July 15, 2016
On Friday night against the New York Mets, the Phillies made the necessary adjustments to stay within striking distance. Outside of one inning, though, they just couldn’t generate the type of offense we saw from them routinely before the All-Star break.
In the first of a three-game weekend set at Citizens Bank Park, Bartolo Colon and the Mets defeated the Phils, 5-3.
Catcher Cameron Rupp, who went 1-3 at the plate with a walk, was asked before the game if the All-Star break was coming at the wrong time for this Phillies team.
“You can probably look at it that way, but I don’t think it’s the way we need to look at it,” Rupp said. “We were playing good baseball and it’s four days off. You’re not going to lose a whole lot in that standing.”
Before the All-Star break, the Phillies were back to their early-season winning ways, ripping off 12 of 17 games. They were playing well in a very different way from April, though, averaging 5.47 runs per game.
Maybe the time off didn’t cool down the Phillies, but the Mets portly all-star pitcher made quick work of them through four innings. The Phils looked like they made a conscientious decision as a lineup to attack Colon early in counts, but it didn’t pay off. He threw only four pitches in the first inning and didn’t allow a baserunner through four frames.
“Colon’s tough, the ball moves both ways,” Pete Mackanin said. “Right and left, he keeps the ball down, he pitches up in the zone when he wants to.
“He’s not the guy I wanted to see coming out of the break.”
Let it be known that there was some fight in these Phillies on this night, though.
Trailing 4-0 the sixth inning, the home team showed some mental toughness in fighting back against Colon. After Odubel Herrera reached on an error by Mets first baseman James Loney, the hot-hitting Peter Bourjos lined a triple into the left-field gap.
Maikel Franco knocked Bourjos in with a groundout, and then the Phils put together a two-out rally that plated another run on Cody Asche’s blooper into shallow left field. After going perfect through four innings and cruising through five, the upset of the night was Colon not making it out of the sixth inning.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, the Mets bullpen cleaned up the sixth-inning jam, and from there, it was smooth sailing.
“Those three runs got us right back in the game and then their bullpen shut us down,” Mackanin said. “All in all, needed a few more hits.”
The sixth inning was the trouble spot for Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson as well. After making it through five with a Juan Lagares homer as his only blemish, Hellickson allowed the first two batters in the sixth to reach on singles.
Then, Neil Walker took a fourseam fastball deep into the left-field seats.
“I just got a little gassed there at the end,” Hellickson said. “Leadoff guy got on in the fifth and sixth and I was working way too hard there in the last two innings.”
Hellickson is one of the few Phillies who could be on the move these next few weeks. He was asked if the trade deadline was on his mind after the game.
“Yeah it’s on my mind just when I see it on Twitter and talk to you guys about it,” Hellickson said. “Other than that, it’s focus every day, doing what I have to do to get ready for the next start.
“Like I’ve said all along, I love it here and would love to be here the rest of the year. But obviously I’ve been through it before and know that side of the game.”
Hellickson was traded twice in the last two years, but never are the deadline. The 29-year-old starter was shipped from Tampa Bay to Arizona in the 2014 offseason and then from Arizona to Philly last November. He then signed a one-year deal with the Phillies.
Coming into the season, it made sense that a veteran starter like Hellickson would be on the block pitching for a rebuilding team at this time of year.
“Yeah I knew that was part of it,” he said.
“When or if it happens, we’ll deal with it then. But right now, my focus is here.”
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
