Jake Arrieta is Upset and the Phillies Blew a Lead Due to Lack of Execution, Sound Familiar?
The Phillies played a late one last night, which is great because we were all asleep and didn’t have to watch the same old, same old.
The Phillies lost because they couldn’t add to their lead after getting runners in scoring position. Jake Arrieta was unhappy he was taken out despite pitching with bone chips in his elbow and the bullpen blew the lead. Sound familiar? Don’t worry, football is on tomorrow.
For Arrieta, it wasn’t even close to his worst postgame comments. Really just seemed like a competitor who wanted to keep going:
“I told them I’d like to stay in and they pinch hit for me. Q had a hit. He did his job. After that point, it got away from us the sixth through the eighth.”
I get it, but Gabe Kapler probably made the right move by pulling him. In his last start, Arrieta really let off the gas around the same number of pitches he threw last night. The Phils know he can only go about 4 or 5 innings at this point.
I’m about to do something that many will raise an eyebrow at: defend Gabe Kapler.
It was another night with a wacky lineup in which Rhys Hoskins, the usual clean up hitter, was in the 2 hole. Cesar Hernandez and Scott Kingery, typical lead off hitters, were towards the bottom of the lineup.
Yet, here we were (again) with the bases loaded and one out. Hoskins strikes out. Harper strikes out.
Kapler continually gets blame for some of the unusual ways in which he does things and it masks the fact many key players on this team are underperforming. He had them in a good situation last night, and they couldn’t produce.
Over the past week during the Phillies 0 for 1,367,879 streak with RISP, the lineups may have changed but one thing has been constant: players not executing.
On top of the RISP drought, the bullpen blew another lead. Blake Parker, recently claimed off waivers, pretty much sealed the win for the D-backs with an atrocious performance allowing three runs in the seventh inning.
These are the cards Kapler has been dealt by management. It just turns out his hand sucks.