There you have it folks. In the most important series of the 2020 season, the Philadelphia Phillies lost 5 of 7 games to the Miami Marlins. They drop to .500 on the season.

To make matters worse, the Phillies will be without Rhys Hoskins for the next 10 days as he takes a trip to the IL. Realmuto will not be placed on the IR, but will miss some time with a left hip flexor. Zack Wheeler, after hurting his finger putting on pants and missing his start in Miami, did throw a bullpen session and is set to return this week during the Mets series.

The Phillies fall to 23-23 on the season. They are 1.5 games back of Miami for 2nd place in the NL East and 4 games back of the NL East leading Atlanta Braves.

Regardless, if the season ended Monday, the Phillies would make the playoffs with the expanded 8-team NL postseason as the No. 7 seed. The Giants are 23-24, good for the No. 8 seed. The eighth seed will play the No. 1 seed, which is currently the Dodgers, in the best-of-three first-round Wild Card Series.

The struggling Phillies offense will definitely miss Hoskins and Realmuto. They have only scored four runs in 23 innings over the last 3 games. Two of those, came courtesy of McCutchen and Kingery solo home runs last night. Spencer Howard and Wheeler are both working on coming back from injuries and well, we all know about the bullpen who still carry an ERA north of 7.50.

Joe Girardi said it best: “This is the life we live”. Ain’t that the truth.

Jake Arrieta takes the mound tonight against the Mets at 7:05pm. The Phillies have never needed Arrieta more. It would be a huge lift if he can go deep in tonight’s game and help the Phillies get a much needed win to stay above the .500 line.

Ring that bell, baby.

Mandatory Credit: The Philadelphia Phillies