Phils' rotation 'rut' continues with Gibson's short outing

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Phillies have entered September in playoff position for the first time since 2011. But to end their decade-long postseason drought, they'll have to put everything together for the stretch run. That starts with rebounding from what has been a challenging week on the mound.

Philadelphia continued a stretch of all-or-nothing showings in Friday night's series-opening 13-1 loss to San Francisco, scuffling on both sides of the ball. Right-hander Kyle Gibson, who started for the Phillies, was tagged for a season-high seven runs and couldn't make it out of the second inning.

• Box score

Gibson set an unfortunate tone, but he wasn't the only struggling Phillies pitcher on Friday. Altogether, Philadelphia pitchers walked 10 San Francisco batters and hit another with a pitch. Five of those runners came around to score. As interim manager Rob Thomson said, that's not how ballgames are won.

"It was a weird night," Gibson said. "I mean, everything I threw up in the strike zone, they hit, and everything that was a ball, they didn't swing at.

"Obviously, as a starting pitcher, you're not going to have your best stuff every time, but normally, you try to either eat up innings or leave the game and the team still has a chance, and unfortunately, I didn't do either of those tonight. It was frustrating, but you're going to have games like that."

Gibson's difficult outing was the latest in a particularly rough turn of Philadelphia's rotation. Here's how each active Phillies starter has fared in his most recent appearance:

• Noah Syndergaard (Aug. 28): 5 2/3 innings, nine hits, five runs, one walk, five strikeouts
• Ranger Suárez (Aug. 29): 3 2/3 innings, five hits, six runs (two earned), two walks, four strikeouts
• Aaron Nola (Aug. 30): Four innings, 10 hits, eight runs, five strikeouts
• Bailey Falter (Aug. 31): 6 1/3 innings, five hits, one run, six strikeouts
• Kyle Gibson (Sept. 2): 1 2/3 innings, five hits, seven runs, four walks, two strikeouts

One of these things is not like the others -- Falter turned in arguably one of his best starts of the season in Wednesday's 18-2 pummeling of the D-backs -- but overall, it has not been a good week for Phillies pitching.

The three blowout losses skew the numbers a bit, but in the last five games, Philadelphia has allowed 55 runs while scoring 29 -- that's a -26 run differential in a little less than a week.

The rough stretch for Phillies starters is rather uncharacteristic, as Philadelphia's rotation has posted a collective 3.76 ERA that ranks ninth in the Majors.

"I think it's just a bad week," Thomson said, "I really do."

Could fatigue be a factor in the rotation's recent struggles?

"These guys are pretty well trained, and they work extremely hard. Maybe it's just a little bit of a rut these guys are in right now, but they'll bounce out of it," Thomson said. "They're too good to continue this, that's for sure."

In recent years, the Phillies have been prone to a September swoon. Since their most recent playoff appearance in 2011, Philadelphia has posted a losing record in the final month of the regular season in eight of the last 10 years.

Of course, September has only just begun. Even after Friday night's loss, the Phillies still hold a 3 1/2-game lead over the Brewers for the third NL Wild Card spot. That's not a bad place to be in what is essentially a four-team race.

And just because Philadelphia has seen its fair share of late-season scuffles in years past, the team is confident that it won't play out the same way this season.

"It's a different team, different group of guys, different manager -- everything," said Bryce Harper, who went 0-for-4 on Friday. "We've got a long way to go. We've got to keep playing our game, keep doing our thing, and not every night's going to be like that."