Two outs. Bases loaded. Two strikes on Nico Hoerner.
Then he threw a cutter off the plate. Foul ball. A sinker headed for the outside corner. Foul ball. A slider that wasn't even close. Another foul ball.
Hoerner fouled off eight of nine pitches — with a stray ball mixed in for variety — before finally lining out to left. Walker escaped the inning without a run. But anyone watching knew the real damage was done.
Thirteen pitches to get one out. Thirty-seven pitches just to get out of the first inning. By the time Walker trudged off after three innings and 86 pitches, his afternoon — and the Phillies’ — was already tilting the wrong way.
Chicago rode doubles from Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki, two hits and an RBI from Jon Berti, and a steady parade of contributions from up and down the lineup to hand the slumping Phillies a 4-0 loss.
It took two hours and ten minutes to get Friday’s game started thanks to rain. It didn’t take nearly that long for the Phillies’ bats to go silent again.
J.T. Realmuto had two of the Phillies’ five hits. Nobody else had more than one. Colin Rea, who entered the day with a 4.58 ERA, breezed through five scoreless innings, striking out seven and walking two. Four Chicago relievers — Caleb Thielbar, Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, and Daniel Palencia — handled the rest, allowing just two more hits the rest of the way.
And if you’re looking for a number to sum up where the Phillies are right now, try this: They’ve been shut out three times in their first 26 games. Last season, it took them 90 games to get blanked three times.
Or this: The last time they ended a full inning with a lead was the seventh inning last Sunday. They’ve played 40 innings since then. Forty innings. No leads.
The Cubs didn't exactly slug their way to a rout, but they didn’t need to. Berti's double to left-center scored Pete Crow-Armstrong for the first run in the second inning. Hoerner’s single to right brought in another in the third. Happ roped his second double of the afternoon to make it 3-0 in the fourth. Crow-Armstrong added a bunt in the seventh that Dansby Swanson raced home on.
Walker (1-2) was charged with two runs on six hits in three innings, but considering the pitch count — and the swings Hoerner forced him to endure — it felt like even more.
Saturday brings another shot to thaw out the bats, with Jesús Luzardo (2-0, 2.08 ERA) set to face Cubs righty Ben Brown (2-1, 4.57 ERA).
And at this point, any run, any lead, any reason to smile would qualify as progress.
