Velez loses the match and loses the second player, and ends the miserable month of May with the fifth defeat in a row

The last night of May played a role like many others in the Velez family.

There wasn’t enough insult, a defensive foul and a long ball plotted against the Bullpen against the Phils as they suffered a 7-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants in Round 11 at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night.

As if a fifth straight loss and the grim reality of a 12-game deficit in the NL East weren’t insulting enough, Phils has also struggled with injury.

Second baseman Jean Segura took the field off his right finger while trying to hit the seventh inning. X-rays revealed a fracture. He will undergo further tests on Wednesday, but will end up on the list of injured.

Segura is one of the best hitters on the team, as well as one of the few defenders he can count on.

“Someone has to step up,” said manager Joe Girardi.

Shortstop Didi Gregorius has recovered from a knee sprain as he plays in post-injury rehab at Triple A. His schedule will likely be accelerated. Johan Camargo, who has been playing a lot with Gregory out, could move to second base.

“I’m not sure what we’re going to do,” Girardi said. “We’ll discuss it tonight.”

That looked so much fun after a match that lasted four hours and 52 minutes.

The Phils ended a miserable month from May 10-18.

“June should be better,” Gerardi said. “The last two weeks have been really frustrating for our club. We’ve had a lot of heavy losses, the last (three) in extra games. It was really tough. We had chances to win. We just didn’t.”

Phils had a chance to win on Tuesday night. They left a potential winning streak in second in the ninth when Nick Castellanos was knocked out. They left the bases loaded at the bottom of the 11 when Philly Jose Alvarez hit former Roman Quinn to end the match. The Phils left 14 players at the base and was only 3 to 17 with the runners in the scoring position.

The Giants scored three goals to top the eleventh against loyalist Andrew Bellati to break the 4-4 tie. Donovan Walton had a double RBI and Jock Pederson is Homer twice in the inning.

Rookie Ranger Suarez battled the driving issues but got major points when he needed them. The Rescuers, Conor Brogdon and Seranthony Dominguez, also got big wins and tied the score 3-3 after nine rounds.

The Giants rushed through the tiebreaker on a foul from bowler Jeurys Familia at the top of the tenth.

The extra period started with a man in second place. Familia introduced a hard-hitting ball to first base by Pederson. Rhys Hoskins sent the ball deep behind the bag and threw a throw to Familia but the bowler not only was late to the bag but dropped the ball allowing Wilmer Flores to score from second.

Phils tied the match with two wins at the bottom of the 10th place with a hit from Alec Bohm. The ball would have finished at the end of the match but hit the second base bag and carried into the center of the field, allowing the run to score.

It turns out that Familia’s mental blunder (not covering the base in time) and his physical blunder at the top of the tenth rank put Velez in trouble.

“He didn’t finish on time,” Girardi said. “I mean, this is baseball 101. He probably did it 1,000 times.”

Did he do it this time…

“They might not have scored,” Girardi said – and the Phillies may have won it on a bout at the bottom of 10th place.

Instead, Phillies 21-29 are heading into June.

Hard to believe.

“I definitely think we’re better than our record shows,” said Kyle Schwarber. “But we have to go out there and find a way to win matches.”

Starting on Wednesday nights with Aaron Nola on the Hill. He will try to prevent Phils from drifting in two consecutive series.

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