Phillies

It Appears as Though the Phillies are Who we Thought They Were

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Aug 18th, 2021 · 9:22 AM EDT

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The Phillies lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2 on Tuesday night.

Ice cold at the plate, the Phils mustered two runs on three hits while Kyle Gibson gave up three runs in six innings, which, on most occasions, would be good enough to get the job done. But the Phils just can’t hit the ball and have now lost five of seven after ripping off eight straight wins to take the division lead.

Over the past seven days, the Phillies have:

• 34 hits (last in MLB)
• 17 runs (29th)
• a .183 batting average (last)
• a .274 on base percentage (29th)
• a .301 slugging percentage (last)
• a .575 OPS (obviously last)

The cynic would say that we got a little too optimistic after a win streak against the Washington Nationals and slumping New York Mets, but while the Phillies weren’t expected to do much against the Dodgers, the Reds series was a disappointment. Cincy is 65-56, a pretty good team, but not one we’d put on Tier 1 of Major League Baseball clubs. And last night the Phillies couldn’t hit a guy in Taylor Widener, who came into the game with 4.89 ERA and had given up 17 runs in his last four starts. The Diamondbacks were 38-81 at the start of the night and improved to 39-81, which is an impressive .325 winning percentage. They are only 39 games behind the Giants in NL West.

So what now? Do the Phillies suck again? Are they who we thought they were? They’re only 2.5 games back and still play in MLB’s worst division, so a playoff berth is not out of the question. But can you really, truly enjoy a division race knowing, deep down, in the back of your mind, that the Phils are not on the same level as San Francisco, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and San Diego? If they make it to the postseason, are they going to get their doors blown off?

That’s the question. It sticks there in your mind. You really wanted to enjoy that win streak, and you probably did, but of course there were concerns about this pitching staff and its long-term viability. The defense, too, with borderline MLB players at a couple of positions. The streaky nature of the hitting that predated eight victories in a row. We’ve been on and off this bandwagon so many times this season, and maybe if the Phils were in the west or the central, with a clear-cut favorite, then the picture would be much more obvious, and present us with the inevitability – that this team just isn’t good enough. Then we could drop our hope and look ahead to next year with a more defined goal of getting better. But thanks to the crappy nature of the NL East, we remain hopeful, even if the writing is on the wall, in ITC Garamond font, size 72.

The Phils have two more against the D-Backs this week, then they have to play the Padres and Rays, which ain’t gonna be easy. If they can get through that gauntlet relatively unscathed, then 10 in a row against Arizona, Washington, and the Fish looks promising. Fingers crossed. We’re clinging to the bandwagon, but feet are scraping the ground.