4 Phillies Takeaways From Series Loss Against Diamondbacks

As a whole, the Phillies' offense has been disappointing. At the start of the season, Bryce Harper certainly wasn’t helping the cause, but right now, he is the only player getting the job done at the plate.

He is on fire, producing a .500/.583/1.000 slash line in 10 at-bats, drawing two walks against Arizona. His power stroke is on full display, recording another three extra-base hits with two doubles and a home run.

Harper had three of the team's 11 RBI as well in the series.

Offensive inconsistencies

As noted earlier, Philadelphia entered the series with the Diamondbacks on a brutal scoreless streak. It was nice to see them snap it immediately in the bottom of the first in Game 1, but then they went 10 straight innings without scoring again.

Four runs were scored in the bottom of the third, but they didn’t manage to scratch a run across at any other point. It was more of the same in Game 3, scoring all three of their runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Arizona held the Phillies scoreless in 23 out of 26 innings; they need to find more consistency than that to get on track.

Andrew Painter thrives behind an opener

The rookie phenom looked great in his debut against the Washington Nationals before struggling in his second appearance against San Francisco. Manager Rob Thomson decided to switch things up for his third start.

Zach Pop was used as the opener for two innings, with Painter piggybacking off him. It got the job done, as Painter fired five effective innings, allowing only three hits and one walk for one earned run while striking out seven.

Jose Alvarado's struggles continue

In the early going, Philadelphia’s bullpen has been a strength for the team. But the struggles of Jose Alvarado have hurt them when his number has been called. And the series against the Diamondbacks was lost on his arm.

Called upon to pitch the eighth inning, he managed to record only one out but allowed two hits and was charged with two earned runs in what ended up being a 4-3 loss.

Alvarado has made eight appearances and given up runs in three of them. In five of them, he hasn’t even worked a full inning, so surrendering eight runs, seven of which have been earned, gives him a brutal 12.60 ERA in the early going.