Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Eight is enough as Phils rocked by O's in road trip of the damned

Baltimore, MD -- How bad is bad?

When your starter only retires two batters?

When the final score resembles a football team's stellar defensive effort?

When a position player -- who essentially has no "book" on him which batters can use to prepare -- can't fool the opposition very long and manages to surrender multiple runs?

The 2015 Tragical History Tour that is the Phillies season rolled into Camden Yards and wrote another chapter. Manny Machado and Chris Parmelee each hit two home runs and the Baltimore Orioles finished with a franchise-record eight long balls in their 19-3 drubbing of sad-sack Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

Chris Davis, David Lough, Jimmy Paredes and Ryan Flaherty also went yard for Baltimore, which had previously hit seven home runs as a team three times. The most recent came in 2012 against Toronto.

Phillies starter Jerome Williams (3-7) recorded just two outs before leaving the game in the bottom of the first inning with a strained left hamstring. He gave up four hits, walked two and served up two wild pitches.

Machado set the tone with a no-doubter into the stands in left to lead off the game. A pair of walks sandwiched Paredes' fly out to center, and Parmelee singled to load the bases with one away. J.J. Hardy singled in Travis Snider, Flaherty plated two with his single to right and both players scored following a pair of wild pitches.

Dustin McGowan came on for Williams and struck out Lough to end the frame, but Machado and Paredes hit solo homers in the second against him and Parmelee launched a solo shot with two outs. Lough redeemed himself with a three-run shot to right in the third, and it was 12-0 before McGowan had recorded an out in the stanza.

Chris Tillman (5-7) had a quality start for the Orioles, yielding three runs on four hits over six innings.

The O's have been red hot of late to keep pace in a competitive AL East, winning 10 of 12. The Phillies, meanwhile, have been trending in the opposite direction. The worst team in the majors, Philly has lost eight in a row to fall to 3-18 over its last 21.

Their lone bright spot in this one came on Maikel Franco's sixth-inning, two- run homer to center. The young slugger has seven home runs in 30 games this season.

Baltimore scored at least one run in each of the first six innings and three runs or more four times.

The lone mystery of the night came in the seventh, when outfielder Jeff Francoeur took the hill. He managed to pitch a 1-2-3 seventh inning, but he came back out for the eighth and on the very first pitch, Flaherty set the record with a solo shot to right-center. Paredes' sacrifice fly to the warning track in left produced Baltimore's final run.

Notes: Baltimore improved to 9-2 in its last 11 against Philadelphia ... Francoeur pitched two innings. The last position player to pitch more than one in a nine-inning game was Boston's Nick Green in 2009 ... Phillies outfielder Domonic Brown had two hits and his first RBI of the season ... The Phillies have dropped 12 straight road games ... Williams is 0-4 over his last six starts ... All five players that took the mound for the Phillies gave up at least two runs.

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