Phillies 6, Pirates 2

The Pirates gave up five early runs to the Phillies, then did little else en route to a 6-2 loss Wednesday night that dropped them to 70-74.

Steven Brault allowed a two-run homer to Freddy Galvis in the second. The following inning, it was an RBI double by Cameron Rupp and a bunch of awkward Pirates defense as the Phillies went up 4-0.

In the fourth, Andrew McCutchen hit his 21st homer of the year, and Sean Rodriguez brought in a run with a sacrifice fly after Gregory Polanco and David Freese reached base. But the Phillies scored another run in the bottom of the inning after an error by Eric Fryer and a Maikel Franco double. They tacked on another in the sixth when Drew Hutchison gave up a homer to Tommy Joseph.

In the midst of that, Zach Phillips and Wade LeBlanc made their Pirates debuts, which I'm sure few were around to see. (Phillips faced a single batter and got a whiff, and LeBlanc pitched two scoreless innings.) It was hard to imagine the Bucs coming back in this one. They did make some noise in the ninth, but completely pointlessly ran their way into an out at the plate -- on Matt Joyce's single with two on in the ninth, Rick Sofield sent Sean Rodriguez, who runs like he has an elephant strapped to his back, and Rodriguez got thrown out. The Bucs lost by four.