Jake Arrieta was not happy with his start Wednesday afternoon at Fenway Park and that made it unanimous.
Nobody was happy about it.
How could you be?
The veteran right-hander, healthy and weird to go after having his elbow surgically cleaned a year ago, must be really good behind Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler in the rotation of the Phillies as the team will do the postseason tournament in this 60-sprint sprint.
But after four starts, Arrieta has been a mixed bag – two good and two not-so-good.
For the second straight start, he blew a two-run lead and failed to get through the fifth inning in a 6-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.
The Red Sox had lost nine straight innings, including Tuesday night when the Phils pounded, 13-6. They were prime targets for a Phillies whip. But the Phils’ offensive splashed and Arrieta had trouble throwing strikes. The Phillies’ modest winning streak ended at four when they fell to 9-10.
Arrieta gave up five hits, four runs and four walks in 4 innings.
He shrugged off much of the blame afterwards.
“The story of this outing is that I was unable to get ahead in counting or spin a breaking ball for strikes,” Arrieta said. “I got into too many counts and they made me pay.
“I do not feel that I did anything good in this beginning. I could achieve a lot of good things in my first three starts, whether the numbers show that or not. Today was a different story. I could not throw the ball like that. I expect. “
Arrieta is 1-3 with a 4.95 ERA in four starts. He averages just five innings per start.
Arrieta signed a three-year, $ 75 million contract with the Phillies for the 2018 season. He has struggled inconsistency and injury throughout the deal. In 59 starts with the club, he is 19-22 with a 4.30 ERA. He has thrown up five or fewer innings in 25 of his 59 starts with the Phils.
“I can pitch at a really high level and I know I’m capable of doing this,” Arrieta said.
He needs to start doing it soon, as the Phils will arrive on Thursday at the one-third point of the season. He probably has eight starters left.
“We have to be Jake to be Jake because we’ve seen what he could do in some of his starts and how effective he can be,” said manager Joe Girardi. “He’s really important to us.”
Arrieta’s performance was far from the only deficit the Phillies showed on Wednesday. The Phils, who entered the day with the best handball average in the majors at .268, had two hits in the first inning against rookie-lefty Kyle Hart. They did not get another hit until the seventh inning. The Phils had loaded the bases with no outs at the top of the first. They scored twice, but it felt like they had left Hart in the second start of the big league off the hook.
“We could not build on that first inning and that was the problem,” Girardi said. “We made him work really hard in the first inning and we couldn’t do much after that. For me that was the problem. He was effectively wild and he made some pitches when he had to. For whatever reason, we just today did not swing so well. “
Phillies hitters were 1 for 9 with rounds in scoring position and struck out 12 times. The Phils were bitten by Hunter Wendelstedt’s spacious stretch zone from Hunter Wendelstedt’s home court, but that was not the reason they went five innings between hits.
Neil Walker had the Phils’ third hit of the game. It came in the seventh inning and he scored to make it a one-run game thanks to Bryce Harper and JT Realmuto. Boston reliever Matt Barnes knocked both out to stop the bleeding. Ball game.
Harper and Realmuto have carried an incredible charge for this team. They will look to rebound in a doubleheader Thursday against the Toronto Blue Jays in Buffalo.
Rookie Spencer Howard will kick off the first game; Vince Velasquez the second.
“We have a chance to win two games and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Rhys Hoskins.
Subscribe and rate the Phillies Talk podcast:
Apple Podcasts / Google Play / Spotify / Stitcher / Art19 / YouTube
