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This Era of Phillies Baseball is Officially Over, With a Wimpy Wild Card Exit
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In the interest of full transparency, I fell asleep on the couch while watching the Phillies lose Game 3 to the Braves.
It was at some point in the third inning, when they were down 3-0 and making Ray fucking Kerr look like Sandy Koufax. Kyle Schwarber was the only batter who could do anything against this dude, who was making his playoff debut at 31 years old. He looked totally comfortable on the mound while the Phillies looked clueless at the plate.
Of course, Aaron Nola had already given up his obligatory home run, this one a three-run shot in the bottom of the 1st. Who didn’t see that coming? Me, I guess, considering the fact that Nola had salvaged his season with a commendable second half, and helped the Phillies go on a big August run and solidify their playoff spot in the first place. That wasn’t even a bad pitch that Michael Harris knocked out of the ballpark, but I guess we’re cursed with the Nola dinger no matter the situation is.
Funny enough, some fans were lamenting the fact that Garrett Stubbs wasn’t out there catching Nola. The same Stubbs they wanted to DFA’d two years ago. It’s so goofy how things violently swing back and forth on that particular spectrum.
When I woke up, I was looking at Grant Holmes’ stupid mustache and stupid hair on the television screen. He looks like he’s in a retro thrash metal band, like he plays guitar and wears white high tops while recycling Anthrax riffs. And yet the Phils couldn’t do much against him, either. They got a handful of runners on base and ended the first inning with a double play before plating a run on a ground out, but it was 5-1 at that point after Zack Wheeler gave up his home run.
It was one of those slogs where you thought to yourself, “they’re gonna roll over and die,” even after their late efforts in Games 1 and 2. 5-0 felt like an insurmountable lead. I think Bob hit the nail on the head when he posted this:
They needed Wheeler just to get them into the playoffs on Sunday. That forced a situation where Jesus Luzardo had to go on Tuesday, with Cristopher Sanchez lined up for Wednesday and then a Nola/Wheeler Thursday duo, with Wheels on short rest. If they hadn’t fucked around, and clinched earlier, they could have emptied the back of the bullpen on Sunday and set the rotation for the Braves series.
That, combined with the relievers stinking up the joint in the second half, left Don Mattingly with few guys to trust, which is why Jhoan Duran was brought in during the 7th inning of Game 1. They were supposed to have guys like Orion Kerkering and Jose Alvarado ready to go for the postseason, but both had terrible years. Brad Keller tore his UCL. Brooks Raley didn’t even make the playoff roster. The bullpen ended up being a huge point of weakness.
Sure, the Luis Arraez injury didn’t help. He would have made a difference in this series. All-Star Brandon Marsh disappeared. Trea Turner never actually appeared. Did Bryson Stott do anything in this series? At least Alec Bohm pulled his weight. But if the Phillies were going to win this series, it was going to be on the strength of starting pitching, and they didn’t give themselves a chance to set it up properly.
If we’re being real with ourselves, this team wasn’t beating the Dodgers. How were they going to do the job they failed to do last year with a worse lineup? They aren’t better than the Dodgers in any facet of the game, not even starting pitching.
Sadly, the Phillies are the Sixers of the last several seasons. We watch the games and hope for the best come playoff time, but I don’t think anybody is really, truly, fully invested. Not like they were in 2022, 2023, and 2024. We’re on the downside of the story arc and reached the climax probably when they lost Game 7 of the NLCS to the Arizona Diamondbacks. They had no business losing to that team, and now we look back on that moment and realize it’s when the gradual slide began.
So what now?
This era is now over. That I think we can agree on. Everybody on an expiring contract has to go. Everybody with value has to go. Dave Dombrowski needs to go. Mattingly needs to go. Thanks for your service after Topper was fired. They need as many fresh faces as they can get in here. They’re unfortunately saddled with Turner and others for several more seasons, but we all know they can’t run it back again. Remember, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me two, three, four, five times in a row and shame on me.
The Phillies have to make wholesale changes or else our time is going to be better spent sleeping on the couch.
Of course, there may not be baseball in 2027 anyway. Would that be such a bad thing?
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