Offense lagging behind pitching
It ended, as most walkoffs do, with the victorious players spilling out of the dugout, bull-rushing the star of the moment, then jumping up and down in the baseball equivalent of a mosh pit.
But there were other images Monday night that more accurately reflect the state of the Phillies after 17 games. To wit:
Bryce Harper slamming his bat to the turf after flying to right field with a runner on second base and one out in the eighth inning.
One batter later, J.T. Realmuto putting both hands on his helmet as he jogged down the first-base line after hitting a 98.7 mph line drive to center field.
Nick Castellanos, who still doesn’t have an extrabase hit, sitting at the end of the bench and staring out at the field after striking out on a slider way off the plate in the seventh inning.
That’s how it looks when a team that was built to slug scores 60 runs in 17 games. Inside the clubhouse, voices are measured, heads raised, upper lips stiff. But outwardly, there’s frustration. It’s impossible to hide.
Yet here are the Phillies, despite scoring the fewest runs in the National League, with a 9-8 record after eking out a 2-1 victory in 10 innings over the Rockies on spare outfielder Cristian Pache’s first career walk-off hit.
Good luck reconciling that one. The Phillies actually are off to their best 17-game start since 2019 despite scoring just over 3.5 runs per game.
Not exactly what they expected, is it?
“Yeah, no,” Bryson Stott said after scoring the winning run. “Just got to keep swinging. Balls are going to fall, and things like that. As long as you’re having good at-bats, there’s always a chance for a 15-run game. We just haven’t got there yet.”
Maybe they will this week. If not, well, maybe go ahead and sound the alarms. Because the Rockies lugged the worst team ERA (6.29) in the majors into town for three games and will be followed Friday by the White Sox, who traded their best pitcher (Dylan Cease) in spring training and are off to a 2-14 start.
But there are reasons to believe the Phillies have better offense ahead. For one, the same lineup scored the fourthmost runs and hit the third-most homers in the National League last season. The first four batters — Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Harper, and Realmuto — are making a combined $98 million this year — more than half as much as the Rockies’ $143 million opening-day payroll — on the basis of their track records.
And the Phillies have endured similar dry spells before. They scored 57 runs in 17 games from
May 14 to June 1 last season and 58 runs in 17 games from July 6-27 in 2022. They went 5-12 and 8-9 during those stretches, respectively, and survived to make the playoffs.
So, no, the Phillies aren’t panicking.
“There’s some at-bats — I’ve taken some personally; everyone’s kind of taken some — that you know that’s not them,” Stott said. “And you want to get back to what you do and how you do it. I think it’ll all click once that happens.”
Meanwhile, the Phillies will keep leaning on their pitching — the starting rotation, in particular.