Phillies drop a thriller to Orioles
Tuesday was a memorable night at Citizens Bank Park, but for all the wrong reasons. From another bullpen disaster to a dropped infield popup, the Phillies pieced together one of their more excruciating defeats in recent memory in a 10-9 extra-inning loss to the Orioles.

“We saw some stuff tonight that usually you definitely don’t see,” Rhys Hoskins said. “Some stuff that I’ve never seen on the field.”

Third baseman Jean Segura called off Hoskins on a popup to the right of the mound in the ninth inning, only to have the ball drop allowing two runs to score. Then in the tenth, Roman Quinn dove for a sinking liner in centerfield and missed the ball, allowing for an inside-the-park two-run homer.

“I had heard something from the right side of the infield,” Hoskins said. “I just need to be louder, right? I called it. I called it early. I probably called it maybe a little bit too early. I don’t think there’s any miscue if I end up calling it again or maybe call it at a later time. Who knows what happens after that?”

It was a disaster all over the diamond for the Phillies.

“It’s just frustrating,” manager Joe Girardi said. “That’s a game that I thought, in a lot of ways, we gave it away.”

The Phillies came back in the contest twice, once in the eighth when Bryce Harper and Segura each homered, and again in the ninth when Didi Gregorius lashed an RBI-single to ultimately send the contest to extras.

Austin Hays launched a sinking liner to center in the 10th that rolled to the wall beyond an outstretched Quinn. It was an aggressive, but questionable decision on Quinn's part to dive.

“You love the hustle, you love the effort,” Harper said. “It's something that you never want to take away from 'Q,' because he plays a great center field for us and he goes and gets the balls better than anybody on our team. So you never want to take that away, but we have to be a little bit smarter. I had to learn that as well when I was in right field playing coming up, you know, not playing as many games, and I'd want to go out and try to get every single ball for my pitchers.”

The Phillies bullpen combined to allow five runs (four earned) over 4 1/3 innings. Closer Hector Neris, who was the Phils' lone reliable reliever prior to Tuesday, sputtered to the tune of surrendering three runs on three hits and a pair of walks.

The bullpen has a 10.19 ERA over 35 1/3 innings this season.

“We kept coming back, and we weren’t able to close out the deal,” Girardi said. “We had our chances. We made some mistakes that really cost us.”
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Follow Patrick on Twitter: @PGordonPBR

BY PATRICK GORDON
Managing Editor
pgordon@philadelphiabaseballreview.com

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