Phillies Blow 6 Run Lead in Ninth Inning, Lose Heartbreaker to Mets 8-7
The Phillies managed to blow a 6 run lead in the ninth inning against the division leading Mets Thursday night losing 8-7.
Tonight was the first game of the season I didn’t watch to completion. I had to leave the house around the 3rd inning to play in my first softball game of the season. At that point I was feeling pretty confident as the Phillies were already up 5-0 and Aaron Nola looked like he was dealing.
The Phillies entered the 9th inning up 6 runs. Most recently, MLB teams were 0-684 when trailing by 6 runs entering the final inning. The Mets themselves were on their own streak of 0-332 and entered the final frame with just a 1.8% chance of winning the ball game.
It was just the third time in Mets history they have come back from at least six runs down in the ninth to win and something they had not done since 1997 against the Montreal Expos, who do not even exist any longer.
We’re talking history here kids..
Usually I add video for all the scoring plays and relevant highlights, but for tonight I will leave you only with 58 seconds of pain.
Pain.
Just when I thought today couldn’t get any worse following the news that Joel Embiid would miss game three of the Sixers playoff series against the Miami Heat, it happened.
Bad teams find all types of creative ways to lose baseball games. And during any given season, even good teams will have a handful of nights that end with a lightning bolt, directly from the gods into your heart. Tonight was one of those games..
Tonight was simply a bad team, creating a new scenario for losing in which we haven’t seen in a very long time.
And lets face it…the 2022 Philadelphia Phillies are bad.
If Phillies manager Joe Girardi wasn’t already on the hot seat, he certainly is after this collapse. Listen, Joe doesn’t throw the pitches, nor does hit hit the baseball. He is however responsible though for getting his team mentally ready and focused on winning baseball games.
Right now the Phillies aren’t winning many baseball games. They have dropped five of their last six games and are only two games ahead of the terrible Washington Nationals and the basement of the NL East.
There are no excuses anymore for Joe Giardi. The front office spent aggressively this offseason, pushing right up against the luxury tax threshold. The Phillies have the 4th highest payroll in the league, the reigning NL MVP and multiple pitchers who have finished in the top five of Cy Young Award voting. Everything is in place for them to have success and finally reach the playoffs after a decade of mediocrity.
Do we blame tonight on James Norwood? Do we blame tonight on Corey Knebel? Who despite entering the night with a fantastic 0.87 ERA, couldn’t stop the bleeding when the team needed him the most?
There is no one player to blame and it would be difficult to single out any specific performance or reason why the Phillies are a losing team. Thats how I know that Joe Girardi has to go..
Something in my gut tells me that this team as currently comprised doesn’t have the fire or the fight to win when it matters. A lot of that fight and attitude comes from the manager and the leaders of the ball club.
Well guess what..you are 11-15 and with tonight’s loss are already 7 GB of the division leading Mets, who just ripped your soul from your body and fed it to a rabid pack of dogs.
Either way the Phillies will have to wake up tomorrow and play a baseball game.
That’s one of the great things about this sport. No matter how devastating the loss you probably have another game in 21 hours.
And boy do we need another game to wash the taste of this tragedy from all of our mouths.
