Phillies Experience Postseason Heartache Once Again
During their 3-games-to-1 National League Division Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, there were many culprits, although the starting pitching wasn’t among them.
There were several questionable managerial moves and one of the most underrated was allowing David Robertson to start the seventh inning of Game 1.
Starter Cristopher Sanchez was running out of gas and had allowed two runs in the sixth inning. Robertson came in with a man on second and two outs and got the final out on a groundout, preserving a 3-2 lead.
That should have been the extent they used Robertson, but he was then allowed to start the seventh inning, and he allowed the first two runners on base before being lifted. Matt Strahm would later allow a two-out, three-run home run to Teoscar Hernandez and the series was never the same. The Dodgers won that game 5-3 and the Phillies were paddling uphill from there on.
It seems that Ranger Suarez would have been the perfect pitcher to start the seventh inning instead of a struggling Robertson, who relies on deception more than velocity and showed neither toward the end of the season.
There was the infamous bunt decision in Game 2, one that the Dodgers won 4-3.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Nick Castellanos hit a two-run double with nobody out to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 4-3. The Phillies then had Bryson Stott bunt. The Dodges perfected the wheel play, with third baseman Max Muncy fielding the bunt and throwing to third base, where shortstop Mookie Betts beat Castellanos to the bag and tagged the slow-footed Phillies outfielder out.
Why the Phillies decided to give up an out when they were hitting so poorly is certainly subject to question. The fact that the out also erased the lead runner, made things worse.
Stott would reach second on pinch hitter Harrison Bader’s base hit, but the rally would end on groundouts by Max Kepler and Trea Turner.
That gave the Dodgers a 2-0 series lead, both wins coming at Citizens Bank Park.
Even more than managerial decisions, the fact that the Phillies’ bats were silent, was the biggest reason for the series loss. Take away the 8-2 win in Game 3, when Kyle Schwarber belted two home runs, including one mammoth 455-footer that tied the game at 1-1 and one that the Phillies felt might change the direction of the series.
Then came the finale, a 2-1 Dodgers win in 11th innings when relief pitcher Orion Kerkering, facing a bases loaded, two-out situation, bobbled a grounder, panicked and threw wildly at home instead of going for what would have been an easy out at first.
Game over.
Season over.
Era over?
The Phillies have reached the playoffs four consecutive years, no small feat, but have continued to take a step back in the postseason. They lost to Houston in the 2022 World Series, to Arizona in the 2023 NLCS (after being up 3-games-to-2 and coming home) and fell in the NLDS each of the past two seasons in four games to the NY Mets and Dodgers.
Even though they were facing a great Dodgers pitching staff, the Phillies inability to get the big hit, hurt them once again. There has been a suggestion in this day of analytics that batting average isn’t as meaningful a statistic.
All I know is that teams that don’t have a good average, usually have trouble winning.
Of course, the Dodgers are the exception to this since they batted just .199 in the four-game series. The Phillies, didn’t exactly hit the cover off the ball, hitting .212.
The Phillies had five players in the series hit .200 or less, including their two big offensive threats Bryce Harper (.200) and Schwarber (.188). Harper drove in no runs in the series.
In addition, leadoff man Turner batted .235 and scored just one run.
That just won’t cut it.
There will be plenty of time to mull the future but when the Phillies look back, they will realize they wasted a great pitching effort, even without injured ace Zack Wheeler.
Sanchez had a 2.25 ERA in his two appearances covering 12 innings, where he struck out 13. Jesus Luzardo was the hard-luck losing pitcher in two of the games, but his ERA was 2.35. He deserved better.
Even struggling Aaron Nola pitched two shutout innings as the opener in Game 3, while Suarez allowed just one run in five sparkling innings to earn the victory.
This is not to suggest that the Phillies can’t continue to pitch well, but if the offense can’t come through in opportune times, this lack of postseason success will probably continue, which is why there likely will be some big changes in an off-season that was never supposed to begin this early.
Photo: Courtesy Phillies Twitter/X
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Author: Marc Narducci
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