The Phillies used five relievers against Pittsburgh on Thursday and four of them gave up runs. The meltdown came after Alan Rangel threw four shutout innings, but needed 90 pitches to maneuver through those innings. Rangel struggled with his command and walked four hitters and gave up three hits, but kept Pittsburgh from crossing the plate.
The Phillies scored their lone run in the bottom of the third after Rafael Marchan and Kyle Schwarber worked walks and Bryce Harper doubled to drive in Marchan, who played in place of J.T. Realmuto and batted ninth. Both teams went scoreless in the fourth.
In Rangel’s earlier starts with the Phillies this season, Tim Mayza had worked as an opener. On Thursday, Rangel got the start and Mayza followed Rangel to the mound, but allowed a run in the fifth inning on a double by Jake Mangum and an RBI single from Esmerlyn Valdez. Jonathan Bowlan threw a scoreless sixth inning, but did give up two hits.
Things fell apart from there with both Jose Alvarado and Lou Trivino giving up a pair of runs in an inning of work. Alvarado took the loss to move his record to 3-3 and pushed his ERA up to 6.10 this season. Kyle Backhus surrendered a leadoff home run to Nick Gonzales in the ninth to cap the scoring.
Carmen Mlodzinski (5-3, 3.33) needed just 33 pitches to get through three scoreless innings of relief to get the win.
The Phillies had just four hits in the game, singles from Trea Turner and Bryson Stott, a double from Alec Bohm and an RBI double from Bryce Harper.
The Phillies have Friday off before starting a series in Kansas City.
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