The Phillies leave Atlanta and head to New York where they face the division-leading Mets for a three-game series. The Mets have the largest divisional lead in MLB so saying this series is important early on is an understatement. Especially when you consider the fact that we only have two more series matchups with them for the rest of the season.
GAME ONE
Alvarado gets optioned down to Lehigh Valley with Bailey Falter being brought up to start the game instead of Eflin. I don’t know why it wasn’t Eflin, but Falter didn’t have a bad outing the last time he started a game, so thinking we could steal game one wasn’t such a far-fetched idea. Positive thinking can only get you so far because we lost 8-6.
It was not a good outing from the beginning as he allowed three runs in the first inning because of two sac-flies from Alonso and Escobar, then a single from Canha. He then allowed a home run to Alonso in the third inning to make the score 5-0. Nelson came in for Falter in the fourth inning. Two outs must be the scariest moments for Phillies pitchers because Nelson allows Lindor to hit in Marte with a double and right after that, Alonso (again) hits Lindor in with a single.
Just as things looked bleak and worthy of turning off the television, the Phillies EXPLODED in the sixth inning. Hoskins and Bohm get on base for Harper to start off the inning, which lets Bryce hit a ball to center to have Hoskins go home. Castellanos was up to bat next, and he singles to get Bohm home. The score is 3-7 at this point and after a walk, the Mets change their pitcher. That helped us tremendously because Stubbs crushed a ball 382 feet for a three-run home run to make the score 6-7 and bring us within one. Stott grounds out to end it, but it felt like something could happen in the next few innings for us to win.
My hopes must have gotten too high because in the next inning, Bellatti gets sent in after Nelson walked the first batter in. and allows a double to the first batter he faces (Nimmo, of course). With Nido on third and Nimmo on second, Marte takes the hope right out of us when he hit Nido in to make the score 8-6.
Falter had a terrible outing, the bullpen let a shot at a win slip away, and it’s getting harder to be positive.
GAME TWO
Eflin gets the start for game two instead, and with Taijuan Walker starting for the Mets, there was hope for a win. It turned out to be false hope though because the Phillies lost 8-2.
Eflin did not have a good outing whatsoever. He went six innings allowing seven runs on eight hits, two walks, and only four strikeouts. Norwood relieved him and did exactly what one would expect if you’ve watched all the games this season. He went .2 innings that consisted of two hits, one run, and two walks. At least Brogdon and Dominguez shut down the rest of the game, but by that point, the score was 8-2 and the game was out of hand. We knew our pitching didn’t get a major fix, but I don’t think anyone thought it would be this bad.
The offense of course doesn’t show up when the pitching is subpar. The two runs we scored came off a two-run single to center field by Realmuto. Six of our seven hits came from Castellanos, Realmuto, and Harper who each had two hits. The only other player to have a hit in this game was Camargo.
Having seven hits while only managing to score two runs is not only unacceptable, but also embarrassing. The pitching constantly doing this is a story as old as time itself for the Phillies and it gets more frustrating as time goes on. Insanity has been described as doing something repeatedly expecting a different result, and this team is insane.
GAME THREE
On the anniversary of Halladay’s perfect game, Wheeler was on the mound to hopefully help the Phillies avoid the dreaded sweep by our divisional opponent.
Allowing three runs isn’t the most ideal scenario for Wheeler, but a three-run lead is something a competent MLB team should be able to come back from, especially when it happens in the very first inning. Wheeler finished the game allowing three runs (one earned. Thanks, mental errors) on four hits with seven strikeouts and three walks. Wheeler left the game with a 3-1 score thanks to a Bohm ground-out. Hand, Familia (surprisingly), and Dominguez all do their jobs to allow the offense to make a comeback late in the game.
Thank goodness Nick Castellanos is a Phillie. He hits a home run to left field with two runners (Bohm and Camargo) on to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead. There isn’t much to say about the offense other than the home run. They only managed to get five hits with 10 strikeouts.
All Corey Knebel had to do was get three outs, and what did he do? He allowed Plummer’s first hit to be a game-tying home run. He gets out of the inning easily after that, but Girardi lets him go back out to start the 10th inning for whatever reason. Due to the extra innings rule, Marte started the inning on second base. They decided to intentionally walk Alonso, which makes sense with how well Alonso does against us. Knebel then gives up a double to let Marte go home and win the game.
Something must be done with this team. At some point, the baseballs can’t be blamed because every other team with hitters has managed to do well. This team doesn’t play with any energy, and you can’t tell Girardi is in a contract year by looking at him. I don’t expect him to last the entire season with people like Harper and Castellanos on the team. I expect a boiling point to be reached very soon. We’re back at The Bank tomorrow for a series against former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler and the San Francisco Giants. Hope is far from a plan, but let’s hope they do something worth talking about in this series.
