Phillies' bats scoreless for 20 straight innings as Oracle Park woes continue

SAN FRANCISCO -- Nobody is trying to overreact here.

It’s only 12 games, but the Phillies know 12 games still mean something. They still count. They matter. They also know people are frustrated by their 6-6 start, which included Wednesday’s 5-0 loss to the Giants at Oracle Park.

It was their second consecutive shutout loss. They haven’t scored a run in 20 innings.

“Has it been that long?” Bryce Harper said. “Oh, wow. I didn’t know that.”

The Phillies’ offensive malaise has stoked fears outside the clubhouse about the long-term health of the lineup.

“I think we have a good track record of playing really good baseball,” J.T. Realmuto said. “Obviously, right now that's not what we're doing, but we know that we're just one good swing away from the whole team taking off. We’ve just got to keep working, keep being diligent. We don't like to struggle, but there's nobody in this room panicking. That’s for sure.”

The Phils have scored only 42 runs this season (25th in the Major Leagues). They haven’t scored fewer runs in their first 12 games since 2016, when they scored 31.

“On a personal level, I feel great, so I’m happy about that,” Harper said. “But obviously, as a team, that doesn’t really help us. We’ve got to come together as a team and play better and have better at-bats.”

The Phillies opened a six-game road trip on Friday in Colorado with a seven-run first inning in a 10-1 victory over the Rockies. They scored two or fewer runs in four or the remaining five games of the trip. They had only four hits in each of the final two games of the Giants series.

Philadelphia had seven pull-side ground-ball outs in Wednesday’s series finale.

“I think they’re trying to do too much,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “No doubt. They’re frustrated. We’re just going through one of those times. We’ll come out of it.”

“The last two days definitely weren’t the best,” Harper said. “I thought some guys, including myself, chased at some pitches down below [the strike zone].”

Thomson suggested he could shake up the lineup for Friday’s series opener against Arizona at Citizens Bank Park. It’s difficult to imagine him moving Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Harper from the top three spots. But he could shuffle the 4-7 hitters and have Adolis García hitting fourth, Brandon Marsh hitting fifth, Alec Bohm hitting sixth and Bryson Stott hitting seventh.

Maybe it would help.

Maybe it wouldn't change a thing.

The hitters just need to do a better job.

“We have to be, right?” Harper said. “That’s what it is. We have to do it. I don’t have any other answer for you besides that we have to do it. We’ve got to be that team, because if we’re not, then we’re not going to be where we want to be at the end. Myself and everybody in here, we’ve got to have better at-bats. Everything you guys all see, we can get better at.”

Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola had tossed five scoreless innings before he had runners on first and second with one out in the sixth. He struck out Matt Chapman looking after an ABS challenge for the second out. Nola then faced the left-handed-hitting Rafael Devers, even though left-hander Tanner Banks had warmed up and was ready in the bullpen.

“I thought that was his game right there,” Thomson said about Nola.

Devers hit a first-pitch fastball for a three-run home run to make it 3-0.

In the end, it might not have mattered anyway. The Phillies’ offense had just one hit the rest of the game.

The Phils just can’t win in San Francisco. They have not won a series here since 2013, when Cliff Lee and Kyle Kendrick got wins and Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Domonic Brown and Kevin Frandsen homered.

They are 9-29 here since.

“Yeah, that’s wild,” Harper said. “I mean, it really is. It’s not funny, but yeah it’s crazy. I didn’t know it was that bad, to tell you the truth.”

2013 is a long time ago.

“I mean, they were terrible until I got here [in 2019],” Harper said about the Phillies. “Those five years prior, they were [one of] the worst [teams] in the National League East.”

These Phillies are not. They have World Series aspirations. But if they want to get to the World Series, they need to start hitting, like Harper said.

They hope it starts Friday.

“We have a lot of confidence in ourselves, and we know we're going to be where we want to be at the end of the year,” Realmuto said.