Phils wasting chances to show they belong with division’s best
As with any baseball team in any six-plus-month season, the Phillies would be bound to hit one revealing moment. This particular year, that moment would arrive early.
Though by coincidence in a mysterious and thankless scheduling process, the Phillies would play 12 of their first 15 games against either the Nationals or the Mets. Take away the three-game series in Cincinnati to open the season, and there would be 12 consecutive games against the assumed cream of the National League East.
Baseball can be that way. In fact, it is almost every day. That is, the opportunities to tilt a game may arrive early, or they may arrive late, or they may come around the seventh-inning stretch. It’s why they must be taken advantage of when they arrive.
The Phillies lost again Sunday, 6-4, to the Nationals, when Bryce Harper rocketed a three-run homer over the center field fence in the ninth. Thus ended a Monday-to-Sunday week in which they went 1-5 against the Mets and Nats. Even if they did go 2-1 the previous weekend against Washington, the image was clear: There were the Phillies — young in some places, new in others, forever unsure of their baseball status — stranded on the wrong side of the division’s velvet ropes, cramming their rejected ID cards back into their wallets.
Though they had their moments — they did rally Sunday to tie it in the eighth, then took a 4-3 lead in the ninth — they were worn down by two teams that can win, do win and are built to win. They were beaten Sunday by Harper, who hit two home runs, showing that he is the level of star the Phillies have lacked for too long. With it all, the Phils are 4-8 and already facing questions about being demoralized. And even if it is April, that’s the way that game is played. Wasted chances are wasted chances.
“I wouldn’t say demoralizing,” said Jerad Eickhoff, whose above-average start was smeared by Harper’s first home run, a tworun third-inning message. “I think we’ve got a lot of guys in here that are very head-strong. It’s tough. I wouldn’t say demoralizing. It’s a heavy word. It’s tough. And we are going to take an off day (Monday) and be refreshed on Tuesday.”
That’s when they will resurface in New York, where they will face the Mets, against whom they were 7-12 last year and were 0-3 last week. The law of averages might suggest a correction; the law of talent does not.
Through the Phils’ difficult start, Pete Mackanin has been badgered about the middle of his order and the lack of a proven, Harper-level power hitter. Sunday, the Phils did see some oomph from their projected offensive core, with Cameron Rupp blasting a long double and Tommy Joseph supplying an RBI.
But Maikel Franco was useless, going 0-for-5, leaving five on base, including one on a wave at a six-foot-high Strike 3 in the eighth, then three more in the ninth with a ground-out to third, blunting a rally that could have left the Nats requiring smelling salts.
“This early in the season, I hate to worry about guys after 30-some at-bats,” Mackanin said. “I don’t want to assume anything. So those guys will come around. Our hitters will come around. The guys we want in the middle of the lineup will hit. It’s just a matter of time.”
There is time, even if Joseph has one home run, Franco two and Michael Saunders none, a drain that best explains how the Phillies have tripped into last place in the division. But already there is a growing opportunity deficit. Before the middle of May, the Phils will play the Nats an unreasonable six more times, then won’t see them again until September. Their games against the Mets are more realistically spaced, even if they will have had six games against them before the end of April.
That means Mackanin’s early task will be to make sure that the Phillies aren’t so deep in the standings by Memorial Day that the season becomes irrelevant, the players lose their passion and the front office begins to leak patience.
“It’s always demoralizing when you blow a lead, especially when you come from behind,” Mackanin said Sunday. “It was 3-1 most of the game and not a whole lot was going on. Our pitchers held them down and we
battled back into the game to take the lead, only to lose it in the ninth. It’s always demoralizing.”
Sometimes demoralization hits late in a season. Sometimes early.
“We’re playing hard,” Mackanin said. “We’re competing. A lot of it has to do with the pitching. The pitching kept us in the game, just like last year. If you hold a team to three runs, as we did for most of the game, you have a good shot at winning most of
those games.
“I’m proud of the way the guys are playing.”
They’re playing as hard as they can, and they can’t hit home runs and they can’t beat the Mets and they can’t beat the Nationals. It’s early, but already that much has been revealed.