The urge here is to bury the Phillies after they guaranteed themselves a losing series in Arizona against a Diamondbacks team that probably won’t win 60 games.
The Phillies are either playing like — or simply are — a lifeless and indifferent team that got caught overlooking what was supposed to be an inferior opponent.
Seven hits? In two games? Against a collection of pedestrian Diamondbacks pitchers that entered the week with the National League’s worst ERA?
I mean, what the actual hell?
Perhaps this series provides that last piece of needed evidence to formally indict this team’s collective character. Absent their eight-game win streak earlier this month that, ironically, feels like a desert mirage, the Phillies have long appeared to be a team that lacks some intangible winning trait.
Maybe it’s a killer instinct. Maybe it’s the intrinsic motivation required to perform at an acceptable level in front 7,968 mostly disinterested baseball fans. Maybe it’s both.
But, I’m not so sure this is entirely about a character flaw.
After all, the Phillies scoreboard watch. They are well aware the Braves have won 13 of their last 15 games. They are also aware they now find themselves with a similar division deficit to which they began the month.
If you have stayed up to watch this disaster unfold over the last two nights, you have seen guys missing belt-high 90 mph fastballs. You have seen advantageous hitter’s counts yield a number of feeble swings, followed by dejected walks back to the dugout.
There are a number of issues at play right now:
As embarrassing of a proposition as it is, the Phillies have an opportunity to salvage things this afternoon. They will have their best pitcher on the mound before heading to San Diego to face a slumping Padres team this weekend.
While the urge is to bury the Phillies, the reality is this — with the surging Braves recently pounding inferior opponents and headed to Baltimore to play a brutal Orioles team, the Phillies won’t need you or me to bury them if they don’t quickly get it together.
They will handle it themselves.