SAN FRANCISCO — The Phillies were shut out 5-0 at Oracle Park on Wednesday afternoon, extending their scoreless streak to 20 consecutive innings and leaving Rob Thomson to promise a different batting order when the club returns to Citizens Bank Park.
The loss gave Philadelphia another flat day at the plate in a trip that has turned sharply after a seven-run first inning at Coors Field opened the swing. Since that burst, the Phillies have scored 12 runs over 53 innings, and they managed only one extra-base hit in the final two games at Oracle Park.
Thomson said the changes will be aimed at a basic reset. “Just change the mindset a little bit, you know?” he said, after a game in which the Phillies again chased contact instead of damage. “Pull-side groundballs,” he said, describing a pattern he wants to fix. “Ten pull-side ground-ball outs. You have to use the field.”
The numbers around the slump make the trip look worse than a single afternoon. Philadelphia had not won a series against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park since 2013, and its.658 OPS through 12 games was tied for its lowest mark in the first 12 games of a season over the last decade. The Phillies won 96 games last year, but this start has looked nothing like that team.
Bryce Harper said the offense has to take responsibility for the slide. After being told the club had not won a series in San Francisco since 2013, he asked, “Has it been that long?” Then, after hearing the answer, he said, “Oh, wow, I didn’t know that,” before adding, “Yeah. I mean, on a personal level, I feel great. So, I’m happy about that. But obviously, as a team, that doesn’t really help us. We have to come together as a team and play better and have better at-bats and all those things. I mean, all the things that you guys know and that everybody knows.”
The Phillies have lived through this kind of drought before. Last June, they were held scoreless for 26 innings, a stretch that now feels uncomfortably familiar. J.T. Realmuto said the club is missing the kind of hit that can turn one run into a big inning. “You know how contagious hitting is,” he said. “We’re just missing that spark where it takes one two-out knock to get us to score seven instead of zero. We have a good track record of playing really good baseball. Obviously, right now, that’s not what we’re doing. But we know we’re just one good swing away from the whole team taking off.”
Realmuto also said he will probably miss another game Friday because of a badly bruised and swollen foot, another complication for an offense already trying to find its footing. Thomson’s answer was short and blunt. “You just have to stay the course,” he said. For the Phillies, that means a new lineup, a return home and a chance to see whether one adjustment can do what the last 53 innings could not.
