The Phillies can’t wait to get to California. For one thing, there’s apparently something called sun over there. And another thing, they’re sick and bleeping tired of teams from Ohio. The Phillies closed out a disappointing homestand with a 3-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on anoth er cloudy, damp and chilly afternoon at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday. The Phils lost two of three to the Guardians and have now dropped two series in a row after winning their first six under new manager Don Mattingly. The Phillies, 26-27, started their homestand by losing two of three to the Cincinnati Reds, another Ohio team. “I feel like we were playing good baseball and then kind of hit a little rough patch the last two series,” Trea Turner said. “But I don’t feel like we’re beating ourselves. We’re in games. We just have to get a few more hits offensively and produce a little more offensively.” During the six-game homestand, the Phils hit just .172 as a team. They scored just six runs in the four losses. Cleveland threw some good pitching at the Phils. The Guardians won Friday night’s game, 1-0, behind Gavin Williams, who hooked up in a tight pitchers’ duel with Cristopher Sanchez. Both pitchers tossed eight shutout innings. The Phillies rebounded in the rain and won, 3-0, with Zack Wheeler firing six scoreless innings Saturday night. On Sunday, rookie Andrew Painter delivered his third straight solid start in the series finale. The right-hander went 6 1/3 innings for the longest outing of his time as a big-leaguer. He gave up six hits and two runs. Painter more than kept his team in the game, but the offense did little, first against Cleveland lefty starter Parker Messick, then against the bullpen. “They’ve got a bunch of unique arms and a little bit of velo,” Turner said. “They made it tough on us. We did a good job keeping it close but just didn’t score enough runs off those guys.” “Neither team went out and knocked the ball all over the park,” Mattingly said. “It was a really well-pitched series on both sides. They’re playoff-type games when you get pitching like that. Little things, scratching for a run here and there, that will make a difference. In general, we played well. We just didn’t score. The series could have gone either way. We could have won all three with the way we threw the ball or lost all three with the way we scored. It’s not like anybody out there is not trying to get hits. The old saying ‘Good pitching stops good hitting’ was pretty evident in this series.” The Phils are 7-13 against lefty starters. Messick held the Phils to five hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He walked two and struck out six. The Phils rallied for a run against Cleveland’s bullpen after Brandon Marsh led off the bottom of the seventh with a triple. That was the only run the Phils got as Hunter Gaddis retired Alec Bohm for the third out with the tying run on third. Reliever Jonathan Bowlan was tagged for a long home run by Travis Bazzana leading off the eighth as the Guardians went up again by two runs. Painter’s last three starts have been encouraging. Since allowing eight runs in 3 2/3 innings against the Athletics on May 7, he has given up just five runs over 17 1/3 innings in his last three starts. He has pitched to J.T. Realmuto in all three of those games. “I always trust what he’s calling and I know he trusts what he’s calling, as well,” said Painter, whose fastball sat at 96.5 mph. He offset the pitch with 23 splitters that generated five swings and misses. “That was probably as good as I’ve seen him,” Mattingly said. “He spotted up all day, put the ball where he wanted to. He had a good split. Painter’s improvement comes at a time when Aaron Nola has been struggling and Sanchez and Wheeler have been dazzling. It would be huge for this rotation if Painter kept pitching well while Nola figured some things out. “He’s keeping us in games and pitching well,” Mattingly said. “It speaks a lot about him that he kept going and kept working.” Now, if the offense could get going. Maybe some hitting-season weather in southern California will help. Turner, the leadoff man, has struggled mightily lately. He won the NL batting title last year at .304. He went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and a walk Sunday to fall to .225. His on-base percentage is .288. Does Turner feel like he’s close to putting something together? “I don’t know,” he said. “It feels like I’m fouling everything off, missing a lot of pitches. It’s frustrating, but it’s part of the game. I have to keep working. I’ve been in the cage a bunch. Me and Kyle were talking a lot last night. I’m just trying to get past it and contribute.” Another struggling Phillie, Adolis Garcia, ran his skid to 1 for 38 before stroking a double in the fourth inning Sunday. He’s hitting .203. On Saturday, Mattingly said he didn’t have “a true alternative, a guy who’d totally be an upgrade offensively,” for Garcia. After Sunday’s game, the Phils jetted to San Diego, where they’ll play three against the Padres, starting Monday afternoon, followed by three against the Dodgers. It’s a tough portion of the schedule as those two teams entered Sunday a combined 23 games over .500. “Every game is a test,” Mattingly said. “San Diego is a handful but so are we, quite honestly. No one is walking in against the Phillies and saying, ‘Oh, this is a series we’ll bang these guys around.’ I think teams know better. But we’ve got to do enough to win.” ...read more read less