'Frustrating': Velasquez, bats fall flat vs. Bucs

When Vince Velasquez grounded out to Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman at the start of the third, the Phillies had Chase Anderson in mind to take the mound in the next half inning. It was their best option considering Velasquez had already thrown 52 pitches and been tagged for five runs.

The Phillies weren’t able to pull off the same comeback magic that helped them seal Thursday’s Game 2 win over the Nats, as they fell to Pirates, 7-0, on Friday at PNC Park.

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Efficiency has been a season-long struggle for Velasquez. Friday’s outing marked the ninth start that Velasquez wasn’t able to complete the fifth inning. His two frames against the Pirates, a team that entered Friday slugging the lowest in all of the Majors at .365, was filled with hard contact and defensive miscues.

“It's very frustrating, personally, to have the same results of the last outing that I had,” Velasquez said. “The expectations on my behalf are very high, but at the same time it's not falling into my own results, with the results that I expect [of myself].”

Velasquez opened the bottom of the first by surrendering a double, a flyout, an RBI triple, an RBI single and a walk. The right-hander caught a break with third baseman Alec Bohm making an impressive snag on a ball smoked by Jacob Stallings, which had an exit velocity of 95.8 mph, per Statcast.

Velasquez wasn’t as fortunate in the next at-bat, however. Bryce Harper misplayed a fly ball off the bat of Rodolfo Castro with runners on first and second. What should’ve been the third out of the inning was ruled a ground-rule double that scored the third run of the frame.

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“It's just execution," manager Joe Girardi said of Velasquez’s latest stretch of outings.

In three of his last four starts, the right-hander has not pitched more than 2 1/3 innings while allowing 19 runs across that span.

“He's not executing pitches like he did before,” Girardi said. “I mean, that's the bottom line. And that's what it always comes down to. It's not from lack of effort on his part, he's just not executing.”

Though Velasquez needed two pitches to retire Newman for the third out, the 29-year-old hurler and the Phillies (51-52) never bounced back. The lineup collected only one hit.

“It's frustrating,” Girardi said. “We haven't pitched consistently well the second half. We haven't gotten a lot of distance in a lot of our starts, and we've had to rely on our bullpen heavily, but tonight was a team effort. There really wasn't much that we did right tonight. … It's about the poorest game that we played all year.”

Harper had another tough play in right field in the fourth inning. As he tracked down a deep fly ball from Ke’Bryan Hayes, Harper kept his back toward the right-field wall before he turned his body around and crashed into the fence as the ball rolled away.

The right fielder was able to pick up the ball and throw it back into the infield before he crouched over in visible pain, grabbing his left side. Girardi and a trainer checked on Harper, but he stayed in the game. Girardi said Harper was fine and doesn’t expect him to miss any time.

Harper experienced back tightness during Thursday’s doubleheader and was removed in the third inning of Game 2 as a result. He went 0-for-2 with two walks in Friday’s series opener. The Phils went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on the bases.

"I don't know if the wind tricked him out there, but again, like I said, we didn't do much right,” Girardi said. “There were some balls that fell that I thought that should have been caught. It's hard to say.”

The Phillies acquired four pitchers at the Trade Deadline. The two big leaguers of that crop, right-handed starter Kyle Gibson and closer Ian Kennedy, will hopefully provide balance on the mound. But the Phils are in need of reliable starting pitching, especially with Velasquez’s future in the rotation as cloudy as it has ever been.

“I have no control over that,” Velasquez said. “Again, all I can do is close the book and start all over tomorrow. Every day is a clean slate. And the amount of work that I've put in day in, day out from a day-to-day standpoint just seems like it's not really turning the page for me, it's not falling into the category that I envisioned or I expect for myself.”