Phillies shut out by Cubs for fifth straight loss as hitting woes continue

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 25, 2025

Published in Baseball

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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.

But Chicago 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.

Once again, they lacked for extra-base hits. Once again, they didn’t deliver with runners on base. And once again, for the fifth time in a row, they lost — 4-0 in the series opener at Wrigley Field — and fell back to .500 for the first time this season.

Five Cubs pitchers held the Phillies to five hits, three of which were singles. The Phillies were shut out for the second time this season. 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.

And at the risk of overreacting to a bad stretch through the first 26 games of a new season, consider this: Since they swept the Dodgers last July 9-11 at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies have played 95 regular-season games.

Their record over that time: 47-48.

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

The first two batters reached on soft hits, and when Kyle Tucker was called out trying to swipe second base, the Cubs challenged and overturned the ruling on the field. A walk loaded the bases before Nico Hoerner fouled off seven — seven!— two-strike pitches to wage a 13-pitch at-bat with two outs.

It appeared that Walker might not survive the first inning. The Phillies even got lefty Tanner Banks up in the bullpen. Walker escaped without allowing a run but expended 37 pitches.

The Phillies didn’t give him much of a breather, going down 1-2-3 on 17 pitches against Cubs starter Colin Rea in the second inning. Walker 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. He allowed two runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts in three innings.

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.