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The Biggest Concern with the Phillies is that They Sometimes Look Like the Sixers
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It’s fair to freak out about the Phillies after a sweep at the hands of the detestable New York Mets, but the vapid reality is that they’ll probably rack up some wins against the Braves at home and then get through the Milwaukee and Miami series in decent shape. Then they’ll have a chance to even the score when the Mutts come to town for a four-game set in early September, and that will likely determine who wins the NL East.
The problem with the Phillies is that the ceiling is as high as the floor is low. That means they’ll look like the ’98 Yankees in a sweep of the Mariners before traveling to Queens and looking like the Bad News Bears. They look like they’ve never played baseball before, despite winning 6 of 7 coming into this particular series. The at-bats were pitifully uncompetitive, the starting pitching was fragile, and twice in three games they simply rolled over and died, content to take the L and move on to the next one. While we cannot read minds to confirm or deny, it sure seemed like they were mentally weak and unprepared for the moment.
In three games, they hit .220 at the plate, striking out 25.9% of the time and working just seven walks. That’s over the course of 108 plate appearances. They finished with a .578 OPS, which was 24th-worst in Major League Baseball over the three-game stretch. They had three hits with runners in scoring position and averaged 2.67 runs, which was worse than the Rockies, Pirates, White Sox, and Nationals.
Individually, Kyle Schwarber was 0-11 in the series, Nick Castellanos was 0-6, and J.T. Realmuto was 0-12. Bryson Stott and Weston Wilson went a combined 0-9. Jhoan Duran was blown up in game two and Jordan Romano had his typical disaster in game one. Other than that, it was great!
In that sense, it was Sixery. It felt like game seven of the 2023 Eastern Conference semifinals, when James Harden and Joel Embiid both quit en route to a 10-point third quarter. The lack of juice coming from the Phils was alarming, because this wasn’t just “another series.” This was a chance to go out and add to the goodwill you’ve built since the All-Star break and bury a division rival while proving to fans, media, and 29 other baseball teams that you are, in fact, for real, that you’re a title contender and that this year is different than last year and the year before. Hell, it was an opportunity to prove that to themselves. Instead, they went out and killed the vibes entirely, exiting the series with a four-game division lead while resurfacing that odd feeling of being completely unenthused with a 76-win, first-place team.
If that sounds ridiculous, it’s not, because we know the Phillies can win regular season baseball games. That was never in question. We know they can beat the Marlins and Nationals. They can even win consecutive series against the Yanks and Red Sox and take 2 of 3 from the Tigers at home.
Same thing with the Sixers. We knew they could hammer the Hornets in Charlotte, and dispatch the Bulls and Pistons and even go out west and pick up some good wins against good teams out there. But could they beat the Celtics in the playoffs when it mattered? No. Could they rise to the occasion against a lesser Hawks team and get the job done? No. Ben Simmons passed the ball instead of dunking it, and the rest is history.
In this case, can the Phillies beat the Mets in New York? No. Can they lay off chasing garbage that’s thrown outside of the zone? No. So the other stuff doesn’t matter when you can’t win the ones that are circled on the calendar, or change the behavior that’s brought you down in the past.
For that reason, the overarching fan attitude feels similar with the Phils and Sixers. Wake us up when the playoffs begin, because nobody questions the chances of getting in, they’re concerned about both teams executing the choking dog routine once they get there. That’s why everyone is sensitive and sour about this Mets series, because the Phillies had another chance to prove that this year is different, and they faceplanted in Queens, once again.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com