The Phillies welcomed back the 2009 National League Championship team before today’s game at Citizens Bank Park. They always do an A+ job with this stuff. Public address announcer Dan Baker introduced the players and coaches, they rolled some memorable highlights up on the big board, and Jayson Werth playfully decked the Phanatic:

Good times were had by all – and then the game started.

The Phillies were down big early after Drew Smyly, who had a 0.69 ERA in his first two starts with the Phillies, surrendered a two-out grand slam in the second inning to Chicago’s Leury Garcia.

It was Garcia’s first career grand slam.

“I gotta be better right there with the bases loaded. That’s happened to me a few times this season,” Smyly said.  “I’ve gotta bear down and make a pitch and get out of that inning, keep it close.”

To Smyly’s credit, he limited further damage by retiring the final 10 batters he faced after the grand slam. In fact, he mowed down the White Sox in order in four of the five innings he pitched, but sufficient damage was done in that fateful second inning.

“I felt really good today. Even in the second inning, I felt like I was making good pitches,” Smyly said. “A couple hits that find the hole, a tough at-bat to McCann. I think it was like eight or nine pitches and then a walk, and then bam, you know, a grand slam kind of separates the game.”

Indeed.

Meanwhile, the Phillies lineup struggled to do much of anything with White Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez and his 5.43 ERA in the early innings before finally stringing together three singles to knock him out of the game in the sixth. To be fair, opponents entered the day hitting only .194 against Lopez in four second half starts, but, I mean, come on.

A team that is in the thick of a wild card race – if you want to call it that – was a dominant Aaron Nola start away from being swept at home by a White Sox squad that entered the weekend with a dismal 19-32 road record. It didn’t matter that Chicago began the day ranked 14th in the American League in slugging percentage, 14th in OPS, and 13th in on-base percentage, or that they had the second-worst K% in all of baseball. It also didn’t matter that White Sox pitchers came into today ranked 23rd in the majors with a 4.93 ERA. None of it mattered.

Phun Phact here. The Phillies scored 11 runs and hit .212 (25 for 118) over 32 innings in the series. They were also a brutal 5 for 26 with runners in scoring position throughout the three-game set.

After the game, a rather direct Gabe Kapler didn’t seem to have any answers for his team’s offensive struggles.

“I don’t think there’s any one thing in particular. I think it’s a collection of things,” he said.

The Phillies had been a miserable 2 for 20 with runners in scoring position over three days when Corey Dickerson finally broke through with a two-out RBI single in the fifth that got the Phillies on the board. It appeared they might be mounting a rally in the sixth after a pair of RBI singles from Scott Kingery and Cesar Hernandez, but Sean Rodriguez bounced into a 6-4-3 double play against lefty reliever Aaron Bummer to kill the rally.

“Certainly, a big play in the game,” Kapler said. “Nobody is more frustrated over that at-bat than Sean.”

I’d argue that Matt Klentak and Kapler may have been more frustrated over that at-bat than Sean. It probably won’t be lost on anybody that the Phillies optioned Maikel Franco to Lehigh Valley earlier in the day, instead electing to keep Rodriguez on the major league roster.

Before the game, Kapler cited Rodriguez’s versatility and ability to hit left-handed pitching (he entered the day with a .306 average and .972 OPS against it) as the determining factors to go with him over Franco.

“This felt like the appropriate time to make a move that’s very difficult for the clubhouse because we all care deeply about Maikel Franco, he’s an exceptional teammate, a great person, and we all love him,” Kapler said. “But we felt like the best roster for the Philadelphia Phillies had Sean Rodriguez on it right now because of his versatility and ability to play all over the diamond.”

At any rate, the game was effectively over at that point as the White Sox tacked on another run in the seventh, three more in the eighth, and one in the ninth off of recently acquired relievers Mike Morin and Blake Parker. The Phillies bats couldn’t muster anything until the ninth inning when Dickerson hit a two-run homer with the game already well out of reach.

Even with Dickerson’s homer, Chicago’s bullpen yielded just four runs in 16 innings over the weekend.

With the loss, the Phillies are now 58-53 overall and 0-5 since June 19 in games with the opportunity to reach the seven games over .500 mark. And, I have to say, after seeing that 2009 squad back in the house and then watching this 2019 team – one that many thought back in March had a legit shot to make a similar postseason run – it was a pretty depressing juxtaposition.

“We’re not getting enough hits in big spots, we’re not making enough pitches” Kapler said. “Collectively not getting enough done to win baseball games in the last three days. We’re a better team than this.”

I don’t know if that’s true, but if they are a better team than this, then they really need to start showing it.