Same Problems Arise As Phillies Lose In Wild Card Round

by Marc Narducci | Oct 9, 2026

This was not exactly the best of weeks in Philadelphia sports. The Eagles lost twice in a week’s span. They lost to a third string 38-year-old QB in Chicago and then blew a 20-10 fourth quarter lead to lose 24-20 to the mistake-prone LA Rams.

The Flyers opened their season losing by a touchdown to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-0. That was followed by two consecutive OT losses.

Yet it’s the Phillies who get the attention here.

Their season is over while the Flyers are just starting and the Eagles have more than 75% of their schedule remaining.

The Phillies lost 2-games-to-1 in the best-of-three wildcard series to the Atlanta Braves. The series was certainly winnable, but some of the same old problems caused their demise – a shoddy bullpen, very little clutch hitting and Aaron Nola’s starting pitching woes.

In Game One, due to having no trust in the bullpen, interim manager Don Mattingly tried to squeeze two innings out of Jhoan Duran.

The righthander, who has had two straight years of disappointing postseasons for the Phillies, yielded a game-winning three-run home run to Austin Riley in the opening 5-3 loss.

That is the same Riley who went 2-for-9 in the series after having a truly rough regular season.

The Game 2 comeback in the 4-3 10-inning win was inspiring, with the back-to-back home runs to tie the score by Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper in the eighth inning and then the game-winning solo home run in the 10^th inning by Alec Bohm.

There was Andrew Painter, who struggled for so long this season, pitching three innings of shutout relief to earn the win. The 23-year-old Painter became the youngest Phillie to win a postseason game.

Many thought the Phillies would ride that momentum to a deciding Game Three, but all the air was let out of the balloon by Aaron Nola’s disastrous start. He lasted just 1.2 innings, allowing three runs on a Michael Harris II three-run homer. This came after Nola walked two batters in the first inning.

Nola pitched better during his final 10 starts of the regular season, but he reverted to his old form in the playoff game, nibbling at batters, not trusting his stuff enough to challenge them. Just think, Nola has four years and $98.2 million left on his contract.

Then Zack Wheeler, pitching on short rest, allowed two runs in four innings.

Pitching on short rest rarely works, but with the way the offense was performing, this game was lost in the first inning.

As for the offense, Bohm, an upcoming unrestricted free agent, who the fans want out of town, was among the few clutch Phillies hitters in the series. He went 4-for-12 (.333) with a double, home run and three RBIs.

The biggest non-pitcher disappointment was Trea Turner, who again showed that he is no longer a Major League caliber shortstop. (It’s obvious that the Phillies should move Turner to the outfield, simply because they can’t trade that contract ($190 million and seven years left) without eating a large portion of it.

The Phillies should get a shortstop capable of making routine players. Many would like to see Turner moved to second base, but it would be more prudent to re-sign Luis Arraez and tell him to stop hitting the ball in the air so much. He saw that Citizens Bank Park is a bandbox and tried hitting the ball deep. A big mistake for such a great contact hitter. With an ankle injury, the Phillies surely missed him in the wild card series.

Anyway, here were some of the below .200 averages for the Phillies in the Braves series:

Turner (1-for-11, .091).

Bryson Stott (2-for-13, .154)

Justin Crawford (1-for-7, .143).

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has received a lot of heat for the construction of this club and much of the criticism is warranted.

Yet Dombrowski is expected back, but he will have to be more creative than in the past. The Phillies have an aging team with long-term contracts.

They have made the playoffs five consecutive years, only the second time in franchise history this has been accomplished, tying the 2007-2011 teams.

Of course, after 2011, the Phillies fell off the cliff for the next decade.

The hope is that Dombrowski can avoid that same situation, which means he has plenty of work to do (not to mention the potential work stoppage that would add another obstacle to the offseason). If the Phillies want to experience October baseball, change is needed and not just around the edges, but a major shakeup indeed.

Courtesy Phillies X/Twitter

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Author: Marc Narducci

Same Problems Arise As Phillies Lose In Wild Card Round

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