The Phillies will be playing 57 games in 56 days. The team got off to a terrible start losing 2 of 3 to the Marlins on Opening Day weekend. From there, they didn’t even play another game until last night when they had to face Geritt Cole in the Bronx.

Literally the worst possible way to start a 60 game season and it’s not going to get any easier. Although it’s a short sample size, let’s dive into some numbers from this year.

Batting:

Andrew McCutchen, Rhys Hoskins, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto, the Phillies 1-4 lineup, have started terribly slow, hitting .181/.318/.309 so far this season. For a team that will have to rely on their bats to overcome subpar pitching, that simply won’t cut it.

Starting Pitching:

Since August 21 of last season, the Phillies are 0-8 when Aaron Nola starts and 17-16 when any other pitcher starts. To put that into perspective, since August 2019, the Phillies have won more games started by Jason Vargas than they have games started by Aaron Nola. Yikes.

Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler will start the doubleheader…followed by Zach Eflin on Thursday night against the Yankees and Vince Velasquez on Friday night against the Atlanta Braves. Jake Arrieta could start Saturday on his normal rest.

With doubleheaders being 7 inning games, it will be important for the Phillies starters to take control of these outings and pitch as deep into the games as possible given the sketchy bullpen circumstances.

If things continue to trend downwards for guys like Velasquez, I would expect Spencer Howard to be called up sooner than later before the season is lost.

Bullpen:

Phillies have major bullpen problems. 6.75 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP on the season. Six bullpens in Major League Baseball haven’t allowed 11 earned runs. The Phillies have allowed 11 earned runs in 12.1 innings pitched.

Monday night, the Phillies were down 3-1 to the Yankees in the 6th inning and Girardi opted to bring Deolis Guerra, an offseason waiver claim into the game. Guerra got lit up allowing 3 ER in .2 innings of work.

Girardi, not concerned yet.

I think it’s really hard to judge our bullpen right now just because we haven’t played in a week, eight days,” Girardi said. “Some of these guys haven’t worked in eight or nine days. We try to get them as much work as we can, but it’s still not game conditions.

Ring that bell, baby.