Blog

Sep 06, 2023

Detroit Tigers lose to Philadelphia Phillies, 8

When: 6:40 p.m. Monday, series opener. Where: Citizens Bank Park in

When: 6:40 p.m. Monday, series opener.

Where: Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

TV: Bally Sports Detroit.

Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1 in Detroit; Tigers radio affiliates).

Probable pitchers: Tigers LHP Joey Wentz (1-5, 7.28 ERA) vs. Phillies RHP Aaron Nola (4-4, 4.70 ERA).

• Box score

Tigers lineup:

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Game notes: The Tigers’ disappointing road trip so far — three straight losses in Chicago in which they mustered just three runs total — continues with a visit to one of baseball's most disappointing squads. The Phillies have been unable to find their October mojo, as the defending NL champions have only barely climbed out of the NL East cellar with two straight wins over the Washington Nationals.

Virtually every Philly hitter is underperforming, save for ex-Tiger Nick Castellanos and ex-Angel Brandon Marsh, who have OPSes of .858 and .830, respectively. Well, and Bryce Harper, who rushed back from offseason Tommy John surgery and is slashing .298/.403/.462 in 27 games as the Phils’ DH. (By comparison, he put up a .309/.429/.615 line during his 2021 MVP campaign, but you probably can't expect that every year.) But Kyle Schwarber, despite leading the roster with 15 homers, is hitting just .172/.316/.416 — which isn't entirely cutting it.

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Philly's biggest problem is good news for Tigers lefty Joey Wentz: The Phillies have been awful at hitting left-handers. Their .244 batting average off southpaws entering Sunday was the ninth-worst in MLB (and only slightly better than the eighth-worst Tigers’ .237) while their on-base percentage of .291 ranks next-to-last. The culprits, again, are the two big lefty bats in the lineup, Harper and Schwarber. Schwarber, at least, has never hit lefties particularly well; his .669 OPS off them this season is mostly in line with his career mark of .684. But Harper has mostly crushed them; even last season, a down year by his standards due to injuries, he delivered a .776 OPS off lefties. This season, though, he entered Sunday nearly 240 points off that mark, at .537 in 45 plate appearances (accounting for nearly 40 percent of his total PAs this season).

The good news for the Phillies, we guess, is that left-handed reliever Gregory Soto has been every bit as good as he was with the Tigers last season. His ERA (5.25) is inflated by five appearances in which he has given up a run, but he has 22 other scoreless appearances this season, and has allowed just two of the 12 runners he has inherited to score, while striking out 27 over 24 innings.

After tonight's series opener, the Tigers and Phillies suit up for two more night games in the City of Brotherly Love before the Tigers return home for a weekend set against the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks? OK, then.

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Contact Ryan Ford [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@theford. Read more on theDetroit Tigers and sign up for ourTigers newsletter.