For seven innings, the rebuilding Phillies accumulated good faith in front of a small Sunday crowd at Citizens Bank Park as they neared a three-game sweep. They clobbered home runs and survived a mediocre outing by Alec Asher. Then, in the eighth inning of a 5-4 loss to Miami, the Phillies collapsed on one another to form a pile of bad baseball.
Their best reliever, Hector Neris, permitted a game-tying home run when he was asked to record four outs in his 74th appearance. Their haphazard second baseman, Cesar Hernandez, bumped into Tommy Joseph near first base while both attempted to catch a routine pop-up.