inning.
Velasquez was more dazzling than right-hander Nick Pivetta in the first game. Pivetta struck out nine batters in 5 1/3 innings, but that apparently wasn't enough. Of the 15 balls that the Padres put in play against Pivetta, eight went for hits. They scored three runs in the first inning, had a 4-1 lead through three, and tacked on three unearned runs in the sixth against Pivetta and reliever Edubray Ramos, who exited with a strained patella tendon in his left knee and was placed on the disabled list.
The Padres were leading, 4-2, with one out in the sixth inning when Ramos got Christian Villanueva to hit a pop-up to shallow right field. As Hernandez, center fielder Odubel Herrera, and shortstop Scott Kingery converged, Hernandez camped under the ball only to lose it in the sun, according to Kapler. Hernandez wasn't wearing sunglasses, a decision that Kapler called "a personal preference."
"We don't ask guys or force guys to wear sunglasses," Kapler said. "Some guys are good at shielding the sun. In this particular situation, if he needs sunglasses to field that ball then he should have sunglasses. But he's a veteran infielder who knows how to play a ball in the sun. His decision was to not have sunglasses on."
But the Phillies never seemed to be out of the game, at least until Wil Myers iced it with a two-run homer in the ninth against reliever Mark Leiter Jr.
Padres starter Tyson Ross was often on the ropes, yielding a pair of two-out walks in the first inning and putting the first two batters on base in both the third and fifth. In the seventh, the Phillies loaded the bases with one out against Padres lefty reliever Matt Strahm.
Each time, they came up empty. Whether it was Maikel Franco with a hard groundout in the fifth inning, Kingery striking out in the third or popping up in the seventh, or pinch-hitting Aaron Altherr striking out in the seventh, the Phillies couldn't produce a big hit at the right time.
If the Phillies were merely in the wild-card race, they might be more inclined to sit tight and see if Franco, Kingery, and their other young hitters continue to develop. But they have a chance to win the National League East, which should increase their desire to take a flier on a hitter who can give greater margin for error to their pitchers on days like Sunday and all others.
