ST. LOUIS — The Phillies could smell blood in the water.
Bryce Harper had just won a nine-pitch battle, fouling off four of them, to draw a third consecutive walk from Caleb Ferguson. The Cardinals reliever walked the bases loaded without recording an out in the eighth inning on Tuesday.
While St. Louis went back to its bullpen to bring in Ryne Stanek, cleanup hitter Luis Arraez and his vaunted batting average were lying in wait.
On paper, he was exactly the hitter you’d want for that situation. Arraez has the lowest strikeout rate in the majors. He is hitting .363 with runners in scoring position this season. The Phillies were trailing, 1-0, and a ball out of the infield would tie it. A hit could give them the lead.
“You know he’s going put it in play, and just who he is, he’s going to hit the ball hard somewhere,” said interim manager Don Mattingly.
But Arraez also happens to be in the midst of his longest hitless streak of the season. And while he did put the ball in play and he did hit it hard, it was a grounder directly at Cardinals first baseman Alec Burleson. He combined with catcher Pedro Pagés to turn a deflating double play, getting a force out at the plate to prevent a run.
And suddenly, the momentum had completely shifted back to St. Louis. J.T. Realmuto flew out two pitches later to end the inning, and the Phillies had nothing to show for it. In what would become a 2-0 loss to the Cardinals, the missed opportunity loomed large.
Arraez is 0-for-15 in his last three games. He declined to comment postgame through a team spokesperson.
“We had a few chances. Still like our at-bats,” Mattingly said. “You want to get a hit in there with guys on base and stuff, but still putting pressure on guys. Tonight, obviously, double plays hurt us.”
The infields on both sides were kept busy. The eighth-inning double play was one of four turned by the Cardinals, while the Phillies turned two. That included a key moment in the second inning, the only time the Cardinals had really threatened against starter Cristopher Sánchez.
Sánchez allowed back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners, and Blaze Jordan hit a chopper to Bryson Stott at third base. Stott charged in, fielded it, and threw across his body to second. It was in time to catch a speedy Masyn Winn, before Arraez’s subsequent throw to first ended the inning.
It was one of several strong plays from Stott, who has taken immediately to his new position after moving over from second base.
Sánchez scattered four singles and struck out seven. He retired the final seven Cardinals he faced, but after the sixth inning, Mattingly could tell the Missouri heat was affecting the lefty.
“I didn’t want to pull Cristopher to start with, but checking on him after the inning, he was done,” Mattingly said.
Sánchez’s pitch count was still in good shape at 89, but Mattingly made the call to bring in reliever Alex McFarlane for the seventh. Through a team interpreter, Sánchez said it was a “joint decision.”
“It was really uncomfortable today,” he said. “The weather was a little uncomfortable, but you can’t use that as an excuse. We have to perform out there every day. It doesn’t matter how it is, we just have to go out there on the field and try to put the team in the best position we can to win the games.”
McFarlane, recalled earlier on Tuesday, entered the game to face the heart of the Cardinals order. With the Phillies bullpen still depleted, he was one of a few arms available. He recorded his first major league strikeout after blowing a 100.5 mph fastball by Burleson. But the Cardinals capitalized on a walk, stolen base, and a single to finally break the stalemate against the rookie reliever, taking a 1-0 lead.
After the Phillies wasted their opportunity to strike back in the eighth, St. Louis doubled its advantage with a homer off lefty Tim Mayza.
The Phillies went down in order against Riley O’Brien in the ninth. In total, they left eight men on base, and were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Compounding their frustration was the fact that they made a lot of hard contact overall. Collectively, the Phillies clocked exit velocities harder than 95 mph 12 times, and only two of those fell for singles.
In the fifth inning, Alec Bohm was halfway through a home run trot before realizing that Pereira had pulled off a leaping catch right at the center field wall. According to StatCast, it would have been a homer in 17 out of 30 major league parks.
Justin Crawford tossed his helmet in frustration after hitting a 105.8 mph liner directly at right fielder Jordan Walker, which stranded a pair in the seventh inning.
“Feel like I was squaring the ball up a little bit, not just me personally, but for a lot of guys in here in our lineup,” Crawford said. “Just frustrating, but it’s part of it. Just got to continue to keep going, keep stacking at-bats, keep competing, and putting together good at-bats.”
The loss dropped the Phillies to a 64-57 record. After the Padres pulled off an 11-2 rout of the Brewers in San Diego on Tuesday night, they moved into a three-way tie with the Phillies and Diamondbacks for the final two wild-card spots.
The Phillies hold the tiebreaker over the Padres after sweeping the season series, but their playoff position has become vulnerable with 41 games remaining.
