Phillies lose a close series opener to the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2

When the St. Louis Cardinals rolled into Citizens Bank Park on Monday, the Phillies felt like they were looking in a mirror.

“It’s weird, I guess, if you look at just the basic, the Abner Doubleday numbers, not the new stuff, how similar their numbers are to ours,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Offensively, defensively, pitching-wise, just averages, slugging and on-base, runs scored, all that, home runs, all that. It‘s just almost the same.”

Indeed, the Cardinals and Phillies entered their series with an identical .403 slugging percentage. St. Louis had the slight edge in batting average (.261 to .257), runs scored (194 to 191), and on-base percentage (.338 to .336), while the Phillies led in walks (154 to 150).

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And sure enough, the Phillies’ eventual 3-2 loss on Monday night was determined by the closest of margins. The pitchers’ duel between the Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez and the Cardinals’ Matthew Liberatore was a back-and-forth affair, as each allowed two runs.

Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn’s solo homer off Matt Strahm in the seventh inning proved to be the difference.

“I feel like it’s just one of those things that just didn’t go our way tonight,” Kyle Schwarber said.

When the Cardinals got on the board in the fourth inning with an RBI groundout, the Phillies immediately responded in the bottom of the frame. J.T. Realmuto doubled, advanced on a groundout by Alec Bohm, and was driven home on a single by Edmundo Sosa.

Iván Herrera then homered off Sánchez in the sixth inning, and the Phillies answered back once again. Schwarber singled — extending his on-base streak to 47 games — and advanced to third on a single by Nick Castellanos. He scored on a fielder’s choice from Realmuto to tie things back up at 2.

The Phillies had their chances to add even more. They had 11 hard-hit balls off Liberatore, but only four of those fell for hits.

“I felt like there was a lot of hard contact and kind of some tough luck. It is what it is,” Schwarber said.

Sánchez needed 98 pitches for six innings, and he allowed some traffic on the base paths with four hits, three walks, and a hit batsman. In the fourth inning, Nolan Arenado drew a leadoff walk, and advanced to second on a fly ball to center field, narrowly sliding in under the tag.

After Arenado advanced to third on a wild pitch and Sánchez walked another batter to put runners on the corners, he gave his team a chance to escape the inning unscathed. Pedro Pagés hit a grounder to third baseman Bohm, and while Sosa got the force at second, he sailed his throw to first over Bryce Harper‘s head, allowing Arenado to score.

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Sánchez recorded eight strikeouts, six of which came from his changeup.

“The only bad thing about it was that I left the game in a tie,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “I didn’t give them a chance to win tonight.”

Strahm took over in the seventh and mislocated a four-seam to Winn. Strahm’s fastball velocity, which sat at 92.7 mph last season, has been down this year after he missed part of spring training with a shoulder injury. The pitch Winn sent over the left-field wall was 91.4 mph.

“He left the pitch to Winn up and out over the plate,” Thomson said. “He missed the spot. His velocity’s down a little bit. But I thought his stuff was good and his execution was better, other than that one pitch.”

Orion Kerkering and Tanner Banks retired the side in order in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to give the offense an opportunity to answer back again.

But Cardinals closer Ryan Heseley struck out Max Kepler and Brandon Marsh. Along with Bryson Stott, Kepler and Marsh had entered the game in the sixth as pinch hitters once the left-handed Liberatore was lifted. Trea Turner then lined out to end the game.

Harper went hitless in three at-bats, drawing one walk. Since his three-hit outburst against the Guardians on Saturday, he is 0-for-6.

“He’s frustrated,” Thomson said. “He expects himself to produce, and right now it’s off and on. Balance is a little bit off right now, and they’re pitching him tough.”