Phillies enter offseason of regrets
Big bats silenced in closing games
PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper said all the right things about how he could have done more to lead the Phillies back to the World Series. How he let the team down. The city down. Harper put on a brave front in the wake of a cutting defeat and noted ownership would spend and develop and keep the Phillies contenders for years to come.
“Just understand that we’ll be back,” Harper said.
Just understand this, though. The Philadelphia Phillies squandered a trip to the World Series with one of the more egregious collapses in the 141 years of the franchise.
Up 2-0 in the NL Championship Series.
Up 3-2 and back home for
Game 6 with postseason standout Aaron Nola on the mound.
They blew it. It was the Arizona Diamondbacks that planted a flag in the Citizens Bank Park turf and knocked out Harper and a futile offense that produced no bang for their 241-million bucks.
The day after in Philly was grim. Turn on talk radio, scan social media, heck, even read a newspaper, and the Phillies were painted Wednesday as chokers. The truth, in this case, hurts.
What’s worse, the franchise has traditionally spiraled after agonizing defeats.
Consider 1964, when the Phillies lost 10 straight games to blow a 6 1/2-game lead and the NL pennant with 12 games left. They wouldn’t next make the playoffs until 1976. Take 1993, when Mitch Williams threw that final pitch of the World Series to Joe Carter for his infamous (in Philly) home run. The Phillies didn’t have a winning record again until 2001. Or 2011, when Ryan Howard crumpled to the ground on the final swing of an NL Division Series loss that served as a gnarly preview for a decade of bad baseball ahead.
This year’s Phillies insist more postseason appearances are ahead, that the Game 7 loss won’t serve as some sort of generational defeat like the others that will send them back into the baseball abyss.
Maybe so. The expanded playoffs make another run more palatable. The Phillies won 87 games last year to reach the World Series and the Diamondbacks just 84 this season to match up against Texas.
The Phillies can win another 80 to 90 games if the offense clicks and starts mashing home runs and spiking bats and spurring pandemonium from the home crowd.
It’s just, when the free-swinging Phillies go cold, look out. Sometimes a series is decided on the little plays. Maybe a stolen base. A bad decision by the manager (though Rob Thomson was guilty of a couple).
But the defining numbers were in black-and-white, right there in the box score.
Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Harper and Nick Castellanos went 5 for 53 (.094) with 11 walks, 22 strikeouts and two RBIS in Philadelphia’s four NLCS losses. Against six Arizona pitchers in Game 7, the four went 1 for 15 (.067) with five strikeouts and no RBIS.
Ouch.
“You work all year to get to these moments and these spots,” Harper said. “We weren’t able to close the door.”
But is it slammed shut on Philadelphia’s hopes to make another deep October run in 2024?