Phillies

With Clock Ticking, Phillies Can’t Fumble Away Momentum This Time

By Bob Wankel

Published: Jul 6th, 2021 · 8:46 AM EDT

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You can hardly be blamed if you don’t know how to take the Phillies’ small flicker of a resurgence this morning. Just as it looked like the train was about ready to fly completely off the tracks last week, they’ve suddenly won three of their last four games and remain just 4.5 games out of the division race.

But for a team that handles momentum like it’s an active beehive, believing that maybe, just maybe the Phillies are getting hot now that their backs are pressed firmly up against the wall is a difficult ask.

For instance, consider what happened this past weekend against the Padres.

After two impressive wins to secure a series victory over San Diego, the Phillies blew a chance to sweep with an embarrassing 11-1 loss that was about as ugly as it gets. And you know how it goes. The skepticism returns, fans think like Randy Quaid’s jaded character in Major League II, and the positive vibes are lost before the team hits the road where they don’t win very often.

How many days until the trade deadline sale, right?

But here’s the thing — and I wrote about this Friday night — the Phillies, despite their many issues, still have an opportunity to avert a front office surrender and the likely ensuing stretch run of baseball without competitive meaning.

They know it, too.

“We know where we stand,” Rhys Hoskins said Monday night. “We know the Mets are 4.5 games up, and there’s a couple teams right between us, but there’s been crazier things that happened in baseball, right? That’s a good week, so we know that, I think everybody in baseball kind of knows that.”

The Phillies had a good start to an important week with a 13-3 win over the Cubs, one that handed Chicago its 10th consecutive loss.

Didi Gregorius smokes one into the Wrigley bleachers to tie it up! pic.twitter.com/4Yl6u3ifxu

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) July 6, 2021

The Phillies did all of the things other teams have often done to them this season. They took advantage of the Cubs’ bullpen to break things open late. They made it hurt when Cubs third baseman Eric Sogard made an ugly error in the eighth.

Starter Matt Moore gave his team a chance early on, the Phillies swatted five homers, had some timely hits, and a much maligned bullpen came through. Four relievers combined to allow just three hits and one earned run over five innings.

Normally, this type of effort would be one that sparks a little bit of optimism, some hope, but given this core’s multi-season penchant for failing to build on positives, trust issues are understandable. The Phillies will have to break this annoying habit over the coming weeks if they hope to change their current path.

“We’ve got to put pressure on the front office,” Hoskins said. “That’s our job as players, see if we can get on a little run here and make them make tough decisions. That’s all we can do.”

That starts tonight.

After all, in this current Phillies universe, tonight’s game has all the ingredients of a deflating loss, making a rare laugher just a temporary reprieve from the standard fare. The setup basically screams it:

Aaron Nola up against ex-Phillies pitcher and fan favorite Jake Arrieta, who is currently in the midst of a particularly awful run for a team in the midst of a particularly awful run.

Since May 30, Arrieta has a 7.82 ERA while allowing opposing batters to hit .315 with a .986 OPS across seven starts. He didn’t escape the second inning his last time out in Milwaukee, helping the Cubs blow an early 7-0 lead to the Brewers in an eventual 15-7 rout.

Notably, over the last 15+ seasons teams that have lost 10 straight games are 23-35 in their following game. Pair that trend with Arrieta’s disastrous numbers and this is simply a game the Phillies need to get if they wish to signal to the front office this time is about to be different.

3 hits and 7 innings of shutout ball coming up…

— Frank Cianfrani (@FrankCianfrani) July 6, 2021

Math be damned, not all 162 games are created equal.