By Sam Bush
The Phillies are now 4 games behind the Braves in NL East with the Mets on their tail.
They are 61-60, which means they have just 41 games left to stop their slide, which continued unabated yesterday with their ace Zack Wheeler on the hill.
Madison Bumgarner held the Phils to one hit in the first seven innings and the D’Backs beat the Phillies 6-2 for a three-game sweep.
Bumgarner (7-7) continued his strong pitching since returning from the injured list last month. Jean Segura led off the game with a double to left, but never advanced and Bumgarner didn’t give up another hit until Ronald Torreyes’ double in the eighth.
Bumgarner went eight innings, giving up three hits and one run to help NL-worst Arizona finish 6-1 on its homestand. He walked one, struck out five and hit two batters, throwing 105 pitches.
Bumgarner also had a broken-bat RBI single in the Diamondbacks’ five-run seventh against Zack Wheeler (10-8). Nick Ahmed and Josh VanMeter had two-run doubles in the inning.
The Phillies got the tying run to the plate in the ninth against Taylor Clarke, but Jean Segura grounded out with the bases loaded to end it.
They have lost four in a row and five of its last six to fall four games behind idle Atlanta in the National League East.
Christian Walker started the home seventh with a double to deep center. Daulton Varsho’s drag bunt advanced him to third. Drew Ellis grounded sharply to third base, where Torreyes fielded the ball near the bag and attempted to tag Walker but missed him. Ahmed followed with a two-run double to left and Bumgarner hit a broken-bat bloop single to left to bring Ahmed home. Josh Rojas walked, Enyel De Los Santos relieved and VanMeter doubled to conclude the scoring for the Diamondbacks.
Wheeler retired the first 11 Arizona batters before David Peralta doubled just inside the third-base bag with two outs. He scored on Walker’s broken-bat single to right. Wheeler pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and six runs. He walked one and fanned seven, bringing his major league-leading strikeout total to 194.
The Phillies scored in the eighth after loading the bases with no outs, but could only manage one run on Segura’s fielder’s-choice grounder. They added another run in the ninth on Torreyes’ RBI single.
Bumgarner is 3-2 with a 1.93 ERA in seven starts since returning from the injured list last month.
The game was played with three umpires. Mark Ripperger did not work for unspecified reasons. Plate umpire Tom Hallion took a foul ball off his mask in the seventh but stayed in after being checked out.
