Frustration $howing with Girardi’s crew

IT’S HARD to imagine with the type of talent in that Phillies clubhouse that they are already 10 ½ games behind the first-place Mets on Memorial Day. The holiday is widely viewed as the start of real baseball assessment. That usually involves the teams, but the way the Phillies are going, the assessment can be about the manager, too.

As upset as they are upsetting to their fans, the Phillies — with the Mets’ help, of course — can hardly believe they have dug such a big hole. Manager Joe Girardi admitted he was surprised about what’s going on before the game, and after it, he may have been surprised by a question about his job.

“I don’t worry about my job. I never worry about my job,” Girardi said after the Mets’ stunning 5-4, 10th-inning victory completed the threegame sweep — the

Mets’ first of the young season. “I’ve got to do my job. It’s the business of being a manager.”

The frustration is showing. Girardi also told the questioner, “You ask me that every day.”

Girardi would appear to be on the clock now, and he must know it.

As if 21-27 isn’t bad enough, the deficit is stunning for a team so talented. The payroll is $230 million, and with good reason. The free agent signings of Bryce Harper, Zack Wheeler, J.T. Realmuto, Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber all enhanced the roster — that’s $742.3 million combined if you’re scoring at home — and the team continues to tread water at best, and worse than that many days.

Meanwhile, the gap continues to grow, and the unhappiness mounts. Some of it is the Mets’ torrid start, but more of it is the Phillies’ stunning early underachievement.

This one had to be especially galling. Castellanos seemed to turn things around with a three-run home run that gave the Phillies the late lead before Mets rookie Nick Plummer hit a gametying rocket, his first career homer, into the upper deck off Phillies closer Corey Knebel, and Eduardo Escobar won it an inning later by lining a double into the right field corner. The Phillies made their usual fielding faux pas, but the Castellanos dinger threatened to erase all that

“It’s tough … it stinks,” Girardi said. “We need to clean it up. We can’t give extra outs.”

Extra outs are the headline to a season gone wrong.

The Phillies were supposed to be in the hunt in what was supposed to be a tight and tough NL East race, but so far there’s only one real race involving

Philly, and that’s the ongoing competition between their offense and defense. Specifically, can their excellent hitters overcome their terrible defenders? So far, it’s no contest.

The Phillies’ hitting figures are in the top third, but they stand dead last in MLB in DRS (defensive runs saved) at a negative 28 runs. Which technically means, they’ve saved no runs on balance, and given away 28.

They did nothing to help that number Sunday night, playing their usual shaky defense with a couple early misplays and two gifted runs in a three-run first inning. The Phillies’ second big issue is the bullpen, and closer Knebel blew the lead again.

Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler, the ex-Met, who pitched well but was undone by his fielders, refused to blame anyone but himself. He’s a pro, though right now a beleaguered one.

“We’ve got to continue to battle,” Wheeler said. “We’ve got to keep grinding. We’ve got to turn it around. And it has got to be soon.”

No one in that clubhouse is making excuses, which is a good sign. But no one inside that clubhouse could disagree, either.

“We’ve got to flush this one,” Harper said. “We’ve got to turn the page as quick as possible … we’ve got to keep going, we’ve got to keep grinding. We’ve got to go.”

The question finally came up as to whether Girardi may go.

The Phillies seemed like a forever .500 team, and they hired Girardi (Buck Showalter was a runner-up for the job) to improve things. Well, he is now eight games under over two-plus years. He’s been an excellent manager over his career, but one NL scout, searching for reasons the Phillies could be so bad, speculated that Girardi “may be too uptight for a bunch of star players.”

The way the Mets are going, they need no help. The Plummer bomb sent the raucous Citi Field fans into delirium. Then things really got loud when Escobar lined the game-winning double into right field to win it, sending the holiday crowd home happy.

The visiting clubhouse was the opposite, filled with disbelief.

“No need to panic,” Harper urged. But at the same time, it’s assessment time. And 10 ½ games won’t be easy to overcome.

“It’s a lot,” Harper said. “Everyone knows it’s a lot.”