Harper: ‘Devastating’ to let Phillies, city down
PHILADELPHIA − There were hugs all around the Phillies clubhouse. A sad, melancholy type of embrace, knowing for some it’ll be the last time they’re a part of the team.
It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Not with the Phillies’ 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 7 of the NLCS. The Phillies had a 3-2 lead in the series, needing only one win in the final two games at their raucous Citizens Bank Park home in order to advance to the World Series.
It was going to be a coronation. Instead, it was funereal.
“I don’t feel stunned, just frustrated,” right fielder Nick Castellanos said. “We underachieved as a team.”
Sure, you can make Castellanos the poster child for that underachievement. He was scorching hot when the series began. He homered in his first at-bat of the NLCS, his fifth in three games, tying a postseason mark set by Reggie Jackson.
Then Castellanos went hitless over the next six games and 23 at-bats, with 11 strikeouts.
“It’s terrible, man,” Castellanos said. “Terrible feeling to just feel like you’re locked in and in a zone like that, and then have it fade away at the wrong time.” Castellanos was hardly alone.
Go up and down the lineup, and just about everyone was struggling. Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper, the first three hitters in the lineup, went a combined 1-for-18 in Games 6 and 7.
Alec Bohm had one extra-base hit through the first six games, batting in the cleanup spot. Phillies manager Rob Thomson kept him there for Game 7, and Bohm rewarded him with a home run in the second inning.
Bohm was on first base when Bryson Stott doubled to the gap in left-center field in the fourth inning, and he scored easily giving the Phillies a 2-1 lead. They never scored again.
By the end, the Phillies were flailing at pitches out of the strike zone. Bohm did this to start the eighth inning. Then he slammed his bat to the ground in frustration, breaking it.
Afterward, in the locker room, he sat dejectedly for several minutes, his back to the room, his head resting on the top of a new bat, which he was tapping against the floor. Finally, he got up dejectedly, his eyes red.
“They beat us. It is what it is,” Bohm said. “Everybody’s goal in this locker room was to win the World Series. That’s what we showed up to spring training for. That’s what we put the uniform on for. It didn’t happen.”
But this is not an end point. At least it doesn’t have to be.
Sure, some names and faces will change when the Phillies report for spring training in 2024.
Aaron Nola, the longest-tenured Phillies player, is eligible for free agency. While he has expressed a strong desire to return to the only team he has ever known, it’s quite possible that a team will offer him more money than the Phillies will.
And what about Rhys Hoskins? He tore his ACL in spring training, but was working feverishly in Clearwater hoping to play in the World Series. He flew back to Philadelphia for Game 7, and now heads into an uncertain offseason without a position on the Phillies after hitting 30 homers in 2022.
After all, Harper played first base most of the season. It’s possible that Harper could remain at first base, thus keeping Schwarber as the everyday designated hitter. Those are the only two positions Hoskins can play.
Either way, the Phillies are certain that team owner John Middleton and president Dave Dombrowski will find he wherewithal to fill the various needs. They have already proven this many times over with a payroll that was nearly $250 million.
Middleton is not about to stop spending now, not with Harper in his prime.
No wonder Harper said emphatically: “We’ll be back ... (Ownership is) going to give us the best opportunity to win, and be here every single year. Just understand that we’ll be back.”