‘We know what we need to do’: Phillies shut out by Cubs for fifth straight loss as hitting woes continue

CHICAGO — With two out in the seventh inning Friday, Trea Turner came to the plate as the tying run. On deck: Bryce Harper. Kyle Schwarber waited in the wings.

Everything lined up for a Phillies comeback.

Turner got ahead in the count, then took a strike. He got a fastball over the plate and hit it hard — 105.8 mph off the bat, according to Statcast — on the ground up the middle. A ball like that usually squeaks through for a hit.

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But Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson ranged to his left, reached down to glove the ball, and made an off-balance bounce to Nico Hoerner at second base.

Force out. Inning over. Rally extinguished.

Also, a snapshot of how things are going for the Phillies.

“Frustrating, right?” Schwarber said after a series-opening 4-0 loss in the wind and cold at Wrigley Field extended the Phillies’ losing streak to five games and dropped them to .500 for the first time. “It feels like the big hit right now is just not going through.”

Indeed, the Phillies were held to five hits, three of which were singles, none with a runner in scoring position.

It’s a recurring theme.

The Phillies are tied for third in the majors with a .337 on-base percentage. But they’re 12th in runs scored (111) because they’re batting only .244 with runners in scoring position, tied for 13th in baseball.

And for an offense that was built to slug, well, the Phillies aren’t slugging. They have one homer in the last six games. After getting only three extra-base hits in a three-game sweep by the Mets, they mustered only two (both two-out doubles) against the Cubs.

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No wonder the Phillies were shut out for the third time in 14 games. They’ve scored 13 runs in the last five games. After a 7-2 start, they are 13-13, stuck in their longest losing skid since dropping six in a row last July 28 to Aug. 3.

“We’re kind of in a little bit of a rut here,” manager Rob Thomson. “We’ve got to create some runs. We’ve got to swing the bats better.”

Thomson insists that they will. His confidence is rooted in their track records, from Harper and Turner to Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Nick Castellanos, and others. He should have faith in their abilities.

But it’s also reasonable to be concerned about the Phillies without overreacting, especially when you consider this: Since they swept the Dodgers last July 9-11 at Citizens Bank Park, they have played 95 regular-season games.

Their record over that time: 47-48.

“Last year was last year,” Schwarber said. “That was kind of the storyline there, and we weren’t going in near the end playing our best. Now, we feel like we’re doing things that we need to do, and it’s just kind of eluding [us]. That’s why you always see it frustrating, right?

“It’s going to be a matter of time, and I think the matter of time could be soon. We have to keep working, keep doing what we’re doing, and kind of block out whatever it is, guys being frustrated about not getting a hit or whatever it is.”

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Rain pushed the start of the game back by 2 hours and 10 minutes. And when Taijuan Walker finally got to the mound, well, another storm was brewing.

Walker threw 37 pitches in the first inning, including a 13-pitch duel with Hoerner, who fouled off seven — seven! — two-strike pitches. At one point, the Phillies got lefty Tanner Banks up in the bullpen.

Ultimately, Walker escaped without allowing a run.

“I’m just hoping [Hoerner] just puts the ball in play and trying to throw something in the middle, especially knowing that the wind’s blowing in,” Walker said. “I’m just trying to get something down the middle so he can just hopefully pop it up somewhere.”

The Phillies didn’t give Walker much of a breather, going down 1-2-3 on 17 pitches against Cubs starter Colin Rea in the second inning. He trudged right back out to the mound — and found himself right back in trouble.

This time, the Cubs cashed in.

Walker allowed a leadoff single to Pete Crow-Armstrong, who stole second and scored on Jon Berti’s gap-splitting double to left-center field.

The Cubs tacked on a run in the third inning (RBI single by Hoerner) against Walker and the fourth (leadoff single by Berti, RBI double by Ian Happ) against Banks.

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“I really didn’t look at what my pitch count was,” said Walker, who threw 86 in three innings. “I know I threw a lot of pitches. But having to use the bullpen that much in the first game of the series, it’s not really acceptable for me.”

Given the way the Phillies are hitting, a longer outing from Walker wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

“It’s not like we come in every single day and we just keep doing the same thing, right?” Schwarber said. “We keep evaluating, we keep looking, and we’re trying to find a way to keep being better.

“We know what we need to do, and we’re going to find a way to get to that point.”