Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Game 22 - Losing Streak Reaches Six

Philadelphia Phillies  1 
Chicago Cubs  5 

2009 Topps Heritage #465
Monday Night, April 20th
Wrigley Field - Chicago, IL
8-14, 4th Place, 7 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  A shaky start from Aaron Nola, dazzling Cubs defense and the complete absence of any Phillies offense led to this 5-1 loss.

What It Means:  Amazingly enough, the only thing keeping the Phillies out of last place is that the Mets are playing even worse.  The Mets have lost 11 in a row and are a game behind the Phillies in the standings.

What Happened:  Nola was chased in the fifth inning after laboring through the start of the ballgame.  He gave up a three-run home run to Dansby Swanson in the bottom of the second, and the way the Phillies have been playing, the game seemed out of reach at that early stage.  Brandon Marsh singled to start the fourth and Justin Crawford would double him home.  Kyle Schwarber was 0 for 5 with a pair of strikeouts, Alec Bohm was 0 for 3 with some bad at-bats, dropping his season average to .133.  And back-up catcher Rafael Marchan, filling in while J.T. Realmuto is out with a bad back, had a hit to raise his season average to .065.

Featured Card:  Hitting coach Kevin Long hasn't appeared on a baseball card since 2009.  He's been with the Phillies since the 2022 season, and has previously coached with the Yankees (2007-14), Mets (2015-17) and Nationals (2018-21).  Yet he's completely avoided any oddball or team-issued cards.  The Phillies continue to produce a small print run of team-issued photo cards for their coaches, but as far as I  know, they've never produced a card for Long.

2026 Virtual Phillies Wall (Coming Soon) / 2026 Season Summary Index 2026 Chachi Set Checklist

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