DENVER — J.T. Realmuto had neither dropped his bat nor run more than halfway down the first-base line when the mighty Phillies offense stalled once again Monday night.
Things were finally starting to percolate. Not much. But after being muted for seven innings in this notorious hitter’s ballpark by the Colorado Rockies, the Phillies were rallying. Pinch-hitting Didi Gregorius had just doubled in a run, and Realmuto stepped to the plate as the tying run with Bryce Harper on deck.
Realmuto hit the ball hard, too. But he lined it directly at Rockies reliever Carlos Estévez, who snared it out of midair and threw to second base to double off Gregorius and help send the Phillies to a 4-1 loss in the opener of a three-game series at Coors Field.
The Phillies fell to 1-4 on a road trip that can’t end soon enough. They have scored three runs or fewer in five of their last seven games, unacceptable for a team that is built to mash and trots out a $130 million lineup for most games.
Yes, it’s early. How early? The Phillies have played 11 games, 6.8% of the schedule. If they were an NFL team, it would still be the first quarter of Week 2.
But manager Joe Girardi’s behavior suggests an unusual urgency for the middle of April. Girardi has already shuffled the names in that expensive lineup. It hasn’t worked yet. Not even a night in the thin air of the Rocky Mountains could ignite the slumbering offense.
Rockies starter Chad Kuhl, the pride of Newark, Del., shut down the Phillies for six innings. He gave up a single to Harper in the first inning and didn’t allow another hit until Realmuto’s two-out single in the sixth.
It provided Aaron Nola with no margin for error, and to his credit, Nola didn’t make any until the sixth inning. He finally hung a sinker to Charlie Blackmon, who crushed a 453-foot leadoff homer to right-center field to snap a scoreless stalemate.
Return of the wild thing
It took four appearances for the wild José Alvarado to show up.
With one on, one out, and Nola at 84 pitches in the sixth inning, Girardi trusted Alvarado to keep the deficit at 1-0. Instead, the big lefty uncorked two wild pitches, the second of which went through Realmuto’s legs and enabled C.J. Cron to score from third base.
Alvarado had neither issued a walk nor thrown a wild pitch in a total of three innings over his first three outings. Still, he will never be confused with a control artist. Girardi chose to bring him in rather than let Nola face lefty-hitting Ryan McMahon. Nola threw 76 pitches in each of his first two starts.
The Rockies stretched the lead to 4-0 in the seventh inning against reliever James Norwood. Randal Grichuk lined a two-run double over Nick Castellanos’ outstretched glove in right field.
Rough night for Rhys
Rhys Hoskins worked a two-out walk in the fourth inning, then got caught leaning at first base and was picked off by Rockies catcher Elias Díaz. Given how precious baserunners were against Kuhl, it qualified as a costly mistake.
In the fifth inning, Hoskins was poised to field Sam Hilliard’s slow roller to first base. But the ball hit the bag and bounced for a hit.
How’s that for a play that typified the Phillies’ first 11 games?
