Phillies phight back, Royals lose 11-2

You can’t win them all and the Phillies are good, don’t let it get to you too much.

We’re not going to get too deep into the details of this one. No one needs to dwell too hard on a loss like this. So let’s just hit the high notes.

Brady Singer was both better and worse than his final line of five innings, eleven hits, and five runs with five strikeouts. Through five innings he had allowed on two runs despite giving up eight hits but hadn’t managed a single clean inning. He was asked to come back out for the sixth because of the weak bullpen and gave up two fluky singles - a popup that fell due to miscommunication, and a groundball that caromed off the lip of the infield dirt that otherwise likely would have been a double play - before giving up a three-run home run to J.T. Realmuto. However, that inning was also somewhat representative of the Royals’ night: sloppiness and a little bit of bad luck, or at least insufficient good luck.

The representative sequence of events for the offensive side came in the third. Dairon Blanco managed to work a leadoff walk, and was bunted over by Kyle Isbel who had a truly terrible night at the plate. Maikel Garcia made a first pitch out, and then Blanco was caught trying to steal third - with two outs and Bobby Witt Jr. at the plate. A series of bad decisions and not enough good luck to make it work.

Chris Stratton pitched one-plus innings and gave up another three-run home run to Realmuto. Will Smith came on in relief of him and gave up two more runs. Zerpa gave up the final run in the top of the ninth. There is simply no reason to keep Smith and Stratton on this roster anymore. Zerpa should be demoted, also. I get that you can use them in blowouts, but you might as well be using guys like Jonathan Bowlan, Anthony Veneziano, Carlos Hernández, Evan Sisk, Steven Cruz, or even Noah Murdock or Austin Cox can do at the major league level in those situations. Worst case scenario, they pitch as poorly as Stratton and Smith. But perhaps one or more of them turns into a reliable guy just in time for the sprint to the postseason.

And, honestly, a 5-1 game isn’t yet a blowout. But once it became 8-2 in the top of the eighth after the Royals had finally clawed a second run across, it definitely was even before Smith and Zerpa got to add their own fuel to the fire.

The Guardians and Twins each blew out their opponents so the divisional standings revert back to where they were before yesterday’s game. However, the Red Sox still lost and the Royals are now two games closer to the post-season with one more win and two more Red Sox losses than they entered the weekend with. Their Magic Number falls to 30.

The Royals catch a break for tomorrow’s game, Zack Wheeler has been pushed back a day and they will instead face Left-hander Kolby Allard. Yes, he’s a lefty, but he can’t be any tougher than Wheeler. Also, despite a career 5.97 ERA Allard has pitched in every major league season since 2018. Hopefully, he’ll be ready to give up some more runs tomorrow. Seth Lugo will go for KC and try to build on his strong start against the Angels. Hopefully, the Phillies got all their runs out of their system tonight. The game will start at 1:10 Royals time.