If you watched Bryce Harper’s at bats during the Phillies’ 3-1 loss to Atlanta on Tuesday, maybe not pinch hitting him Sunday against Washington was the right call.

Harper looked lost, striking out the first the times up, and then grounded out sharply in his final at bat for an ugly 0-fer that was only made worse by an even uglier 0-fer by Kyle Schwarber and a shorter fall from the ugly tree, but still hitting the ground with a thud 0-fer, by Trea Turner.

The Phillies’ top three hitters – the approaching three-quarters-of-a-billion dollar trio – were a combined 0-for-12 in the game. They struck out seven times. It’s the first time this season that’s happened and the first time since August of last year.

And here’s a novel thought – if your three best hitters don’t get a hit, then what are your odds of winning?

Very, very slim.


Schwarber struck out all four times he came to the plate.  And while Turner didn’t strike out, he didn’t particularly hit the ball hard in three of the four outs.

“It makes it difficult,” manager Rob Thomson said. “You know they’re going to hit at some point and it’s just one of those nights, but we got to come back here tomorrow, strap it on and get after it.”

The Phillies haven’t really been strapping it on properly for a while. There are games, like Tuesday, where they maybe strap it on too tight, and press. It got to he point where Braves pitching retired the Phillies final 17 batters in a row.

And then there are times when the strap isn’t on at all, and they kind of meander through a game. Those seem to be more noticeable when there are mental lapses – such as subpar defense, bad approaches at the plate, questionable baserunning decisions, and a little bit of a lack of hustle.

The Phillies are best when that strip fits comfortably – like Goldilocks in the third bed – just right. But when the conditions aren’t just right, they tend to fight themselves more than anything else and make positive outcomes harder to attain.

In other words, the Phillies worst enemy sometimes is themselves.

Tuesday’s game was winnable.

Zack Wheeler pitched well enough to get a win. He went six innings and allowed two runs on six hits while striking out eight, but it wasn’t good enough because the Phillies couldn’t come close to hitting Wheeler’s All-Star teammate Reynaldo Lopez.

Lopez, who had missed three weeks with elbow soreness, came back to throw five innings and allowed just one run on five hits and a walk while striking out 10 Phillies – two per inning.

And as bad as the top three in the lineup were, the biggest opportunities missed actually came from the bottom of the order.

Johan Rojas struck out with the bases loaded in the top of the second. In the fourth, Brandon Marsh turned a 3-0 count into a caught-looking strikeout and Rojas followed with a ground out that stranded two more runners on base.

That was the last time the Phillies had anyone on base in the game.

As for Wheeler, an old friend and a guy who notoriously kills the Phillies, were the two who got to him.

Whit Merrifield, who was waived by the Phillies last month and signed with the Braves, had a triple, a double, and a walk. His triple led to the Braves’ first run that knocked in on a single by Michael Harris III.

At one point, he was getting such good swings off Wheeler the thought that this guy could hit for the cycle had to cross some minds.

I’m sure it was poetic justice for Merrifield, who wants to show the Phillies that if they just played him with more regularity he could have been more productive. He’s been in the Braves starting lineup since July 31st (mostly because of an injury to Ozzie Albies) and has been super productive.

He’s 15-for-58 with 12 walks, producing a slash line of .259/.380/.414 for a .794 OPS.

Go figure.

Then there’s Marcel Ozuna, who is unexpectedly making a run at the N.L. Triple Crown. He drove in the game-winning run when he murdered a Wheeler fastball to dead center in the bottom of the sixth.

“I definitely left it over (the plate),” Wheeler said. “I was trying to go away, left it in the middle and paid for it.

“I made a few mistakes tonight – to Whit and Harris (too).”

Things got worse in the eighth inning. The Phillies turned to Jose Alvarado to try and keep the score within one, but he completely lost control and walked four batters in the inning, allowing another run to score.

Kevin has a sidebar on this issue, but in short, Alvarado is the biggest concern for the Phillies right now.

There was a thought that once he walked the bases loaded with two outs that Thomson would lift him from the game. He was at 30 pitches after all and it was obvious he couldn’t find the strike zone. However, Thomson instead chose to keep Alvarado in, and it backfired.

“I was trying to get him through it for one, and it was a tough spot to put (Max) Lazar in,” Thomson said. “I’m trying to get as much confidence into Alvy as I possibly can. I don’t know whether… I’m hoping he just makes an out.”

Crossing fingers isn’t the best course of action for a major league manager, but more could have been at play here.

Lazar being the reliever warming up was curious. Jeff Hoffman had warmed up at the same time as Alvarado, but once he sat down, he didn’t get up again – so Lazar was the guy who the Phillies had to turn to instead.

There was no word on the broadcast as to what the reasoning was, and both Tom McCarthy and Ruben Amaro expressed concern multiple times. Thomson wasn’t asked about it after the game – at least not on camera. Matt Gelb at The Athletic had a brief note in his story that the Phillies didn’t want to burn Hoffman in a game they trailed, so once he sat down, getting him hot again is not ideal.

Nor is it ideal putting an inexperienced rookie into a one-run game in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs.

So, Thomson chose to ride or die with Alvarado.

And you see how that went.

If you are looking for positives, Orion Kerkering looked better after a four-day layoff in his one inning of work. And on the offensive side, Alec Bohm, Nick Castellanos, and J.T. Realmuto all continued hitting.

Bohm extended his on-base streak to 36 games, matching Chase Utley’s in 2006. The franchise record is 56 games, set by Mike Schmidt across the 1981 and 1982 seasons.

Castellanos extended his hitting streak to a modest eight games and Realmuto to seven games. Realmuto is 10-32 (.313) over his last nine.

But we all know, as far as the offense goes, it’s all about those first three guys. If they aren’t hitting, the Phillies are just mediocre. And even a team as depleted as the Braves can get them.

“This is a big series for us, too,” Harper said. “We come here to win games. It doesn’t matter how far ahead you are or anything like that. Obviously, you guys know what happened in ’07 (the Phillies caught the Mets after trailing by eight games with 17 to play to win the division). So, we just got to keep going and keep doing our thing.”

Strap it on. Do your thing. Just one of those games. All true. Until it isn’t any more, and the Phillies are playing with fire on that front.