Phils' offense finds more frustration in Atlanta

June 29th, 2025

ATLANTA -- The Phillies' performance on Saturday night had an all-too-familiar feeling.

The offense couldn't get much going. The starting pitching -- while not quite as dominant as it has been -- kept them in it for much of the night. The bullpen had a late stumble -- Jordan Romano hanging a pitch for a grand slam -- that proved costly.

Put it all together and it resulted in a 6-1 loss against the Braves at Truist Park. It was the Phillies' fourth loss in their past five games. Making this stretch all the more troubling is the fact that Philadelphia's starters have allowed only five runs (four earned) in those five games.

The offense, however, has scored only two runs total in those four defeats. One night after their best offensive output of the season in a 13-0 rout, the Phillies were held to just a single run by Spencer Schwellenbach.

"You always want to keep it going," said second baseman Bryson Stott. "Schwellenbach, he's one of the best, in my opinion. He had his stuff tonight."

Now, Jesús Luzardo was not nearly as sharp as his rotationmates in Houston this week -- but he still kept his club in the game. Despite allowing 10 baserunners (seven hits and three walks), Luzardo battled his way through five innings of two-run ball.

That marked an MLB-high 51st time this season that a Phillies starter has gone at least five innings and allowed two runs or fewer.

Typically, that's a winning recipe. Look no further than the Phils’ 28-4 record when getting such an outing in March, April and May.

In June, they're just 11-8 when they get one of those outings. They've gotten four such starts this week -- and they are 0-4 in those games.

"Every time we go out there, we don't want to give up any runs," Luzardo said. "So it doesn't matter if we score 10 or if we don't score any, our mentality never changes [as a rotation]. We're going to have stretches like this, and there's going to be a lot of games where [the offense] picks us up."

On this night, though, the Phillies had no answer for Schwellenbach, who racked up a career-high 12 strikeouts over seven innings. Philadelphia had 19 swings-and-misses against the righty, with the lone run coming on Alec Bohm's RBI single up the middle in the sixth.

Though it wasn't much, it pulled the Phillies within a run.

It stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh, when Romano loaded the bases on three straight one-out singles. His first pitch to Sean Murphy was a hanging slider right down the middle that Murphy promptly smashed a Statcast-projected 455 feet for a grand slam.

"The whole outing, really, he was kind of in the middle of the plate," manager Rob Thomson said. "But he's been pitching great. Again, got to put it behind you and move on."

To Thomson's point, Romano -- after posting a 13.50 ERA in his first 11 appearances -- had a 2.79 ERA over his past 21. He had 27 K's over 19 1/3 innings during that stretch, and he hadn't allowed a single hit in his past six appearances.

"It's just tough, you know?" Romano said. "You feel like you've kind of been getting in a groove a little bit, feeling good. And yeah, tonight definitely sucks. It sucks when you take your team out of the game, right?"

Though a late grand slam is rarely a mistake any team can afford from its bullpen, the reality is the Phillies' offense isn't leaving much room for any mistakes at the moment.

Saturday night was the eighth time this month that the Phillies have not scored more than one run. That's tied for the most such games by any team in the Majors.

The latest such effort came on the heels scoring 13 runs and hitting five homers -- both season highs. The Phillies have shown they're more than capable of scoring runs in bunches, considering only the Dodgers and Cubs have more games this season of scoring at least seven runs.

But the Phillies know they can't just sit back and wait for things to come around offensively.

"Obviously, you don't want to say you're just going to flip the switch, because that never goes well," Stott said. "You want to have good at-bats and obviously you want to score 11 every game, but I think as a whole this season, we've won a bunch of different games, which is good going down the stretch."