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This is as Good as it Gets for This Version of the Phillies
By Tim Reilly
Published:
Of all the questions that swam to the surface of my mind after watching a punchless Phillies offense fall short once again in the postseason, it was an existential musing by Jack Nicholson’s Melvin Udall that rose to the top.
“What if this is as good as it gets?”
After the Phillies dropped the first two games of their divisional round matchup against the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the answer seems as clear as ever.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
This time, the Phillies were riding into October on a wave of momentum. They had surged to the top of the National League East, winning 96 games in the process. Their rotation, notwithstanding ace Zack Wheeler’s season-ending injury, was as formidable as any other contender for the crown. Manager Rob Thomson seemed to press all the right buttons with his lineup, making the bold but correct decision to platoon Nick Castellanos and Max Kepler and finding the right situations to deploy reserves Edmundo Sosa, Otto Kemp, and Weston Wilson. With the trade-deadline acquisition of Jhoan Durán and the late-season signing of veteran David Robertson, the bullpen seemed set as the relievers settled into the roles they would play on the road to the championship that has eluded the franchise since Brad Lidge raised his arms to the sky in triumph on a cold night in October 2008.
This is exactly how it was supposed to be.
To steal a line of thought made famous recently by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, this Phillies season was doomed in March. It was lost in the offseason, when Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies’ brain trust failed to make substantial changes to a lineup that failed to overcome its weaknesses in three consecutive playoff appearances. In 2022, when the Phils had a chance to assert control of the World Series against the formidable but not indomitable Houston Astros, they dropped Games 4 and 5 at Citizens Bank Park. No-hit in Game 4, the Phillies’ bats followed up that futile effort by failing to take advantage of the ancient Justin Verlander in Game 5. Opportunity squandered.
In 2023, the Phillies cruised to a 3-1 series lead against a decent but less talented Arizona Diamondbacks squad before the bats went cold once again. Once again, the home crowd had a front-row seat to the faceplant. Last year, the Fightins were kind enough to bow out early, splitting the first two games of the NLDS at home against the Mets and promptly dropping the next two at that house of horrors known as Citi Field.
In 2022, the Phillies couldn’t hit, so they didn’t win. It was the same old song in 2023 and 2024. The band is striking up the familiar tune this year as the fat lady warms up her voice.
The top of the order has been abysmal. The trio of Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper has contributed two hits in 21 official at-bats through the first two contests. These guys are supposed to drive the offense, not just be along for the ride.
Although he deserves credit for jumpstarting the ninth-inning rally, cleanup hitter Alec Bohm had one of his patented frustrating at-bats in the bottom of the sixth inning. With two on and two out after Turner and Schwarber both drew walks and Harper struck out, Bohm had a chance to deliver in the clutch. Dodgers starter Blake Snell was finally feeling some game pressure, and his command was betraying him. Bohm got the count to 2-0, and then, instead of taking another pitch, he let his impatience get the better of him. Swinging for a fastball, he got a changeup instead. A weak ground out followed, and the threat vanished as quickly as it arose:
There’s no need to revisit the entire parade of errors. Many have scrutinized Thomson’s ill-fated decision to call for Bryson Stott to lay down a sacrifice bunt, a ploy I must confess I didn’t mind in the moment. I’ve seen enough of Stott this year to know that he was just as likely to loft one of Dodgers’ southpaw Alex Vesia’s high fastballs or diving sliders into left field for an unproductive fly out as he was to get a hit in that situation. Compounding the problem was the presence of the slow-footed, possibly hobbled Castellanos, who hasn’t been moving (or hitting) as well since he slammed his knee into the wall at Yankee Stadium in July. Could one of the starting pitchers have run for him in that moment? Could Stott have pulled his bat back and taken a swing when he saw the Dodgers had the wheel play on? Should Thomson have ridden the momentum of the game and empowered his hitter to swing away, especially given that this team hasn’t prioritized or excelled at playing small ball? All worthy questions to ponder.
In the end, none of them truly matter. Not when a lineup built to bully the other team’s pitching instead curls into a ball when the lights are brightest. The collective approach at the plate isn’t working. Harper, The Showman, has refused to take the stage, as his defenders live off the highs of 2022 and 2023 memories to make up for the absence of game-changing moments in 2025. Schwarber hasn’t found his home-run swing. Turner seems like he’s still knocking off the rust of his late-season injury. Bohm is a contact hitter cast in a role that calls for someone who can slug the baseball. Castellanos, the guy who should be in that role, is now a $20 million part-time player. J.T. Realmuto is a gamer, but he’s also a catcher in his mid-thirties who can’t be expected to carry the offense. Brandon Marsh has really turned it around this year, but he still has to figure out how to hit lefthanded pitching. Stott is an enigma, a guy with all the tools to be a great hitter but none of the consistency that’s required. Harrison Bader, the player who injected some much-needed grit and energy into this lineup, looks like he will be limited by injury for the duration of this abbreviated playoff run.
The Phillies are a team that plays like it hasn’t learned any lessons from previous failings. That’s why it was fitting to see Orion Kerkering come into Game 2 and, after allowing one run to score on a play that was purely bad luck and not his fault, allowed two more to score after a poorly executed pitch to Dodgers catcher Will Smith that was entirely his fault. Allowing inherited runners to score has been a problem for Kerkering all year. Why would it be any different in the playoffs?
And that’s why it will be the perfect ending to the season to see Aaron Nola take the mound for Game 3. Nola has done nothing this year to merit consideration for a postseason start of any kind, much less the game that will decide whether the Phillies go home or live to fight another day. Nola, the perfect representative of a front office that held on too long to the promise of the past and doomed themselves to an unfulfilled present and a mediocre future.
In the offseason, “good enough” was good enough for the Phillies and their front office.
“Good enough” was good enough to win the division and return to the playoffs.
“Good enough” isn’t good enough to win in October.
Tim Reilly is a freelance writer from Northeast Philadelphia. He can be reached at reillyt7@gmail.com.