Last night, the Phillies scored thirteen runs. Maybe that’s why they seemed so snakebitten in today’s loss. I’m not personally a triskaidekaphobe, but baseball players are a superstitious (though certainly not cowardly) lot. But while we can’t rule out unlucky thirteen as a cause, the more likely explanation for today’s quiet showing from the Phillies bats goes by the name of Schwellenbach.
Kyle Schwarber lined a ball over the head of Eli White in center, ending up on second. He was stranded there when Spencer Schwellenbach struck out Alec Bohm and Nick Castellanos, the latter of whom accrued all his strikes on a trio of fastballs, each a different type (four-seam, then sinker, then splitter).