The Phillies’ playoff struggles date back to 2023, when they blew a 3-2 series lead against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The following year, the offense went cold right before the playoffs, and they lost in the NLDS when they were the clear favorites.
This year, the Phillies started off with the Dodgers in the NLDS after clinching yet another first round bye. The first two games went all but smooth. They choked a lead in game one, and just got simply outplayed in game two. Game three they finally decided to show some life.
The big three of Turner, Schwarber, and Harper, who are getting paid over half a billion dollars, went 7 for 13. This is what they get paid all this money to do– perform on the biggest stage, and perform well. They won the game 8-2, by getting to the Dodgers’ starting pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, early and often, and forcing Dave Roberts to go to his struggling bullpen early.
Game four was an absolute catastrophe. The Phillies’ offense was only able to muster one run in 11 innings of baseball. Turner, Schwarber, and Harper went 1 for 14 in the game, with Brandon Marsh going 1 for 13 the entire series.
But the real kick in the pants was the ending. Orion Kerkering came in to relieve Jesus Luzardo, and immediately walked the bases loaded. With two outs and bases loaded, he got an easy ground ball right back to him. He fumbled the ball, picked it up, and made an absolutely horrific throw to home. Had he thrown to first, he would have had him out by 10 feet. That is, as long as he made a good throw.
The Phillies blew another perfect opportunity to make a deep postseason run. This may lead to the team being completely torn apart, as most of the players are free agents at the conclusion of this season.
Watching this team, and the lack of passion from the players and coaches, it makes you wonder: Do they even care? It seems that once they sign that contract, they just don’t care anymore, because they are already signed. It’s so incredibly frustrating watching them refuse to run out ground balls.
The Phillies are baseball’s equivalent to the 76ers.
